About Prison Outreach of Delaware
- To minister to the spiritual needs of Delaware inmates and ex-offenders through the means of: Evangelism, Teaching, Discipling, Spiritual ministries (Bibles, Christian literature, films, etc.), and Chaplain ministries
- To act as a liaison between inmates, ex-offenders, troubled persons, churches, homes, and communities.
- To be a missionary arm of the local churches by encouraging the development of the spiritual, physical, mental, and social areas of inmates and ex-offenders.
- We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the infallible, authoritative Word of God.
- We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return to power and glory.
- We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful men, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enable to live a godly and separated life.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and lost: they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in Christ.
Bruce Boone, President of the Board, Prison Outreach of Delaware
Prison Outreach of Delaware is not an occasional, weekly, or monthly ministry. Our ministry staff works in the institutions every day; evangelizing, preaching, teaching and counseling inmates. Their work has had significant impact on those inmates that are currently incarcerated as well as those who have been released and are back living in our communities. Our goal is to not only serve those who are incarcerated, but also to care for our full-time staff. In the past 5 years, we have tried to be the best stewards of the funds the Lord has provided us through your giving. We have cut where ever we could and have maintained the same level of benefits and salaries for the past 5 years. We have set a goal to build our finances to a 3 month reserve of $60,000. This will allow us to cover our operating expenses in those lean months when we don’t reach our regularly budgeted expenses of $18,000 per month. We would also like to budget a pay increase for our staff in the next fiscal year. Please join us in reaching our goals for the future. Again, thank you for your financial support and please continue to keep us in your prayers.
Warmest Regards,
Bruce S. Boone
Board President
David Adjei, Assistant Treasurer
Dear Friends of Prison Outreach of Delaware Inc,
A couple of cousins planned a trip to visit family in Charleston, WV some years ago. They made the correct flight arrangements from Europe and the family in Charleston planned accommodations, sight-seeing, and camping trips across the Blue Ridge mountains to upstate New York. Everyone was excited. All went well on the outbound trip from Europe, except that in changing flights at a major International airport, the cousins boarded a flight that took them to Charleston, SC. They expected their family to pick them up on arrival. An hour went by as they waited presuming a traffic jam may be causing delays. Several more minutes later, they called to announce their arrival, only to realize that they had lost their way. Being late in the day, they now needed more money to cover expenses for an overnight accommodation and a flight from South Carolina to West Virginia to meet their family. It proved expensive finding a way back on their vacation itinerary after losing their way.
Prison Outreach of Delaware ministers in leading people, who have lost their way in life and are incarcerated in Delaware’s prisons to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Prison Outreach Staff along with several volunteers hold Bible Study, teaching, and counselling sessions in the DE prisons and provide assistance in integration of ex-offenders to normal life in society. We consider this ministry a prime opportunity for most of the incarcerated to experience forgiveness and fellowship and also prepare for their integration in society. It is indeed expensive to run such a ministry.
One of the urgent needs of the ministry is a computer and software system to manage the financial (accounting and reporting) and other administrative needs of the ministry. The cost for the system has been estimated to be about $3500. Government now expects financial reporting to be done electronically as manual filing will draw penalties. This is making the need for the computer system all the more urgent before the end of the year. Unfortunately funds are not available to meet this need. We would appreciate your prayerful consideration for support in any amount you are able to contribute to this challenging goal, so the computer system will be available for use before the new year.
Thanks for your participation in reaching the incarcerated with the Good News of salvation through Christ alone, and providing the opportunity for reconciliation with family, friends, and society in general.
Your Partners in serving the Lord in the Delaware Valley,
David Adjei
Assistant Treasurer, Board of Directors
Paul Lindell
When I look back to the day I accepted the Lord as my Savior, I must admit God had been watching over me and guiding my steps all along. I was going out one Saturday night with a blind date I didn’t want. The girl I met I didn’t know at the time would be my wife. On our second date, she shared her love for the Lord with me. I knew then I was going to marry her. Now after almost 50 years of marriage, I can say that Terri and I were meant to be – “custom designed by God to be each other’s partner for life”. Our Savior can work in our lives in such a natural way that we think it was our own idea. Such is the case with my Terri and also the ministry of Prison Outreach of Delaware.
At an early age, I learned a hard lesson that would motivate my entire life. I was in a trade school for my high school years. One day I was walking to my dad’s office when my hearing went out in my only good ear. That loss forced me to go the extra mile in everything I did. To be able to communicate as a plumber making repairs or as a volunteer in a Bible study are places where people just take hearing for granted. For me, it was depressing.
STRIKE ONE: I didn’t know how to function without my hearing.
STRIKE TWO: Weeks later when I was fitted for hearing aids, I found out I was tone deaf as well. What I COULD hear was all distorted.
STRIKE THREE: When I returned to school, I was told I couldn’t go back to being in the plumbing classroom because it was deemed too dangerous for me to be around the equipment.
We all face difficulties in our lives that force us to make changes. I learned through my loss of hearing that I have to work harder than others to achieve the desired goals or just give up and use my loss as an excuse. Being the best I could and working hard, (despite what is perceived as a handicap), plumbers customers began asking for me – “the guy with the hearing aid” to fix their plumbing.
God put Terri into my life and He was the one who allowed my school plumbing shop teacher to see the potential in me. I finished trade school and became a Bible study teacher in 1986 and later asked to join the Outreach Board. I know where that idea came from – God knew I needed another challenge. I didn’t know anything about teaching. I would do a poor job hearing the questions that would be asked. I just trusted the Lord to make the way possible. And He did. Our God can do everything! Working at Vaughn Correctional (formerly DCC), and later the old Webb Center at Prices Corner has been a blessing from start to finish. I’m still with Prison Outreach Board.
At home, coming together as a family just to say grace has been what made us connect to one another. Has it always been easy? There have been times my deafness has caused problems, but the Lord always works the situation out according to His plan. I will get my hearing back in Glory. I want to hear His voice clearly! For now, Terri and I are so blessed to be able to serve our Lord and Savior.
Hal and Marsha Noden
I was born and raised in a Christian home. Father and Mother were both Bible school graduates. My earliest memories of needing a Savior were when I was so small that the piano keys were about chest high. My mother would sing and play the piano for all of us i.e.: ‘Jesus Loves Me’ ‘B I B L E’ etc. I know I must have asked Jesus into my heart the first time at about the age of 6. Each year as I learned more I would ask Jesus again and again to come into my heart. Then as an early teen and while at Summer camp I dedicated my life to Christ for His Service. I attended a Christian High School, a boarding school for missionary kids. After High school I really wanted to take a break from it all so I took a job at a paper mill and went to work. I was soon married against the advise of everyone. More than 15 years later after night school education, two children, a divorce, and a remarriage, Marcia and I began to feel the need to find a church group with whom we could fellowship. In 1978, five or six months before our daughter Jackie was born, we began to attend Faith. This came after much encouragement by Dr. Bill Bowen and others who visited us at our home many times.
The story of my life is proof that God offers a Mulligan, as in the game of golf. God has proven over and over to me that He is the God of ‘second opportunities’ or’ do overs.’ He has taken this huge pile of mistakes which I brought to Him and He is rebuilding. To quote: “The picture I had painted was all out of shape.- He took the brush an made of it something beautiful”.
Thank you Jesus,
Hal Noden
Mark and Linda Whiteman
I grew up in a non-Christian home. My parents were not hostile to Christianity and even attended a Billy Graham Crusade, but the did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. God’s providence was at work in my grandmother insisting I be taken to Sunday School regularly. I became more and more involved at church, attending youth group and other activities. The Lord used my youth pastor to lead me to salvation. I became a believer at the age of fifteen. The Lord has been so graciously giving to me His benefits since I first came to know Him. He enabled me to serve as an Elder for over 30 years (with the support of my wife Linda) in two churches. I worked in security and maintenance for 28 years. I shared my faith with many inmates. One inmate who was a drug dealer who I had many experiences with in prison is now serving the Lord as a minister in Chester, Pennsylvania! I saw the prison chaplains do a great work over the years at Chester County. Many inmates who were openly hostile to authority and the Christian faith were changed to believers by the Lord working through the ministry. I encounter former inmates publicly who are believers and are living productive lives and their families are flourishing! Some of these inmates even threatened me when I was working at the prison.
I am very happy to be on the Board at Prison Outreach of Delaware. I have seen what prison ministry can do, as it is empowered by the Lord. I pray that Prison Outreach of Delaware will be able to continue to serve those who are incarcerated, who desperately need to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Karen Long, Treasurer
Please click here for the Treasurer’s Report.
Gary Seldomridge, Secretary
Back in 1963, Ralph Cavanaugh took his first group of juvenile delinquents on a retreat under the ministry of Wilmington Youth for Christ. These troubled young people were very familiar to Ralph, for he was once a troubled youth himself. Originally from Gary, Indiana, he was finding himself in detention centers, foster homes, and serious trouble. But God touched his heart on February 8, 1952 when Ralph received Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of his life. It was then that his life started to change.
A Christian man and the director of Lake County Youth for Christ in Gary befriended Ralph. Bruce Love began to encourage Ralph to live his life whole-heartedly for Jesus Christ. Ralph was eventually lead by God to begin working with troubled young people. After attending Baptist Bible Seminary in Johnson City, New York, he received a phone call from another Youth for Christ director in Wilmington, Delaware.
Danny Bergstrom and may local folks had been praying diligently, wanting to start a local Life Line Program. Ralph’s motivation to serve the Lord in this manner was an answer to many prayers in the local Christian community in Delaware. The Life Line Program focused on a unique ministry to troubled teens confronting these troubled kids with their need to repent of their sins and give their lives to Jesus Christ. Many had been praying for a ministry of this type to begin! This Life Line ministry had taken on a mission of its own, and the work load had increased to the point that it was decided that Ralph’s ministry should set its focus solely on delinquents.
In 1963, Outreach to Troubled Teens was formed and Incorporated as a not for profit organization under a separate Board of Directors.
In 1970, as ministry responsibilities expanded, Rev. Harry Randolph joined the Outreach of Delaware staff. Harry worked with teens and expanded his ministry to adult corrections. The prison system for adults was expanding rapidly and the Delaware Department of Correction asked Outreach to being a ministry at their new facility in Smyrna. That facility was Delaware Correctional Center. Together with volunteers, Ralph and Harry traveled regularly to hold Bible studies and seminars and to work with their new State Chaplain.
In 1975, Joe L. Kadtke, after volunteering his service while in college, joined the team and began working exclusively with teens. Joe worked at the Ferris School Detention Center for juvenile delinquents and also in the community working with families of incarcerated youth.
In 1976, Harry left the Outreach ministry. Shortly after, Steve Parker joined the staff to begin his ministry at Ferris School replacing Joe.
Joe felt God’s calling toward adult corrections. He ministered at Delaware Correctional Center with Ralph and then at Gander Hill prison in 1982 when it opened. He presently serves as Facility Chaplain of that prison.
Our first secretary, Roselda Heald served diligently with Outreach for 12 years before she retired.
Georgia Megonigal served well as our secretary for several years.
In 1988, Terri Lindell joined the Outreach staff and became our Office Manager and has been diligently serving in this capacity for over 34 years.
In 1992, Tim Heald joined our staff and began working exclusively with inmates at Delaware Correctional Center. There, Tim extensively expanded the Outreach ministry and serves as a Chaplain in that facility until this day.
In 2001, Steve Anderson joined our staff and now works as Facility Chaplain at Webb Correctional Facility.
God has brought many volunteers and staff members to this ministry over the years. As we look back over these 59 years, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the burden for lost souls and their need for the Savior.
The same message that Ralph Cavanaugh preached those many years ago is the same message that we proclaim today. We share the message that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for the sins of all mankind. We believe that repentance and forgiveness is God’s gift to man and is achieved by receiving Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior. We believe that rehabilitation comes only through Jesus Christ. We preach and proclaim this solitary message without hesitation and without compromise.
CONSTITUTION OF PRISON OUTREACH OF DELAWARE INC.
ARTICLE I – NAME
The name of the organization shall be: Prison Outreach of Delaware, Inc., hereinafter called Outreach.
ARTICLE II – HEADQUARTERS
The headquarters of Prison Outreach of Delaware shall be in New Castle County, in the state of Delaware.
ARTICLE III – STATEMENT OF FAITH
- We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the infallible, authoritative Word of God.
- We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return to power and glory.
- We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful men, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enable to live a godly and separated life.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and lost: they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in Christ.
ARTICLE IV – PURPOSE
The purpose of Prison Outreach shall be:
- To minister to the spiritual needs of Delaware inmates and ex-offenders through the means of:
- Evangelism
- Teaching
- Discipling
- Spiritual ministries (Bibles, Christian literature, films, etc.)
- Chaplain ministries
- To act as a liaison between inmates, ex-offenders, troubled persons, churches, homes, and communities.
- To be a missionary arm of the local churches by encouraging the development of the spiritual, physical, mental, and social areas of inmates and ex-offenders.
ARTICLE V – POLICY
- To be an independent organization working with the local evangelical churches in reaching inmates for Jesus Christ and encouraging ex-offenders to become active in a local church as responsible citizens of the community.
- To work with any such person regardless of religion, race, sex, creed, or social status.
ARTICLE VI – BOARD OF DIRECTORS
- The Board of Directors is the sole governing body of Outreach. It shall be composed of an adequate number of members from which shall be chosen a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and other officers as the need arises. New Board members shall be nominated and elected as set forth in the By-Laws. Qualifications are:
- They must be an active member of a local Bible-believing church.
- They must agree to the Statement of Faith as set forth in Article III.
- The Board shall have power to employ an Executive Director and any other personnel, and to determine policies it deems necessary to govern this organization.
- The Executive Director is a voting member of the Board.
- The Board shall meet monthly at times and places it designates.
- The Associate Director shall be a voting member of the Board.
ARTICLE VII – MEMBERSHIP AND SPONSORS
- There will be no membership other than the Board of Directors and the Executive Director.
- Those who faithfully support the finances of Outreach will be considered sponsors.
ARTICLE VIII – FINANCES
Outreach shall be financed by the gifts and offerings of those interested in the furtherance of the earthly ministry begun by Jesus Christ.
ARTICLE IX – AMENDMENTS
This Constitution may be amended or changed by any proposal submitted in writing, read at two (2) regular meetings of the Board of Directors and adopted at the second meeting by a two-thirds vote of the Board.
Reviewed 3/06/03
How To Support This Ministry Financially
You can support the Prison Outreach of Delaware ministry online or by personal check. All donations are tax deductible. For more details, click here.
MEET OUR PASTORAL STAFF
Please click on the following links for our monthly field reports/newsletters and to meet our other staff members.
TESTIMONIALS
The Prison Outreach of Delaware is making a difference in the lives of incarcerated individuals, families of inmates, and former inmates by teaching the gospel and giving hope.
…You really helped me through that time period of my life… [you] also gave a good example for what I want to do… working with teens who have had trouble.
This act tells me that I really need Jesus in my life to lead my steps and control my thoughts. I surrender to His will. Not because I got caught but because I choose to LIVE instead of EXIST.
Inmates need some compassion and to hear that God can and will forgive them and change their life. Thank you so much for caring about the forgotten.
Please visit this link to hear more testimonies from families and inmates.
