Chaplain Report January 2026

Chaplain Report Calvary Baptist Church January 2026

January 02, 2026

I am continuing the hermeneutics class with pod 33 in the Columbiana County Jail. My class is designed for the participants to discover the truth on their own. The class requires and demands participation. My selling point was to offer them a chance at a life change. I was not going to force feed them into my belief system. All I was offering was the truth. I told them that they do not have to accept what I believe. The key point is for them to discover what they believe is true on what they are reading and they write down those interpretations on paper. My promise to them was I would do the same and we would exchange our papers on what we each wrote. Then we would have a group discussion exchanging ideas to discover the truth.

The promise I made to them is that if they participated, they will change how they think and their decision making will change. That is the selling point. This idea was given to me through my relationship with the Holy Spirit. This jail ministry did not start off with this concept. However, the concept is very popular with the men in the jail. As with everything we try as servants of God, we learn through trail and error. We learn what works and what does not. This is an opening statement to try to explain this program so as you read and see the growth of this program, it will make more sense. This idea came to me right before Thanksgiving when I discovered that the class had roughly 10 participants and ten different views on creation. None of these views were based on Scripture but based on age old arguments that were presented from non believing sources. So that is where we started. Originally I was doing John and roughly 18 to 20 verses per class. Although I had one participant who was writing me a response, I did have the entire group participate in the group discussion. I wanted more people participating in the assignment so when I went to Genesis on November 28, 2025, I decided to lighten the workload to five verses. That got half the class to try. Now I get well over half of the class writing me questions and interpretations on our verses.

On this day, January 2, 2026, I brought in chicken wings and pepsi for the guys to have during class. This is a decision I plan on doing occasionally (normally during holidays). We were covering Genesis 1:26-31. This class was unique because I knew I was going to have to explain the Trinity due to us covering Genesis 1:26. So I prepared myself for this discussion by writing commentary of 5,000 words on these five verses. The majority of this commentary though was on the Trinity explanation and the scripture backing up my points. This class was very good because this was when we started with each participant reading a verse and taking turns. At the end of the class, one participant personally thanked me for the explanation on the Trinity.

January 3, 2026

I went to Turning Point Baptist Church to take my Christian Counseling Class with Tonya Yoder. My homework/notes was on the topic of Anxiety.

January 4, 2026

This Sunday service for pod 33 was given by Pastor Justin Vance. We sang songs, Justin prayed and gave the sermon to our participants. We tried an alter call but there were no takers on this Sunday. One of our participants gave us a suggestion asking if we could bring a book for prayer requests.

January 9, 2026

Today , I went to Walmart and bought a book for the prayer requests. When I got to the jail, my class started as normal. We prayed and started our class covering Genesis 2:1-6. I got excellent participation and the class went on for roughly 2 and a half hours. We got into a conversation concerning sanctification. This sparked several questions and answers from the group and a long conversation that was well recieved.

January 10, 2026

I went to Turning Point Baptist Church to take my Christian Counseling Class with Tonya Yoder, My homework/notes was on the topic of Depression.

January 11, 2026

The Sunday service was given by me. I don’t have the resources that the pastors have to play songs and put verses on the television so I prayed and gave the sermon. The sermon was written by me about a year ago. It is called “A Gospel for the Unworthy”. I put out the book for the prayer request and the participants were writing down their prayer requests. Giving sermons is not my strength so I just do my best and listen to my participants to give them the best sermon I can do.

January 16, 2026

I started the class asking my participants what they thought of the service they got from me on Sunday. they said mit was fine. They asked me to slow down so they could keep up with me when I give sermons. I told them I would next time. We went over Genesis 2:7-14 in our class. I got really good participation and effort from the class. We discussed the four rivers and I used my Logos to show them the two possible locations of Eden. You can see the growth starting to happen as they are getting better with their participation and group discussions.

January 17, 2026

I started my Saturday with a scheduled meeting with the warden. I discussed and accepted the opportunity of becoming the Chaplain for the County Jail. The warden gave me the pods of 31 and 32. I will be allowed to teach the women once I get a woman volunteer to go with me. The warden had a meeting with the guards and announced the plans of my new involvement with the jail.

After that, I went to Turning Point Baptist Church and had a Christian Counseling Class. I did the homework/notes on Addiction and Forgiveness.

January 18, 2026

In our church, Pastor Justin had me come up during announcements and tell everyone about my new responsibilities in the jail as well as announce the fact that we have become the teaching church for the jail. I told them that I will be doing three more pods with the help of my wife and Kellie.

The Sunday service was given by Pastor Justin Vance. This service was very similar to my last one because we forgot the HDMI cord and we had no internet. Justin did a fantastic job as always though and the participants enjoyed the service. The Prayer Journal is a big hit with them. We are taking the Prayer Journal to church and giving our church family an opportunity to pray for our participants.

January 23, 2026

My wife has decided to get involved in my jail ministry so I can teach the women. She has got a background check done. I also have Kellie Mead getting involved as well to back up Gina. Kellie is in the process of getting her background check done . I just got Gina’s Relias training login and password so she can start training.

The class with pod 33 went really well tonight. We went over Genesis 2:15-23. We had an excellent group discussion on the creation of woman. We addressed several topics like why Adam was naming the animals? etc. I informed the participants that we would not be having a Sunday service due to the fact we were having a historic snowstorm and the warden has already cancelled everything scheduled on Sunday.

January 24, 2026

I had a meeting with the warden on Saturday morning about the scheduled time blocks and setting up the class structure and guidelines for the 31 and 32 pods. We also talked about setting up time blocks so we didn’t run into Steve and his group so we did not have multiple blocks moving at the same time. I asked to get Kellie’s background check done and I am waiting on her Relias.

I cancelled my class with Tonya so I could spend some quality time with my family.

January 25, 2026

No services at the jail or at church due to the snowstorm.

January 30, 2026

I started my service today calling the warden. I wanted to double check and make sure we were a go for the classes on Saturday for pods 31 and 32. I also set a reminder for Kellie to get her training login and password sent to her.

We started our class with a small disruption. A new participant was there and he was struggling on the adjustment of being in jail. I calmed him down and told him we would talk after class. Our class got started by us as a group discussing questions that were posed last week in a participant’s writing. As a group, we came up with the correct answers and you can see that the information is sticking with our participants. they are starting to grow and become more receptive to spiritual counsel and guidance. They are thinking on a different level. You can easily tell this is happening because our discussions are getting longer and in more detail. There is less guessing and more reasoning happening. We also discussed what a covenant was. We then discussed what the marriage covenant was. After we discussed the reasons behind verses 24 and 25, we started discussing the serpent and the reasons behind the serpent talking. This conversation went down numerous paths where we were engaging each other with good challenges. When we were done, our class lasted for 3 and 1/2 hours. After I prayed with them and assured them we would be here for a service on Sunday, I left the classroom. I discovered the warden was in his office and he motioned me into his office. We had another meeting over the next classes, and I asked to get Kellie’s training email sent. We also discussed the warden’s idea about giving the participants access to me through their tablets to get spiritual counsel if they need it. The warden said he needs to talk to the provider and figure out how to do it. He also said the jail would pay for the communication out of their funding. So I am waiting to see where that goes but it is exciting. I sent a message to Kellie that I would Go over the training with her and for her to save the email. I left the warden’s office and got home at 12:30am

January 31, 2026

I showed up at the jail at 10:00 am to start the class with pods 31 and 32. We can not mix the pods up so we can only do one at a time. I gave both pods an introduction class where I established the rules that must be followed. I explained to them the goals of the class and what to expect. We also went over some basic Christianity to see where everybody stood. Each class seemed very intrigued and engaged. I also found out that the participants have to buy their own pens and paper.

So I went to Walmart and bought a new printer and office supplies for this ministry. I also bought my participants a notebook approved by the jail and got them each several pens. This probably explains why we are not getting papers from some participants.

The new classes started out just like the original class did and once word gets around, we will find out who will be the regulars. This was the start of my new 10am to 1pm block of time.

I went to Tonya’s mother’s house to do our class on Christian Counseling this evening. Turning Point Baptist Church was not plowed yet. We went over relationships and Terminally Ill counseling homework/notes. I am finished with Book two and now I have to write two term papers to pass that part of the course.

Gina is also finished with Relias training and we should be able to start the women’s class next Saturday. Tonya has agreed to become a third backup but I am not going to start her training until Kellie is done.

I have also asked Pastor Justin to contact Pastor Rampage at Calla Community Church to see if he would be interested in giving sermons on Sunday on the days Pastor Justin is not there. I also have asked about getting more paperback KJV Bibles to pass out. This ministry is growing fast under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I am looking forward to go down this path.