Houston Central | Love Covers All Prison Ministry
Angel Rodriguez
The Love Covers All Prison Ministry at Houston Central Seventh-day Adventist Church in Houston, Texas, has ministered to the spiritual needs of the inmates of the Jester 1 Prison in Richmond, Texas, since its inception in 2008.
Through its ongoing Bible studies and full church services at the prison, Love Covers All has given away over 6,000 Bibles and referred over 1,000 inmates to the Amazing Facts Bible School. These Bibles and Study Guides continue to provide strong evangelistic tools in ministering to the inmates. They have been instrumental in providing the inmates with the Seventh-day Adventist Church foundational truths.
We hold Bible studies with inmates in a minimum security revolving door men’s prison located in Richmond, Texas, every first, third, and fifth Friday nights at 7:00 pm. Every second Sabbath, we have a full-blown church service at 3:00 pm. We call the Jester 1 facility where we meet a revolving door prison because it is a 9-month program where the inmate may be serving a part of his sentence and will be moving to another prison, or the last part of his sentence and is about to be released into the free world. We believe God has placed us here because we are able to touch many more lives than we would in a long-term facility.
We started in 2008 with four in attendance and now in 2018 the average attendance is from 80 to 100 for every meeting. In 2013, we were able to donate a portable baptistery which has allowed us to baptize 212 men so far. This year, 60 men have been baptized by God’s grace!
Currently, we again have a projected need for over 700 Bibles and Amazing Facts Study Guides for future distribution. We have also been cleared to bring soap in the prison for inmates which has increased attendance. On each bar of soap, we place our ministry and church name, the meeting times and Ephesians 5:26, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.”
God has blessed the Prison Ministry. Currently, the team will be expanding to incorporate another facility for Christ.