A Ministry Of Hope And Restoration
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Bryan Ward leads worship during a prison ministry event.
Hello to my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to communicate this message to you, as I believe the time is indeed ripe for coming together to do great works in the Lord.
Golgotha Ministry was founded in 2020 after being considered in my wildest imagination for what was perhaps years.
In 2004 while living in my hometown in Maryland I was invited to take part in a prison tour with a then aging Latino convict turned reverend, Gilbert Romero. I had been listening to Johnny Cash 4, The man comes around, and so I was completely intrigued at the prospect of a trip behind the walls and razor wire. I eventually would see a miracle on that tour in a gymnasium at Huntington Penitentiary in western Pennsylvania. A couple years later after moving to Mississippi, I began traveling to Parchman to play music with Kairos international.
My testimony is this: I see myself in them. I have witnessed the darkest souls melt into enlightened bliss and exaltation. I have seen great healings and destruction turned into purpose. I also watched a corrupt prison system go the extra distance to make men’s lives miserable and irretrievable.
I have never been entirely sure why I kept going. The best I can come up with is that I became somehow romantically involved with the idea that I could play a part in taking the pain away, even if only for an hour or a day. I kept seeing Andy Dufresne sitting against that wall on the roof of the Shawshank prison license plate factory with that strange smile on his face as his workmates drank beer in that summer sun. It was humanity expressed. I’d like to see them all become human again.
So that’s it really, except there were the riots in 2020. All those lives lost. I thought we’d never return. And then our governor chose Burl Cain as commissioner and so began what I consider to be the great renovation.
The chaplains who now devote themselves to the men on the farm – Watts, Rhodes and Palmer, – were all pardoned inmates of Angola. It is like the book of Acts at the farm everyday now.
It was quite a while ago I had a vision that I should take a trunkful of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the prisoners and play some music, read some scripture. Here we are now years later throwing these huge worship services with thousands of pb&js and hundreds of gallons of milk. We jam on Motown, blues and gospel.
As I write to you I fully realize there will be some who see me as reckless as to my endeavor to seek out repair and excellence within those lost souls. You will say, “Yes, but what about the victims?” Well that is just it. We never do stop considering the victims. There would be no way possible to do so. The all consuming conscience looming proposition is rendered down into one question. What is forgiveness? And you think you know, and then you look a little closer. What you think you know becomes complicated once again, and then there is the cross.
I very much want to tell you all about this miraculous turn of events in our Mississippi prisons and show you what we, Golgotha Ministry does in there. Will you join us Sunday, July 26, for that ice cream social at the Water Valley Methodist Church from 4 to 6 p.m.?
We’ll have a worship service and a word. And then I suppose some ice cream, although I would prefer some peanut butter and jelly.
You know the fields are ripe yet the harvesters are few. I was in prison and you visited me.
In Jesus name,
Bryan W. Ward
Founder and President
Golgotha Ministry
