Escambia County Jail

Through Vision Jail Ministries at the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola, we hold a weekly Bible study at the jail entitled "Unshackled By the Truth".  Only God has the power to transform lives and to God be the glory!  The church regularly receives letters from inmates proclaiming his goodness and saving power.  Please remember these in your prayers:

Now that I have the word of God in me, I'm able to ask
people if they are saved and try to save the lost-     C.C.

If you would be so kind as to send me more information
on the Bible, it would be greatly appreciated and used. 
Thank you for your positive and encouraging words and
most of all your friendship.  It means alot to me-     S.S.

Please pray that I stay in the Lord's will-     A.K.

Personal Testimony of Bro. Chuck Chavis
Former Escambia County Jail inmate, now born again blood bought Christian ministering in the jail 

    Age 13 I began to rebel against my parents and started hanging out with the wrong crowd.  I started doing drugs and drinking only to end up in Juvenile Detention centers, being sentenced to multiple juvenile jail facilities. At age 17 I was arrested and charged as an adult and was placed in New Orleans Parish Prison.  By the time I was 18 I was sentenced to a term equal to 6 years in the Florida prison systems.   Upon release I struggled with all the questions of why? 
    I had no answers and was not saved. I remembered a song that I heard in one of the facilities "Pass Me Not O Gentle Saviour" and all I could think was that has happened to me. I was scared at that point. I ran from my conscience and tried to sear it with more drugs and alcohol to avoid the thoughts and the miserable lifestyle I had created for myself. 
    I was arrested again and did some more jail time with 5 years, probation following. I remember when I was released and after a long night out driving down the road alone in Pensacola, Florida thinking nobody knows me.  I saw a church and pulled over and walked into it and found no one so I left.  In June 2006 I was out drinking in Alabama and I could not drive in that condition back to Pensacola, so I asked my Dad that lived in Alabama if I could stay the night at his house. The deal was I had to go to church the next morning, so I agreed. 
    Entering into Seminole Baptist Church, I met Pastor Ray Williamson.  I thought "just another hypocritical preacher/sermon".  Man how I was wrong. I had never heard real preaching like that ever before. I could not run from the truth from the King James Bible. Sweating to death I couldn't wait to get out of that church.  All I could think was how did that preacher know so much about me, we had never met!
Six more months of running from God and I had lost my mother and entire family's trust. I had no where to run. The girl I was with which is now my wife, I wanted to marry so bad but with all my drug/alcohol and wild lifestyle she soon realized I would not be a good husband. Sick and tired and wore out  from a life of sin, I wanted to know this God everyone was talking about and know what was true. I cried out all night laying alone in bed completely crushed where I didn’t want to live any more. I found an old church bulletin and called the pastor from that church (Seminole Baptist Church, Ray Williamson) and he came over to my house.  On January 3, 2007 at 10:30 in the morning he told me that the sins I had committed also came with a payment attached to it, that I was on the way to hell. 
    At that point I wasn’t lying to myself any more and I knew that I deserved hell.  Then he told me how Jesus Christ still loved me through all I have done and that God had already shed his blood for my sins paying the debt I could not pay and that he would forgive me of all my sins!  Right then I bowed my head and asked Jesus Christ to become my "Personal" Saviour and give me the free gift of eternal life- and he did!
I remember reading 15 Chapters of John immediately and I couldn't believe how much I saw in the Bible. It was like God talking straight to me; it was a Holiness, a cleaness, and love I had never had before. With all that I had a violation of probation and had to return to jail expecting a few more years in prison. There I surrendered my life to the Lord crying out wanting to know more about my Saviour. I read my King James Bible through in 4 months, Wow! Did that book change my mind and heart. I was sentenced 13 months and was given 5 months gain time. 
    While in jail God called me to preach.  I knew I wanted to tell my crowd about Jesus Christ and that they could be saved too.  Since then, the Lord has opened doors to the juvenile detention center and I'm also a chaplain’s assistant in the Escambia county jail, winning as many as possible to Jesus Christ, preaching, teaching, and passing out Bible's.

    I give all the Glory to Jesus Christ for the transformation he has done in my life!  Without him I truly am nothing. Anything good out of me is Jesus Christ manifested- I am unworthy of any of this!
 
    Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.