Bullock County chapel, Baptist volunteers reaching prisoners

Lay a brick there. Then a brick next to it. Now another.
   
The chapel Baptist volunteers constructed at the Bullock County Correctional Facility, almost a decade ago was built with painstaking care, just like the relationships they’ve built with the prison’s inmates.
   
And Ted Youngblood, director of missions for Bullock- Centennial Association, said both have had beautiful, lasting results.
   
“I can think of more than 100 men who have been in the program for two years or more and have been released,” he said. “There has not been a single one come back to prison.”
   
The association’s volunteers have been impacting the lives of more than 1,200 inmates in the prison each week, making regular visits, sharing Christ and finally deciding to construct a chapel where the inmates could worship.
   
“It was a collaborative effort built from Midway School’s [Midway, Ala.] old school bricks,” Youngblood said.
   
The pews came from a church in Tuske­gee. The pulpit and table were hand carved by the late Barney Ferguson, retired director of missions of Bullock-Centennial Association.
   
Baptist men cleaned brick, drove nails and poured concrete, while the women kept them nourished. The inmates also labored on the project.
   
“I don’t know of a more down-home, comfortable, handmade, elegant chapel anywhere. It is beautiful,” Youngblood said.Bullock-Centennial Association started a Sunday School program upon the chapel’s completion with six classes recognized by LifeWay Christian Resources. The classes such as MasterLife emphasize character, integrity and accountability.
   
The program is so well-received that when two inmates were transferred to a nearby facility, Youngblood received a call requesting Sunday School be taught there. A class has since been established. 
   
Kyle Curington, association prison ministry director and Sunday School teacher, has been a participant in the outreach program since the beginning and knows its impact.
   
“One of the most rewarding things we do is the Christmas care packages for all inmates incarcerated in Bullock County, including the city and county jails,” Curington said.
   
“The Bullock County ministerial association has been in charge of Christmas care packages since its inception around six years ago. Labor, time and money are donated each year.”
   
Volunteers place deodorant, pens, paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, Christian tracts, chips, cookies and candy in individual freezer bags and hand them out at night after lockdown. Each inmate receives a handshake, a “Jesus loves you” and a “Merry Christmas” from one of the men.
   
“The Sunday School classes and Christmas program have had a tremendous impact on inmates from all walks of life,” said Keith Pugh, Bullock-Centennial Association moderator and deacon at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Union Springs.
   
“It makes them see what real Christians do and how they act. Ninety percent don’t get anything from anyone for Christmas. It’s the only thing that the majority of them get all year long. A result is that the men and family members become engaged or re-engaged in going to church and becoming closer to the Lord,” Pugh said.
   
Some inmates are “lifers,” Youngblood noted. He said a lot of guys come to Sunday School and admit they want to put it in their “jacket” — meaning come in order to look good for the parole board.
   
But many are in for life with no chance of parole, yet they come to the services anyway. One inmate said, “I have peace in my heart. I am content. I am forgiven. I grieve for the lives that I have ruined and I am content on being incarcerated the rest of my life. I had entertained the thought of ending my life prior to knowing the Lord.”