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A recent prison outreach event had men coming out in droves to hear the good news of Jesus, and ended in spontaneous baptisms.
Pastor Paul Daugherty leads a congregation at Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, OK. For some time, Daugherty has wanted to do prison ministry.
"I was like, man, I really feel like there's a harvest of people in the prisons that we could reach with God's love that [only a few] churches in our city [are] really going after," Daugherty said in an interview with CBN News. "I really want[ed] to reach almost every prisoner we can in an outreach."
Brian Bobek, the state's chief operating officer, connected with Daughterty and encouraged him to host an outreach event that could encourage prisoners to come out of their cells and fellowship.
"I said, 'I don't wanna just do a small service for 10 or 20 guys....I want to reach almost every prisoner we can,'" Daugherty told Bobek.
The first outreach happened on June 23 at John H. Lilley Prison. There were 751 imprisoned men who decided to show up to the event held on the field.
"When I saw them getting out of their pods and walking towards the field. I just started weeping because I was like man this looks like a picture out of the Bible when Jesus saw that village of Samaritan people. He said the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few."
It took 32 volunteers to make the event happen, and they ended up serving 1,000 hot meals. A total of 700 Bibles were handed out, almost one per inmate, and 1,300 Bible studies were taken.
"I saw all these [inmates] walking towards us like zombies...literally coming out of [the prison with] depression and despair and discouragement and shame."
Over 400 prisoners decided to make a first-time decision to give their lives to the Lord, and 41 men were spontaneously baptized during the event.
"I felt like God said, just walk between them, show them the love of God, shake their hands, give them a hug, preach into the crowd. I just started hugging them and shaking their hands and praying for him and then I did an altar call and I was like, 'Hey if any of you want Jesus to be Lord of your life and to walk in His victory for your life and receive His grace and mercy, then you raise your hand.' And over 400 hands went up."
Generational Ripples
Daugherty and his wife took over leading Victory Christian Center after his parents, Sharon and the late Billy Joe Daugherty, founded it. One of the inmates shared the connection he had with Daugherty's father.
"He said, 'I got saved at your church when your dad was the pastor in the '90s' and he said, 'I was part of the choir and I sang in the worship (team).' And then he said, 'I made some really bad choices and...I got locked up in the year 2000."
Without hearing about his crimes, Daugherty felt impressed by God to just let the man know that he's loved by God and by him.
"He said, 'Here you are...the son of my pastor that saved me, [now] ministering in my prison,'" Daugherty said. "I'm getting teary-eyed like, 'man, God, what a story grace.'"