The Calabar Prison Experience
'...God's word is not chained.' - 2 Tim.2:9

The Prison Ministry of the Calabar Church is indeed something of a miracle as it has blossomed beyond imagination. It all began with the visionary leaders in the Church - Jide Elugbadebo, Lead Evangelist of the Church drew up an outreach programme in March 2007 specially targeted to the poor and those in prison.

God faithfully opened the hearts of the prisoners to the word and, eventually, five prisoners were baptised and, thankfully, two have been freed since then for good conduct!

Just a few hours to the New Year 2008, Monday, the 31st day of December 2007 was an unquantifiable experience as the inmates were visited by disciples of the Calabar Church as well as disciples from the Lagos Church. It was indeed a great time of worship and prayer. Two disciple inmates, Joseph and Steven together brought more than 40 fellow inmates to the Prison Auditorium to usher in the New Year!

The Evangelist of the Calabar Church in his message challenged the inmates to be thankful to God for the gift of life, even in prison. He encouraged them to let go of bitterness and focus on the lessons God wanted them to learn. The disciples also gave out food and clothing to the inmates

One of the disciples in the prison, Joseph, pleaded that disciples worldwide should always remember them in prayers. He stressed that he was in jail because he never took religion seriously while he was free. He believed that his experience in the prison was for a purpose and that his present situation had made him to have a strong faith in the Lord. He, however has an appeal in Court in February.

The other disciple, Richard, who was jailed for possession of firearms while in the University of Calabar, shared how he had been impacted by the “power behind infinite mercy”. He said while he was in jail, they had visits from lots of religious organizations but he was impacted by the sincerity and scriptural depth of the ICOC, Calabar and he didn’t hesitate to get baptised. Now, he has some other inmates studying the bible and wished that disciples would remember them always in their prayers.

Mr. Esu, Welfare Officer of the Calabar Prisons commended both disciples for their exemplary lives while they serve their sentences. He added that unlike other inmates of the institution, Richard and Joseph are both God-fearing and continue to share hope among other inmates.