About the Ministry
Welcome to my site. Thank you for taking the time to look it over. I hope you find much to encourage you as I share my story of why I started this ministry.
I formed this ministry after seeing the Lord’s amazing work in the prison where I served time for the tragic death of my son. During my imprisonment, I met a couple of men who were serious about their faith and wanted to meet to study the Bible. Our simple study quickly grew into a large fellowship of believers hungry for spiritual nourishment and fellowship.
I was truly inspired by what the Lord did. This ministry is my attempt to share how the Lord worked and what we did to make it possible. I have gathered resources I wish I would’ve had while I was behind bars to give inmates what they need to start studies of their own with valuable material to discuss. The resources and advice here can be made available to inmates depending on the rules of the institution.
I have also included many stories about what life was like behind bars — both the good and the bad — to educate, warn, and inspire anyone who is interested in prison life, the criminal legal system, and the attempt at raising a child with severe autism in the United States here in the early part of the twenty-first century.
This site is part of my ministry, which also includes my correspondence with inmates, my ability to minister to them face-to-face in jails or prisons, and to share my story with church organizations and anyone who is interested in how a successful college professor with a beautiful family almost loses it all by making a simple mistake.
The story of Joseph had a particularly great deal of meaning to me while I was incarcerated. I was reading a book on the life of Joseph by F.B. Meyer, who was writing about Joseph’s time in prison. Meyer writes about Psalm 105:18, which refers to Joseph’s imprisonment, and he points out the alternate rendering in the footnote of the verse. If you open a KJV, NKJV, or NASB with full translator’s notes, you should see a footnote next to the verse that states the literal rendering, i.e. “His soul entered into iron.” Meyer suggests a better English rendering of “Iron entered into his soul.”
Is there not a truth in this? It may not be the truth intended in that verse, but it is a very profound truth, that sorrow and privation, the yoke borne in the youth, the souls’ enforced restraint, are all conducive to an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, an endurance, a fortitude, which are the indispensable foundation and framework of a noble character. Do not flinch from suffering. Bear it silently, patiently, resignedly; and be assured that it is God’s way of infusing iron into your spiritual make. [F.B. Meyer, Joseph Exalted through Trials. (c)2001 AMG Publishers, pg. 35.]
I named this ministry “Iron Regimen Ministries” after this comment, for God was infusing iron into Joseph to make him strong and brave for what was to come in his life. It is in prison that Joseph is fitted for the unknown life of Pharaoh’s palace. If Joseph could have foreseen the future, he would not have wondered at the severe discipline.
“Prisons are rare places for seeing things. God has no chance to show his mercy to some of us except when we are in some sore sorrow. The night is the time to see the stars.” [Meyer, pg. 37].
I can certainly agree that I saw many things in prison which, while in that state of humiliation and trial, gave me a vision and insight I would never have had in the world outside the razor wire. My desire is to share what I’ve learned with you, with the intent of brining honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. So feel free to explore, and send me an e-mail if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.