March 17, 2007

 A Letter Of Introduction:

     We are writing this letter to introduce the ministry of "The Church at Prison” serving the men and women under the supervision of the Vermont Department of Corrections. 

     In the fall of 1992 Pete and Agnes Fiske took over the leadership of a local ministry at North West State Correctional Facility in St. Albans VT that had been in existence and growing for many years. It had been the hope and prayer of several people involved in the ministry that a full time person could be available some day and be supported by the donations from the Christian community in Vermont; Especially Franklin County where the prison is located. In June of 1993 Peter retired from IBM in order to answer God’s call to work full time in this ministry.

     The vision for the ministry is to develop or help develop Christian Churches for prison inmates to attend and participate in, just like we do in society. We work to help develop those men and women who demonstrate a desire to follow JESUS CHRIST.

     Most of the men and women we work with will be coming back into society as friends, parents, spouses, employees, and in some cases as workers in Christian Ministry. It is our mission from GOD to do everything we can to help them come from their Christian community in prison to a Christian community in society.

     As men and women leave prison to work their way back into society we refer them and their families to Christian Churches that will accept them and are willing to work with them.

     We provide training for the people willing to work with these men so that they have a good understanding of the individual. The training consists of Christian ministry training as well as Dept of Corrections "Clinical" training. This ensures that the support people will not be naive and will be able to help an offender intervene in his/her life when things aren't going well.

     We believe that through the Christian community, these men and women will have a better chance of succeeding. In 2003 we renamed this portion of our ministry “Bridge Builders of Vermont” to emphasize bridging the gap between prisoners and the Christian community.

     We are presently working with prisoners from many communities in Vermont. As needs arise to find Christian support for them and their families we will be contacting Pastors in their communities of release.

     In 1999 we established Patmos Christian Academy. The purpose of Patmos is to provide Christian Education and training for inmates and volunteers seeking to serve GOD. We experienced over 100 successful course completions a year in the first four years. We recruited three inmate instructors and nine outside instructors. Patmos also opened a small campus at the prison in Newport VT. In August of 2005 we opened another satellite in Beattyville, KY where about 400 VT prisoners are incarcerated due to overcrowding in VT prisons.

     We have been working towards developing relationships in Vermont between ministries and volunteers working in prison ministry. We believe that we should all be working together for the benefit of the men and women we serve. We also sponsor an Annual VT Prison Ministry Conference that provides training, encouragement, and resources to individuals and ministries.

      More recently a new area of ministry has been developing for us. We have been receiving requests from other ministries to provide assistance in ministry training and development. This has resulted in our need to develop training manuals and other documents. We will be working with the Dept of Corrections as much as possible in this area of ministry. We have sponsored training seminars and Workshops in Portland ME, Camden ME, Rockport ME, Fitchburg MA, Chelmsford MA, and Hillsboro NH. Much of the training has centered around working with released sex offenders.

     In 2006 Pastor Pete traveled to Nigeria Africa to assist Pastor Anthony Oluloye in establishing a ministry to incarcerated children, “Light of the Soul Ministries”.

     In response to the growth and expanding role of this prison ministry we incorporated in 1997 as a non-profit church under the name of "The Church at Prison". The Church at NorthWest, Patmos Christian Academy, the Annual Prison Ministry Conference, and Bridge Builders of VT are all ministries of "The Church At Prison".

     Pastor Pete is ordained by Maranatha Ministerial Fellowship International (Williston VT) and is submitted to the spiritual leadership of Bishop Rick Callahan.

     In November of 2004 Pastor Agnes Fiske passed from this life into the arms of her Lord Jesus. With her work done on Earth she is now basking in the presence of God.

     In December of 2006 Pastor Pete and Joanne “Jo” Falise were married. They had a wedding ceremony in Georgia for Jo’s relatives there, another ceremony in Jericho VT for their family and friends in VT, and a final ceremony at North West State Correctional Facility in St. Albans for their prison congregation.

     Pastor Pete, Jo and the staff of The Church At Prison are continuing in this ministry, that the Lord has established, and are in need of your prayers and support.

May GOD Bless you! 

Pastor Pete and Jo Fiske