Catholicism and its offshoots, Via de Cristo in Lutheranism or Walk to Emmaus in the Methodist church. Paul Stone, pastor of Church of the Damascus Road
at the two prisons, first participated in a BiB weekend in 1996 and now coordinates the events at the Rockwell and Fort Dodge prisons. BiB revolves around speakers who share personal
testimonies about their spiritual journeys through a progression of preassigned topics. After each speaker, inmates discuss how the talk resonated in their lives, opening up about their hopes, fears and dreams. Punctuated by prayer, song and chapel services with
Scripture readings and communion, BiB is, for inmates like Ryan Newson, the first church experience the men have had in years. Newson started coming to services at Church of the Damascus Road in Rockwell in 2016 and was baptized July 14. He’s now what Stone calls “an all- star” member of the congregation council. “I never had God or Jesus in my life before getting [to
prison],” said Newson, who at presstime had a parole hear- ing in December. “Now I can’t imagine my life without him. I’ve got hope for when I get beyond these walls. And if that doesn’t happen in December and I’m still here, well, every- thing happens for a reason. I have something else to learn. “But more than anything, I’ve seen and I’ve been given
love. At Brothers in Blue, people genuinely care about me. They call me by my first name. For a lot of us, it’s been a long time since we’ve had anything like that happen.”
“Come and see”
Some BiB participants have been brought up in the faith but are coming to sharper-drawn conclusions about their worth in God’s eyes. “I’ve been to Bible camps before,” Bradley Heinold said.
“But nothing with this level of fellowship. Our testimonies have been incredibly moving. There are a lot of opinions out there—‘Oh, you came out of prison, what good can come from a criminal?’ Or, ‘Once a criminal, always a criminal.’ But I think we all know that we have a capacity for change. This weekend is reminding us that God’s love is unchanging for us. We can change to meet it.” Throughout the weekend, the inmates going through
BiB are shepherded by volunteers and by a corps of inmates who have previously gone through the program. This group, called the palanca (Spanish for “lever”), prays over the speakers and also handles the dozens of prayer requests that hourly fill a box located at the makeshift altar. “We’re prayer warriors,” said palanca Jason Jones, who
first did BiB in 2014. “Every inmate here is building a foundation for their relationship with Christ and we are set to pray as hard as we can about that foundation. It feels good to serve, no doubt. But there’s some part of me that wishes I could go through it all over again.” That sentiment is a consensus among most of the palanca and, for the volunteers who circle BiB weekends
Marv Goodyk, a lay leader from a Christian Reformed church in Sully, Iowa, administers a blessing to Paul Abbott. While Abbott’s association with BiB started when he was an inmate himself, both he and Goodyk were volunteers at the October retreat.
Larry Lubinus (left), a member of Trinity, a Lutheran Church– Missouri Synod congregation in Boone, Iowa, and BiB participant Patrill Ellis discuss during a breakout session how bad things happen and how one responds is often the only control people have during difficult situations.
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