prison
Going Back to Prison, Voluntarily
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009Steve “Gator” Gaede is an unlikely person to be ministering to inmates every Friday at Maricopa County, Ariz., Jail. Born with a severe facial deformity, he spent a haunted childhood undergoing numerous experimental operations and being taunted by other children because of his double cleft lip and palette. Understandably, he grew up angry and mean. […]
Ministering in the Wake of Tragedy
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009Naomi Knoles is serving a 10-year prison term for murdering her baby. The September 2003 tragedy caught her parents John and Doris off guard. They had sensed that their backslidden daughter was stressed and tired, but they didn’t have a clue that she had slipped into a psychotic state, during which she would smother her […]
Dennis Skillicorn Update: A Temporary Reprieve
Monday, August 25th, 2008For those of you who have been following the travails of death row inmate Dennis Skillicorn, his execution scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed. The Missouri Supreme Court has delayed the capital punishment for at least 30 days while attorneys for Dennis prepare a clemency petition.
The case continues to draw considerable coverage in the press. […]
Visiting Death Row
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008Dennis Skillicorn knows he will die a week from today. He is praying that God will be glorified.
Unless Gov. Matt Blunt intervenes, Dennis will become the first inmate in nearly three years to be executed by the State of Missouri. The case has drawn considerable media attention and clergy interest.
I met Dennis six years ago […]
Faith Behind Bars
Thursday, April 24th, 2008I like going to prison whenever I have the opportunity to visit Christian inmates, as I did recently in Malvern, Ark. (see this coming Sunday’s issue of TPE). The time inside the walls never fails to lift my spirits.
I come away heartened by the faith of men who are living disciplined spiritual lives. They spend […]
A Purposeful Delay
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008Fog in Texas had canceled one flight and caused a delay in another at the Tyler airport. The same circumstances prevailed in Dallas, where I waited for my connecting flight home to Springfield, Mo.
I felt rather grumpy as I finally sat down on a plane nine hours after my original scheduled departure. I had been […]