At the end of February, Anthony and I were invited to visit Southeast Correctional Center by our friend John Wade who has been leading LaCroix Church’s prison ministry for 16 years. SECC is a maximum security prison in Charleston, MO that can house up to 1,600 inmates. LaCroix has done a variety of programs there throughout the years, but more recently, John felt called to start a Fellowship Band with some of the inmates because of his own experience in band. Fellowship band is a group of 3-4 people who meet regularly to share about their lives, their journey with Jesus, and to encourage and speak into each others lives by listening to the Holy Spirit. At the heart of band is deep friendship and spiritual conversation; and it is the foundation of our ministry in St. Louis.
After engaging in the discussion groups as part of their Global Leadership Summit training, Anthony and I were able to meet with John and his three band mates. It was truly such an eye opening experience and hard to put into words. The testimony from these men was remarkable. Walking in deep friendship towards Jesus has changed their lives. They expressed more boldness in prayer, discernment, learning forgiveness and how to love other inmates better.
One man stated, “The inmates that haven’t been here very long wouldn’t know, but the environment in this facility has changed because of the work Jesus is doing. People who have been here awhile know there is more peace – it is just a better place to be”. We were able to pray together for God to embolden them in ministry, and continue and increase his process of renewal in SECC.
We learned so much by this visit, but there are a few things in particular that have stood out that we are sharing with our community in St. Louis:
- Christian fellowship is not just about us and our friends. I think often we know this logically, but the truth does not translate into how we live our lives. Are we engaging with the dirty, the messy, the hard to love and the marginalized? If you follow Jesus’ life, you can see that that is mainly who he surrounded himself with. Do we do the same?
- Are we hungry for Jesus? When we forget our sin and become comfortable, we can start to rely on ourselves and forget Jesus. He need to continually fan the flame of desire in our hearts to stay hungry for Jesus.
- God is on the move! Not just in Asbury, or at SECC, but around the world! We need to be prayerfully expectant and preparing for a move of God in St. Louis.
Kylie and her husband, Anthony, are Inspire Missioners and church planting in St Louis, MO, USA
Read more about John’s ministry planting fellowship bands in SECC on the Inspire Blog HERE
