Behind the Walls

The first comprehensive Christian prison-ministry manual written not by a visiting chaplain, but by the prisoner himself — a Reformed Baptist pastor who spent five years and five months inside three Chilean prisons, preached or lectured 865 times to fellow inmates, and emerged with a field manual that translates theology into the smell of smoke, the sound of steel doors, and the daily decisions that determine whether a ministry behind bars survives its first month.

What this book is

154,852 words. 38 chapters across 9 parts. A complete field manual — anchored in Hebrews 13:3 ("Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them") — that moves from the shock of the first 72 hours of incarceration, through the rhythms of daily prison life, into evangelism and discipleship behind bars, the counseling of suicidal and addicted inmates, the navigation of institutional corruption, and the destruction of marriages and finances on the outside.

Written for

• Pastors, chaplains, and lay volunteers in prison ministry
• Seminary students preparing for prison work
• Christians who are — or fear they may become — incarcerated
• The families left outside: spouses, parents, and children

Why this voice

Not written from a seminary library or a church office. The bulk of the manuscript was drafted on pen and paper inside cell blocks 118, 109, 84, and 45 — typed later on a smuggled phone. 865 sermons and lectures. Daily Bible studies sustained across five years. A feeding program of three to ten men a day. The repair of three prison bathrooms. Ten to fifteen credible conversions, weighed honestly against the failures. These are recorded counts, not estimates.

Complete manuscript available in English, Spanish, and Italian.