Throughout America, in prisons and detention centers, in churches and schools, our youth are in turmoil and trouble because our society has changed and no longer respects the priorities of our forefathers. The institutions of the home and family are collapsing. One out of two marriages end in divorce. And fear and insecurity reign in the hearts of our youth. All the education of this world can muster on behalf of the young cannot answer the cry for help from a young-hurting heart. They need the gospel of Christ. I have been in full-time ministry for over twenty years. Nothing has ever stirred my heart more than what I am about to tell you. For the past several years I have been holding services and preaching in some of New York State's youth detention centers. There are fifty-four such facilities within the state under the auspices of the Office of Children and Family Services, each one housing hundreds of young people from every major city and almost every county. Literally thousands of youths are in jail in city, county, and state prisons. Rikers Islands of New York City houses many thousands of prisoners and I am told that three-quarters of their inmates are under the age of eighteen. Other states in the Northeast and across the country have similar programs for youth, and we have an open door to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to these young people who are looking for answers to their turbulent lives.
Each Saturday morning I have led a team of men to a boys' center for services. Then in the afternoon I led a team of ladies to a girls' center where we would do the same thing: teach songs (like "God Saves Ol' Sinners" and "Nothing but the Blood"), teach memory verses, give a short Bible lesson, answer questions, preach, and give an invitation. During the first year of our ministry we recorded 186 professions of faith. The second year we recorded well over two hundred. Some of these young people were released and sent home. Many of them have written to me, asking for prayer and further spiritual help. Parents, guards, and officials have been saved.
One boy who came faithfully to our services was released and sent home, but having been in these facilities from age 9 to 17 he did not really know his parents and certainly was not accustomed to obeying his father. He ended up back before the judge. The judge said,
"Son, I've done everything I can for you. I have no where else to send you, and I don't know who can help you. If you can't obey the rules at home, I'm just going to have to put you back in jail." The boy said to the judge, "Get me Brother Bob!" When the judge asked who "Brother Bob" was, the parents spoke up and said, "He is a preacher who was helping our boy
in the detention center for the last couple of years. But we were told by the state that we could have no further contact with him following our son's release." The judge said, "I'll make it a court order." I was asked to come to the next court hearing. I presented the judge with a plan where the boy would receive regular Christian counseling, and I supported the
counselor's credentials with a letter of recommendation from another county's family-court judge. I told the judge, "I will supervise the counseling, make reports to you on a weekly basis, supervise this boy's service through a local church in his community, and it won't cost this court, the county, or the state one thin dime." He said, "Done!" The boy was released to his parents' custody, and upon arriving at their home the parents trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Just a few months ago, a Romanian Jewish girl from Brooklyn, who had been saved in our services, was released to go home. She had been apprehensive about telling her parents of her decision to "believe on Jesus." Our team prayed with her during the services. I counseled her the way I would with any young person whose family is not saved. Recently, her parents have written me, saying, "Nothing in the Jewish religion has ever changed our lives like what has changed our daughter. Will you come to Brooklyn and tell us about Christ?" . . . Praise the Lord!
I thrill to tell you about these young people and their parents, but they are only two illustrations out of many stories we could tell. There is a tremendous need, and God has
called my family and me to full-time service taking the gospel to these teenagers in jail. California is the only state in the Union that spends more money on youth detention than New York State. The average cost for one incarcerated teenager in these facilities is $86,000.00 per year. They have their educational, physical, dental, and discipline needs met, but no
one is meeting their spiritual needs. You and I know that the spiritual needs are their greatest needs.
In one service I gave an illustration of a 16-year-old girl who left Louisville, Kentucky, a good home, and loving parents - to prostitute herself on the streets of Detroit. I described the tragedy of what took place in her life, but then how she came to God and the miracle of her recovery - - both spiritual and physical. One of the girls who were in our service that day came with tears in her eyes and said, "I'm just like that girl." She was gloriously born again. But she told us, "I have never heard that (the gospel) before!" Another girl came to our services and heard me say, "God says that sex before marriage is wrong."
With tears running down her face, she said, "Brother Bob, no one has ever told me that before!" This girl was 14, and it was already too late. Her grandmother is watching her baby while she does her time. Yet another girl who is fifteen was doing two years in detention for stealing. She says she did it on purpose. Someone she knew had gone to detention, and the detention center sounded a lot better to her that staying in her father's home where she was being abused nightly. Still, another girl, age 16, has done five years already. She has not received a letter from home in all that time. She says her mother must be too busy with her ten brothers and sisters who are all from different fathers. "But that's okay," she says, "because the judge won't let me go home anyway." She doesn't really have anywhere to go. And the judge knows it. So, as badly as she would like a family, a home, her mother, and her own room, the judge doesn't have any choice but to make her stay in detention.
The New York State Chaplain for the Department for Youth has endorsed my personal ministry and our program of getting our Bible-believing churches involved in holding preaching services in these facilities. The door to many other facilities in New York, and all over the Northeast, is wide open. He asked me one day, "Why is it that the only ones who
really care about our young people are the more fundamental church groups?" God has called me and given us the vision to find open doors, enlist local churches in these given areas, train their teams to win young people to Christ through preaching services in state-operated facilities, and provide the network and tools to see them grow in Christ.
After counseling with the Rock of Ages Prison Ministry in Cleveland, Tennessee and many pastors from around the country, I have stepped out by faith and resigned my church ministry to begin the work full-time and to form Solid Rock Youth Ministries. We need your support now!
Of course, the ministry is a blessing to the young people who receive Christ. Just think! There might be a Billy Sunday, a J. Frank Norris, or a Fanny Crosby waiting behind bars for us to tell them about Christ. But those who go to prison to tell a teenager about Christ are blessed as much as the teen that has his life changed. We hope that if there's a
detention center in your area, you'll let us help you reach this mission field in your backyard. As I visited a 15-year-old from Brooklyn who transferred there from one of our other homes, the director asked me if I would counsel with other girls who wanted to talk to me. I ended up staying inside the facility for over seven hours. This was the first time a state official has asked me to help counsel their residents. Praise God!
As I have traveled to present the ministry in churches I have had the privilege of talking to many troubled young people in churches and childrens' homes. I have been on the
radio from time to time in various parts of the country. We have a toll-free number available for teenagers to call in to get help. It has been given on the radio many times. Some young people have been saved and God has worked in their families as they have called the number. Whenever we receive such a call we endeavor to lead that young person to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We then refer them to a Bible-believing church in their community. Our network of churches and pastors is growing very quickly. But we need monthly support.
Pastors, churches, and state officials have requested help in their areas. We have started services in several other states and Toronto, Ontario. As God provides the means, Solid Rock Ministries will grow and reach out into other areas. We need to publish literature for teens and parents. We need more supporting churches. We need your help!
God has proven to us by many supernatural evidences that He has called us to this work. One of the most exciting of these evidences is a real blessing. A businessman in our country has given us an office building for our ministry's headquarters. It is a storefront in Montour Falls, New York and is completely at our disposal. There will be able to have our offices for organizing, printing, counseling, and even selling Bibles and tools of evangelism on a non-profit basis to help the ministry. We received a large copier from a major manufacturer. My father, Daniel J. DeWitt, who was a manager in the Bell system and is retired after 38 years in that business, has volunteered to be our business manager and bookkeeper. He has a degree in Accounting, and has been the Treasurer for several churches across the country. My wife and daughters are very excited that God has led us into this ministry and they will be working right alongside me.
My home pastor, Ron Albersold, and church, the Central Baptist Church of Corning, New York, are in full agreement that God has called us to this work and have sent us out as their missionaries. Many friends, in and out of the state, have promised support. Will you also help us reach these teenagers who are in jail? Will you help America's troubled youth? We need personal support for living, office support, Bibles, literature, and lots of prayer. I am available for meetings and will gladly come to your church to preach(and sing) as well as present our ministry and burden to your people.
I hope you will consider becoming a part of this network of Bible-believing churches reaching out to America's troubled youth. The Lord will make a difference in their lives as we follow Him together.
Bob DeWitt, D.D.
