Before the COVID-19 restrictions, students from Cedarville University were allowed to visit prisoners at the Greene County, Ohio, Jail. On Sunday mornings, “you get about an hour with the inmates…and you break into smaller groups…you just sit outside those cells and talk to them one-on-one…only separated by the bars.” Anna Hurt, a junior social work major, says they were not allowed to bring in cellphones or anything else, “It was just us and them, and our Bibles.”
When asked if the jail atmosphere was intimidating at first, Anna replied, “myself and others were a little bit intimidated by the idea of it,” but after her first visit, “I felt so comfortable in there and the interesting thing is, I found it a lot easier to share the Gospel in the jail than sometimes with some of my non-Christian friends…” (In our podcast, you can learn why)
But, for now, the in-person jail visits have stopped because of pandemic restrictions. The ‘Plan B’ is going to be a letter-writing outreach to the prisoners, hoping to keep some semblance of a one-on-one relationship, sharing friendship and the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.
