It is a joy to be able to teach and preach in the prison context. I regularly and consistently am given the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to lost men. The prisons are great places to fish for men. When I am teaching in the classroom, I am able to fish since there are students who have not been born again. When I preach at chapel services, I am able to fish for men because unsaved men regularly show up at chapel services. I often attend chapel services where some of my students bring the messages. In Sunday morning chapel services, I regularly schedule two of my students to present short messages (5-10 minutes long) while another delivers a longer sermon. This provides the seminary students with the opportunity to call sinners to repentance and faith in Christ. I am glad that I can serve in such an evangelistic context.
One class that I am teaching during the spring semester is Eschatology. My students have been excited to study the dramatic and apocalyptic books of Revelation and Daniel. They have read through William Hendriksen’s book, More than Conquerors. At the beginning of the semester, I decided to head off any complaints or objections about writing a large term paper by assigning them to write about Heaven. How could they complain about such a hope-filled assignment? I haven’t heard many complaints, although some of the men have weak writing skills. They had a choice between writing about either Heaven as the Intermediate State (where our souls go after death) or the Final State (the New Heavens and the New Earth).
In other classes, the students are learning Old Testament history, how to be peacemakers, and how to dig into Scripture and develop the concepts in a text.
Some of our students continue to struggle with sicknesses and the infirmities of old age. At Danville Prison, we have a student who has heart issues and needs a trip to the hospital to get an MRI. Another man will probably be diagnosed with cancer. One student just had a 7-pound tumor removed from his stomach; the doctors needed to remove some of his small intestines. At the Indiana State Prison, we have three students who get pushed to class in wheelchairs. One older man is recovering from hip surgery. One student who has been in prison since his late teens, is experiencing Job-like sufferings. He is confined to a wheelchair but beyond that has painful infirmities that blow my mind when he describes them. Yet the Lord is encouraging this convert who has a simple, beautiful, childlike faith. He always loves to ask me questions about practical Christian living—since he never experienced a Christian home. He continues to study hard for tests even in the midst of such suffering.
–Nathan Brummel