For years, I had been praying for God to lead me to a group of marginalized people that I could feel a real burden and love for. When my husband became the prison campus pastor at the Summit, I was sure that this was not the people that I had been praying for. I had never been inside a prison and was quite confident that I never wanted to be. In fact, I was terrified at the thought.



Getting my blue card was the first step in showing my support of what he was doing. At the campus launch of NCCIW, the women’s prison, God began to change my heart. Instead of fear, I felt love and compassion. Instead of Hollywood, I saw broken lives and individual needs. I saw women who probably never had one ounce of privilege that I had and certainly had little hope for a future apart from the prison walls.

Each week on Thursday evenings the Summit brings our worship service to those women. My daughter Emma Portu and I have been ministering together and have been blessed to serve and to see women finding hope in Christ, lifting their arms in praise and worship through all of our labors.

We thank God to be a part of what he is doing through our prison ministry and encourage women in all our campuses to lay down their fears and join us in sharing the love and hope of Jesus.

Are you ready to give your fears to God and take the next step to become a volunteer at one of our prison locations? Go to summitchurch.com/missions/local to learn more.

By Ina Diana