It’s amazing how God works. We did
not set out to start a prison ministry. Yet here we are sending more than 5,000 tracts per month into prisons across the United States each month. A number of years ago we got an online enrollment form a man who was incarcerated in a prison in Texas. It seemed odd because as far as I knew Texas prisons don’t provide internet access to inmates and yet the enrollment came in via our website. We later learned that he and I had a mutual friend who enrolled him. He and I started corresponding by letter and eventually he would complete the School of Biblical Evangelism course with us via correspondence. He since ha served his time and we have had the chance to meet in person. God has transformed his life. Since that first inmate enrollment the Bezeugen Tract Club has grown not only within the Texas prison system but across the entire country. Over the years we started getting requests by inmates to be enrolled in the tract club. We later learned that tract club members would send a tract or two and tell them to contact us to receive more. So we enroll them and send them tracts. Today we have over 100 inmates enrolled in the Bezeugen Tract Club with over 40 of them in Texas spread across 9 prisons. Early this year the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDJC) notified us that their mail policy changed and we could no longer send our regular mailing into the Texas prisons because it contains duplicate materials. Feeling somewhat discouraged by this roadblock we soon after received a letter from on of the inmate members asking us to just send one of each tract to him and then also provide the contact information for the chaplain at his unit and suggested we could send the tracts to him. I made a phone call to the chaplain and he agreed I could send the tracts to him. I then reached out to the chaplains at the other units where we had members and each agreed we could send the tracts via the Chaplaincy Department. At the same time a woman from my church agreed to send a monthly mailing with one of each tract to each Texas inmate member so that they still receive a monthly letter. The Lord put it on my heart that still there were other prisons in Texas aside from the nine we were sending tracts to. Actually there are over 100 prisons in Texas. We sent a letter to Chaplains of 50 of them around the first of July. The letter introduces Bezeugen Ministries and the tract club and offered to send 30, 60, 90, 150 or 500 tracts per month. So far 13 of them have replied favorably requesting a monthly supply of tracts and one other requested a one time shipment. What appeared to be a closed door has found wide open to sharing the gospel within the Texas prisons. Previously 42 inmates in 9 units were receiving 1260 tracts per month. Now 22 units are receiving over 4300 tracts per month. Counting the other inmates around the country that is close to 6000 tracts a month going into the lesson system to be distributed. The Gospel is the power of salvation. It changes lives. And that is what is needed. Please keep this in your prayers as we continue to equip and encourage believers (even behind bars) to share the gospel. On a related note a tract club member from Washington DC contacted us a couple months ago indicating she’d like to serve in some way. I suggested she could be a pen pal to the women inmates in the tract club. She agreed! So we now have pen pals for all the female inmate tract club members. We continue to pray for pen pals for all the males. If your interested in that please contact us.
Updated December 2021: There are now 24 chaplain’s across the country receiving tracts. We are excited to announce that our new Free Indeed tract will be in the February 2022 mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club!
