[NICK] Hi, everyone, I’m so honored and blessed to be here with my brother Jay Harvey who's been in
prison ministry for 20 years, and the Nick Vujicic Ministries Life Without Limbs is so blessed
to have you and the entire team, including Gary Godbey who's helped
our ministry bring some resources of ministerial, miraculous experiences in prison systems all
around America, and it's just begun! [JAY] Yeah it has, it has.
[NICK] And we know that the potential of this is going to affect all nations around the world,
and as I’ve traveled around the world, I will never forget the time--I’ve been in probably now
36 prisons around the world—and one of them was a maximum high security one,
and there was a part of that prison they said I couldn't go to because they were “lifers,”
and I said, “Well I still want to go see them,” and so between the bars, I was letting them know
about Jesus and how He set me free of my prison of depression and fear, that we still have hope
in Jesus no matter what, and that we live forever because of the blood and resurrection of Jesus.
And one guy he grabbed me through the bars, and he said,
“Nick, I know this Jesus you're talking about, and your mission as you leave today
out of here, please and go tell every single brother and sister of mine who are lifers
that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and Nick, I’m a full-time missionary, and every
single person who comes back here, I tell them, it's okay. Jesus is real and heaven is real.”
And he said, “I’m a full-time pastor.” [JAY] That's great.
He said, “Go out there, though, and tell everyone, and so for you to be in prison ministry the last
20 years, and Life Without Limbs, and this ministry that's been out there now for four
years in many, many aspects, revolutionary, not just to reach our people and to people
with the Gospel of Jesus in prisons, but then see them transformed to a point where they're like,
“Well now I want to tell other people within the facility about Jesus because He set me free now.”
And it's the first time, I’ll never forget that quote: “After seeing this ministry program of Life
Without Limbs, it was the first time I went back to my cell, and I didn't see the bars,
and now I want to see other people set free” where they now disciple
other inmates, right? Jay. Oh, come on now. [JAY] No, it's crazy, never get tired,
never get tired of hearing that story and hearing those testimonies, and I think when
we met our divine meeting that we had when I was a pastor of a larger church, and then
you were doing some ministry close by, you knew Gary, who's a part of the team, I came
in and introduced you, and then we did some other things together, but then when we found out that
you had a heart for prison ministry, and God began to put us in this relationship.
One of the things that that set us apart and made Life Without Limbs Prison Ministry different was
the way we began, was not to go in and assume that we had all the answers, but we went in
and asked questions because I've been doing this for a long time, and I can tell you,
there's no lack of programs that go into jails. There's no lack of churches. There's no lack of
religious programming, and so there was just this disconnect. When we started asking inmates what
it was that they liked, that they didn't like, that if we were going to develop another program,
how could we do it in a way that that had true impact on their life?
And the one word that always came back was, "We love it when people come in, but
we just don't connect with the hope that they talk about. We need HOPE!
And so that led us to develop the Life Without Limbs program which is topic driven, where we go
in and talk about topics that all lead to Christ, and all lead to hope, but we don't lead with that.
We let the inmates talk. We get them in groups. They share their hearts. They share their
testimonies. We do not "top down" and just say, "This is what you're supposed to do."
We listen. We affirm, and then we introduce them to this curriculum called "Free in My
Faith" work where God says, “I've been with you the whole time, and I'm here with you now,
and you are affirmed, and you do have purpose!” It changes the atmosphere of the room as lights
goes off that it's not just another group coming in, but it's actually somebody coming
in and affirming that Jesus has been there with them their whole life, and that we're
not trying to change them. We're trying to give them that HOPE. It changed everything, Nick,
and it's exploded all over the country! So… [NICK] It's been incredible! The most recent
visit that I was able to go and witness this myself and actually be with many,
many inmates was at the Everglades Facility out in Florida, and I just I love how when you
know people are worshiping in the fullness of freedom and Spirit and they’ve got their hands
raised, I’m like, “Man, the church of America could learn a couple of things about this.”
[JAY] Diverse? Oh, unbelievable! [NICK] There is never a lack of harvest,
never been a lack of harvest. There's always going to be someone to go visit in the prison. I love
how Jesus said, “You came to visit me.” There are widows. There are orphans. There are poor
that are there praying to God to send us to be His hands and feet,
and there's never going to be a lack of harvest, but we know what a few, which are the laborers.
Yet, what I love about this “Free in My Faith” curriculum is that I’ve met
so many people who'd like to go into a ministry, who know that there's a need but don't know where
to begin or feel intimidated with the program, and with the videos that I’ve recorded for each and
every one of those units, and the worksheets and the lesson plans, and just to be real.
I want you to know that I’ve gone around the world and every time I go around to a country
or a stage or go into an orphanage, or go sit in front of 650 sex slaves to talk about Jesus,
you walk away mostly if I would say, refreshed, fulfilled, inspired, because you witness
God through you as a vessel touching people's lives, and if you're a Christian
who's been thinking about or praying about or waiting on God to open up the door of ministry
saying, “Yes, God, I’m willing,” there is no other fantastic ministry, as far as I’m concerned,
where you can apply it now in your local area with now 2.3 million.
I mean that's a lot of people behind bars. There's a jail near you, right? There's a soul,
and here it is, and we ain't charging nothing. We're like, "Will you become part of the army of
the ministry of the “Free in My Faith” curriculum to go out and tell people Jesus loves them?"
[JAY] It's that simple, Nick. I mean, and the reason that I think this is the platform that
you can use to go into this type of ministry is a couple of fold, and one is, like you mentioned,
in the 1990s there were 325,000 people incarcerated in the United States. Today
there's 2.3 million that includes men, women, and youth, and with that many people, you know that if
you're in a church or in a parachurch ministry that you're probably connected to somebody that
knows somebody in jail, or you may know somebody in jail, but we don't talk about that a lot.
This program allows you to go in. You don't have to have a lot of head knowledge. You don't have
to have a lot of experience. We send the videos in. We send the curriculum in, but the job really
is to go in. And just like Jesus said, and just visit. You've got some materials, but you're just
with them, and once you begin to see what happens, then you'll see that what I think God is doing is
a huge paradigm shift right now.
I firmly believe that the prison ministry can no longer just be another website outreach icon
for churches. God wants to use it as a lifeline to your church. It is the best way to disciple
your people, and you know, I have this stack of surveys here, Nick, that everywhere we go,
we ask the inmates to fill out surveys and to give us their testimony, and I actually get letters at
my house from prisoners because--I don't know how they got my address--but you know they did,
and that's okay, but this one, I just want to read one little snippet to you here
because I think it says so much. This young man writes, after
he goes on gushing about the program and Nick, and how much it inspired and gave him that HOPE,
and let me just tell you that sometimes a shot of HOPE can last these guys and gals
a year just to be affirmed again that they're not forgotten, but this question haunted me.
It says, “My question to you is how do we prepare ourselves to land within a church
who can view us as God's children who also deserve His grace and His mercy and lose the stigma?”
And what that tells me is there's still work to be done—that when we go into a prison,
we not only affirm them and then just leave them, but we have to start to see them
just as any other sinner who's been set free by the blood of Christ,
and you know what that means for the church? It means that when some of these young men
and women get out, they have a purpose. They have a role in your church, and so we've got
to bridge that gap, and Life Without Limbs is doing everything possible to bridge that gap,
and that's where the future of the prison ministry is going, and I’m just so
proud to be a part of it. I get I always tell people I
get to go into prisons all the time and share the love of Christ, and I’ve been
on behalf of Life Without Limbs, we've done over 140 some events in the last two or three years in
prisons all over the United States, and I’ve seen God welcome us in, which means He's already there.
I’ve seen people come to know Christ while we're there. I’ve gotten testimonies in people who have
gotten out who have looked us up and sent emails. We actually have inmates that send a dollar to
Life Without Limbs Ministry out of their account because they're so on fire for Christ, and I’m
just asking you to get involved—to get involved to pray and get involved in this ministry.
It is like no other, and the time is now, [NICK] and it's not just that person that's
hearing the Gospel again. Those people who have the experience of the Holy Spirit through the
“Free in My Faith” curriculum then are moved by the Holy Spirit to then start their own cell
groups, to then preach the Gospel to other people. We're talking about thousands of inmates here,
right? Over 2 000 have actually heard the Gospel and now are facilitating
their own groups! Yeah, it's phenomenal, and it's not about, you know, where it was quoted,
"Not ask America what they can do for you, but you for America or for your
country about the church as, well, we're all waiting. Well, what other thing could the
church offer me or offer my children? You know from a consumerism point.
We are here to serve on behalf of the church that you have been blessed to be at.
Have we as a church yet really fulfilled the stewardship of the harvest to be had?
And it's not about going to a church and saying, “Hey, I think we should do this. I
think we should do that.” My dad was a PK and every time someone said, “Hey pastor,
we should do this,” he says, “Yeah, go do it!" and I don't think you need to wait
for a pastor to say, “Hey, will you start a prison ministry?” when God says, as you are
researching more and connecting with us to get this information. Please connect
with us. We'd love to answer any questions, but as God leads you, He's going to provide
the opportunity, all that you need, including the confidence that you feel like you don't have,
which is awesome, because He will give you the confidence you don't have.
[JAY] He will, He will. And I’ll be happy to come and help train, and all those things that we've
done, we've thought of. We've tried to think of everything for this ministry without being
assumptive, and we want to empower you. We want to support you, but most of all, we want everyone to
understand that these are really our brothers and sisters at times behind bars who are on the verge
of suicide, on the verge of hopelessness, and just coming in and being with sometimes is enough, and
that's what we're here to do, and we really think it's part of the future health of the church.
I want to share a quick story with you because as you don't get to go in all
the prisons that I get to go into because you're a busy guy, but we take these videos,
and I wish there were more times that I could share with you what I’ve witnessed after
Nick shares a story on video, and then I come up and give the Gospel or introduce the curriculum
and hear from the men and women in prison as we give them a chance to testify how many times
that the one most feared gang leader has watched Nick's video, and you start to hear sniffles and
he tries to wipe his tears away, but when it’s testimony time, he'll stand up and say, “You know
after watching that I have to reassess my life because of Nick's story of how God uses Nick,
and when you go in if nothing else, you get to witness those moments, and you get to see
God transform people like that, it inspires you to think, "What else have I been missing?
What else have I been missing?" and that's what I love about this ministry. So,
you make grown men cry. I love it, and sometimes they're gang leaders. Sometimes they're not, but
I never get tired of seeing God work like that. [NICK] It's all about the Lord Jesus,
and we know that, and out of all the ministry videos that are uploaded on YouTube, the greatest
most viewed one is me speaking at the Texarkana Telford where all these big, big men come forward,
and you see them crying and on their knees at the altar call, and that's how it all is also
incorporating the curriculum, and I just want to tell you, if you've ever prayed a prayer that ever
was close to this: “God help me to be used God. Help me to find my purpose. God help me to reach
someone else,” this actually might be the prayer that you've been waiting for, so please pray as
you seek God through this. Connect with us. We'd love to empower you and your local community
to reach out to these people and the change that happens there when they do come out of prison.
It affects the families around them, the friends around them, and those who have absolutely been
in the depths of despair to then be reached by the Gospel of Jesus and then empowered and
accepted and integrated in a righteous manner and a wise approach, yes, authentically back
into the bride of Christ through the church. Man, that's what the Lord's heart is beating for, so
please continue to pray and seek for how God would use you, but I want to let you know specifically,
Jay and I feel strongly that you and your church could really be blessed
by using the “Free in My Faith” curriculum of the Life Without Limbs Prison Ministry.
[JAY] Yeah, that's so beautiful, and for all those of you that have already been doing it,
I thank you. I know that there are people out there that do it on a weekly basis
without much fanfare, and without you, some of these people would have not made it. So,
we know we're all in this together, but the Life Without Limbs team would really like to help you.
If you're interested in Prison Ministry, we'll train. We'll help. We'll come with, we’ll come
alongside, and the Lord will be honored. [NICK] Amen. We love you, and God bless you.