Restoration Prison Ministry Newsletter: September/October, 2025
Hello again,
I am combining the later part of September and all upcoming ministry opportunities for October in one letter.
I returned from the Ferguson Unit in Midway, Texas on September 8, 2025. I conducted three services on Sunday, the 7th and saw 60 men give their hearts to Jesus. It was not “all” the Lord did as many wept in their conversion to Christ. I had many divine appointments with several of the younger men.
One in particular stood out.
His name is Daniel, and he is 27 years old.
Daniel is getting out of prison in three years and was inquiring about the prison ministry that God has had me conducting for the last 35 years.
He said, “I went back to my cell after the first service you preached Joe, and I got on my knees and truly surrendered my will to Jesus. I want to do what you do Joe.”
When I preached the evening service that Sunday, he approached me and told me the story of what happened in his cell after that 8 a.m. service.
Daniel wrote me a letter to my P.O. Box, and I received it just a few days ago.
Today is September 22, and I received the letter on the 17th.
Daniel spoke about how this ministry has truly impacted his life and how the Lord has changed his heart from a gang leader to a leader in winning former gang members to Jesus. He had already been doing this prior to that Sunday, but in the letter, he described his passion, and his belief that God is raising him up for such a time as this.
His family is still waiting for him to return home, and he has a job waiting for him once he is set free from Ferguson in December.
He knows I am coming back on December 7 and wants to pray with me prior to his release date in late December.
As always, I am encouraged to see the younger generation be excited to serve Jesus. He has a passion that reminds me of how I was at age 21 while in prison. Specifically, Ferguson. I refer to this prison as my Alma Mater, which is funny in a way, calling it the “school of hard knocks.”
Daniel is but one of many who are truly fired up about serving the Lord Jesus and it makes me grateful that you, and several others, send me to preach this Gospel of mercy, grace, forgiveness and repentance.
I could not do what God has called me to do without the prayers and support of all the partners who continue to help me “go into all the world and preach the Gospel and make disciples of men.”
As you know from a previous newsletter, that December 7th is the target date for my next ministry revival at Ferguson. I am still wanting to bring the 2,300 Christmas cards and the same amount of soap to give as gifts to the whole population who live there.
It is the annual pre-Christmas gifts that tend to cause the chapel to grow significantly. A simple gift called a Christmas card and a 3.2-ounce bar of Palmolive bar soap.
Seems, for some in the world to be a small gift.
But not for the supporters of this ministry. You know and I know, and the Lord knows how much a simple bar of soap and a Christmas card to send home before Christmas day can mean to a young man or even an older man at Ferguson. It is more than a simple gift.
It paves the way for many of them to come to the Chapel of the Prodigal Son inside Ferguson prison. A simple gift of love from you, brings a man to a place of knowing Christ Jesus, and surrendering his life for the good.
I like to say this: “The bar of soap will cleanse him on the outside, as Jesus cleanses his heart on the inside.”
The Christmas Card? Wow. The stories I have heard from this past Christmas makes me even more motivated to buy these gifts.
Last December of 2024, the worship team of inmates took all the gifts you helped buy to each cell inside Ferguson. Each man was given a bar of soap and a Christmas card.
In solitary confinement too, known as “X” block or closed custody block, one inmate behind the small opening in the solid steel door, looked out as the worship team went by each cell door to hand the gifts to the men.
Once one of the men received the gifts, he began to cry tears of sadness and tears of joy. He said to the men who handed him the two gifts, “Why are you doing this?”
Their response was, “It is a gift from Jesus Christ to you today and can we pray for you?”
This one man in “X” block, while weeping, was prayed for and received Jesus as his personal Savior that day.
Alone in a cell by himself. Locked away from the main population because of bad behavior, he received the only thing that could change his behavior for good.
Jesus.
It was two simple gifts given with love and prayer that brought this man to Salvation.
Please never underestimate the help you give in your giving to support these events in prison. I know you do not, but understand that for many men receiving these gifts, they use them to pay a debt owed inside this maximum-security prison.
They should have never gotten themselves into debt in any kind of way inside prison. Yet, a bar of soap, or their gift of a Christmas card in paying back their debt to some man who could of either killed them, raped them, or used “compound interest on the debt” to continue the cycle of insane “interest” rates inside prison.
I know from my own experience back in 1976, while living at Ferguson as a young 20-year-old inmate, that you NEVER get into debt no matter what.
So, as you help me this month and in October to purchase the 2,300 bars of Palmolive soap and a JESUS Christmas card, (NOT Santa Claus) remember that you are helping many men see Jesus and hopefully “know” Him from these gifts.
Who will ever know if a life or many lives are saved from the onslaught of the insanity of prison “debt” inside Ferguson, are rescued and given a second chance at life eternal.
December 7th is my scheduled time for three services at Ferguson, and I am praying that you continue to help me in prayer to see many souls receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior this upcoming Christmas and beyond.
No better gift can be given.
It is not the gift under the tree, so to speak, that counts.
It is the gift that hung on the tree. Jesus.
Sincerely, Joe Wilkins and Restoration Prison Ministry
