Sandra Davis serves Kelvin Maddox macaroni and cheese during dinner at Church of Living Hope in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017. Church of Living Hope was started by families and friends of Calvary Commission, a Christ-centered organization with special emphasis in prison ministry, discipleship, ministry training and missions work. (Chelsea Purgahn/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Calvary Commission will celebrate 40 years of developing Christians ready and willing to serve God during its upcoming Breakthrough Prayer and Missions Conference.

The annual event, set for Aug. 31 to Sept. 4, at the World Commission Center in Lindale will feature speakers who developed and trained at Calvary Commission and became ministers, pastors and missionaries.

As a Christ-centered organization, Calvary Commission places a special emphasis in the areas of prison ministry, discipleship, ministry training and missions work.

International Director and President Joe Fauss founded the ministry with his wife, Charlotte, after working with teenagers for seven years and learning about the challenges they faced.

When one of the teens he worked with was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a drug-related offense, Fauss’s visit to that teen prompted the start of a whole new ministry.

When he inquired about helping the inmates, a prison official told him, “Preacher, if you really want to help them, help them when they get out.”

Those words were all Fauss needed to start down a new road. In 1977, with two families and 14 parolees, Calvary Commission began.

“We discovered that prison inmates who become true Christians spend many hours in their cells praying and meditating on the Scriptures and look for ways to be in the dayrooms fellowshipping with other Christian inmates,” Fauss writes in his book, “Challenging the Impossible.”

In its 40-year history, Calvary Commission has seen former inmates go on to start orphanages and churches. The ministry even began active ministry in Cuba in 1994.

In 2010, then Texas Governor Rick Perry presented the ministry with the Governor’s Restorative Justice Award and.

Throughout its history, hundreds of inmates have paroled to Calvary Commission, according to information provided by the ministry. But other people, without a prison background, also have taken part in the program.

“All have found a reception of a loving community of Christians, training and discipleship, and an opportunity to share their faith with others and to be involved in practical Christian service,” according to information about the ministry. “Today, there are pastors, missionaries, evangelists, educators and businessmen who walked out of prison and into aftercare at Calvary Commission and began their new life as an honorable member of society.”

 

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IF YOU GO

 

WHO: Calvary Commission

WHAT: 40th Anniversary Celebration/Annual Breakthrough Prayer and Missions Conference

WHEN: Aug. 31 to Sept. 4

WHERE: World Commission Center, 15983 County Road 4140, Lindale

COST: Free and open to the public

INFO: Call 903-882-5501 or visit www.calvarycommission.org