From Crime to Christ Prison Ministries
Chaplain Gene and Carol Brown
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 KJV
John 3:16 KJV
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Hebrews 13:3 (NASB)
Dear Visitor:
This contains the more important parts of my personal testimony. I was saved in a prison cell on February 23,
1961. I had been in and out of trouble from very early. I came from a broken home as so many who are
incarcerated have. I quit school at the age of thirteen and they passed me although I flunked eighth grade but
they knew I was not destined for high school. I began working as an assistant raising chicken in an old five
story grist mill at age fourteen and earned about twenty five dollars a week (big money back then) of which I
gave my mom half for food etc. and she in turn bought me a six pack of beer each payday. At age fifteen I was a
big well muscled kid and began drinking in the local bar rooms. Nobody ever asked for my identification back
then. It was with that combination of booze and muscle that I learned how to fight pretty well and began to be in
trouble with the law (mostly fighting then) until at age seventeen. I received an edict from a local judge to either
join a branch of the military or go to reform school until I was twenty one at seventeen (they could do that then)
I got patriotic and joined the air force . That could have been a good career for me as I liked the idea of a decent
regimen of rules etc. to abide by except on most weekends when I was not on duty I was off getting drunk,
usually alone. So I made rank and was broken in rank on three different occasions in my four year tour of duty
at the end of which they were happy to see me go and I was happy to get on with life.
After the air force days I went back to the same old town and took up with many of the same old cronies and of
course that brought on more conflict with the law. I finally broke the law big time due to alcohol and no self
discipline and was sentenced to from six to eight years in the states prison in 1960. A friend inside who was
recently saved himself named Elmer Bradley had two Bibles and offered one to me if I would promise to read
it. As I got more and more into the heart of the gospel message I felt sure that God would not only forgive me if
I asked from my heart but would also accept me as one of His own. (Matthew 11:28-30) This and many other
scripture verses convicted me big time and finally on the evening of February 23 1961 in an eight by twelve
foot prison cell I knelt beside my bunk and I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and save my wretched
soul. My life has never been the same since. While in prison I felt I needed more education now that I had a
purpose in life so I took the GED courses and studied the Bible diligently for the last three years of my
incarceration. I had lots of help along the way through the Ohman family, four brothers and one special
sister, who knew me from my youth and prayed for me as I was growing up. That family supplied me with
Bible courses and came to the prison when it was my release time to tell authorities that they would provide me
with a job and a place in the community to stay. I call it Christianity in action. I was released from prison in
December of 1964 as I recall and my new life was good. I made a few early miss steps but the Lord guided me
back to safety quickly. I made a promise to the Lord when I was released from prison that I would somehow
take the gospel of Christ back to men and women behind prison walls if He would get me some training and
open the doors.
I began attending a local fundamentally sound church and just a couple of months into my new life of freedom I
met this very special girl named Carol Strout at the chapel. We dated for about a year and married and today
have a son named Matthew Brown who has, with his wife Heather, presented us over the past few years with
two beautiful Grand children, Megan is the oldest a pretty and intelligent young lady and her little brother
Payton who is going to be a big bruiser I think eventually.
After several years of running from the Lord and telling Him all of the things I couldn't do I surrendered to do
what ever the Lord wanted from me. I ended up in Terre Haute, Indiana with a good job (I had learned photo
offset lithography as a trade in prison) running large printing presses and we were buying our own house. Carol
and I were deeply involved in our small local church, the Greenwood Baptist Church. About four years after
moving to Indiana a young women named Vickie Bridner came to our church as a visitor. She was young and
full of faith and wanted to assist in any way she could. As I watched her set a wonderful example of Christianity
at work I rechecked my own commitment to the Lord and once again my promise to take the gospel back to
men and women behind prison bars became active again. Vickie sent me material from Bob Jones University
when she got back at summers end and they had a program call "The Institute of Christian Service. I couldn't
rest until Carol and I made a trip there to check out the place and I knew right away that this was where I was
going to get the training I would need to do what the Lord wanted me to do for Him. To make this shorter the
Lord opened and closed just the right doors and in a years time we had sold our home and headed to B.J.U. I
spent one semester in the Institute of Christian service and several people including my best friend Bob Bridner
and my wife suggested I might try the University level as I had all "E’s” which stood for excellent in the
institute. What made me finally decide was the director of the institute also said the same thing. He told me if I
didn't feel that I could handle it then I could always come back and resume classes at the institute. I did in fact
move to the University level and while working full time for them (print shop) running their largest presses and
Carol working at the book store I crammed four years of education into six years. I say that of course tongue in
cheek. I graduated after taking the summer session in 1982 and have been blessed almost daily because of my
time spent at B.J.U.
Once graduated I got talked into planting a church up in New England which lasted about one year. Again I
realized that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing. The Lord through a series of interceding got me
back on track and I traveled down to Hurlock, MD to work in the small local prisons (six or seven in all) to pass
out Bible lessons and Bibles and do a lot of praying both alone and with inmates. We worked out of Grace
Baptist church where Carol worked in the town of Seaford, DE and I worked part time as a printer in several
areas until our support was close enough so I could go full time. I was ordained by a group of pastors and
Deacons at this church and they still today are a part of our support group. The pastor was my best friend at
B.J.U. Bob Bridner. After several years they opened a large new County prison in Salisbury, MD called The
Wicomico County Detention Center (W.C.D.C.) and got a group of local pastors together to select the man who
would be the new Chaplain. There were twenty three pastors I believe, white and black, from the area and they
asked me to sit in on the selection process since I was already doing the work. Each meeting found them asking
me what I was doing to take care of this or that type of problem etc. and finally they asked me to step down
from the selection committee and be a candidate for the chaplaincy. I called all of my supporting churches and
asked them to pray and send me an answer as to whether they wanted me to be the chaplain. They all came to
the conclusion that as long as I was still involved with full time prison work that they had no problem with it.
To show How God worked in this matter I had put out a fleece asking that if the Lord wanted me to take the
position He would get me seventy five percent of the votes. I was astounded when they did finally choose me
over several other candidates and told me that ultimately they had decided it by the vote of 23 for and none
against.
Today I am working on my twenty first year at the detention center (W.C.D.C.) as the only chaplain that they
have ever had. On many of my weekends I go to some of Maryland's largest prisons and preach to hundreds of
prison inmates the wonderful glories of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. I preach at places like Roxbury
Correctional Institution (R.C.I.) once a month, in Hagerstown, MD, three and a half hours from home on the
second Sunday of every month (two services). Approximately five hundred or more inmates will have attended
in the two services at the end of the day. I also go to Maryland Correctional training center (M.C.T.C.) in
Hagerstown, MD where they house close to four thousand inmates at any given time and I hold a combined
service at twelve noon in the largest chapel I have seen in any prison and it is normally full. It is not unusual to
see ten or twelve men come for salvation in a service. We always follow them up with our Bible studies as a
way of getting them grounded in God's word. I go to three other prison sections to preach on a regular
basis. Two have over fifteen hundred inmates the other about six hundred and all connected to Eastern
Correctional Institution (E.C.I.) in Westover, MD. By God's grace I have seen literally hundreds come to know
Christ as savior over these many years and if He allows it I will continue to service Him in these capacities
until He takes me home or makes it clear that it is time to step down. All that I am, or ever hope to be, I am by
the grace and love of almighty God because of Jesus Christ my Lord and savior. I have left many things out of
this testimony because of time and space but these cover what happened and where I am today. All I can say is
Thank you Lord for taking a lost sinner, an ex-alcoholic, an ex-convict and ex-ing them all out and making me a
new creature in Christ. And wonder of wonders, using me, such as I was, to bring others to my precious
savior. Bringing me from being a lost sinner to one who is saved and serving. Thank you Lord, thank you.
Because Of Calvary,
Chaplain Gene Brown
(1 Corinthians 15:58)
This contains the more important parts of my personal testimony. I was saved in a prison cell on February 23,
1961. I had been in and out of trouble from very early. I came from a broken home as so many who are
incarcerated have. I quit school at the age of thirteen and they passed me although I flunked eighth grade but
they knew I was not destined for high school. I began working as an assistant raising chicken in an old five
story grist mill at age fourteen and earned about twenty five dollars a week (big money back then) of which I
gave my mom half for food etc. and she in turn bought me a six pack of beer each payday. At age fifteen I was a
big well muscled kid and began drinking in the local bar rooms. Nobody ever asked for my identification back
then. It was with that combination of booze and muscle that I learned how to fight pretty well and began to be in
trouble with the law (mostly fighting then) until at age seventeen. I received an edict from a local judge to either
join a branch of the military or go to reform school until I was twenty one at seventeen (they could do that then)
I got patriotic and joined the air force . That could have been a good career for me as I liked the idea of a decent
regimen of rules etc. to abide by except on most weekends when I was not on duty I was off getting drunk,
usually alone. So I made rank and was broken in rank on three different occasions in my four year tour of duty
at the end of which they were happy to see me go and I was happy to get on with life.
After the air force days I went back to the same old town and took up with many of the same old cronies and of
course that brought on more conflict with the law. I finally broke the law big time due to alcohol and no self
discipline and was sentenced to from six to eight years in the states prison in 1960. A friend inside who was
recently saved himself named Elmer Bradley had two Bibles and offered one to me if I would promise to read
it. As I got more and more into the heart of the gospel message I felt sure that God would not only forgive me if
I asked from my heart but would also accept me as one of His own. (Matthew 11:28-30) This and many other
scripture verses convicted me big time and finally on the evening of February 23 1961 in an eight by twelve
foot prison cell I knelt beside my bunk and I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and save my wretched
soul. My life has never been the same since. While in prison I felt I needed more education now that I had a
purpose in life so I took the GED courses and studied the Bible diligently for the last three years of my
incarceration. I had lots of help along the way through the Ohman family, four brothers and one special
sister, who knew me from my youth and prayed for me as I was growing up. That family supplied me with
Bible courses and came to the prison when it was my release time to tell authorities that they would provide me
with a job and a place in the community to stay. I call it Christianity in action. I was released from prison in
December of 1964 as I recall and my new life was good. I made a few early miss steps but the Lord guided me
back to safety quickly. I made a promise to the Lord when I was released from prison that I would somehow
take the gospel of Christ back to men and women behind prison walls if He would get me some training and
open the doors.
I began attending a local fundamentally sound church and just a couple of months into my new life of freedom I
met this very special girl named Carol Strout at the chapel. We dated for about a year and married and today
have a son named Matthew Brown who has, with his wife Heather, presented us over the past few years with
two beautiful Grand children, Megan is the oldest a pretty and intelligent young lady and her little brother
Payton who is going to be a big bruiser I think eventually.
After several years of running from the Lord and telling Him all of the things I couldn't do I surrendered to do
what ever the Lord wanted from me. I ended up in Terre Haute, Indiana with a good job (I had learned photo
offset lithography as a trade in prison) running large printing presses and we were buying our own house. Carol
and I were deeply involved in our small local church, the Greenwood Baptist Church. About four years after
moving to Indiana a young women named Vickie Bridner came to our church as a visitor. She was young and
full of faith and wanted to assist in any way she could. As I watched her set a wonderful example of Christianity
at work I rechecked my own commitment to the Lord and once again my promise to take the gospel back to
men and women behind prison bars became active again. Vickie sent me material from Bob Jones University
when she got back at summers end and they had a program call "The Institute of Christian Service. I couldn't
rest until Carol and I made a trip there to check out the place and I knew right away that this was where I was
going to get the training I would need to do what the Lord wanted me to do for Him. To make this shorter the
Lord opened and closed just the right doors and in a years time we had sold our home and headed to B.J.U. I
spent one semester in the Institute of Christian service and several people including my best friend Bob Bridner
and my wife suggested I might try the University level as I had all "E’s” which stood for excellent in the
institute. What made me finally decide was the director of the institute also said the same thing. He told me if I
didn't feel that I could handle it then I could always come back and resume classes at the institute. I did in fact
move to the University level and while working full time for them (print shop) running their largest presses and
Carol working at the book store I crammed four years of education into six years. I say that of course tongue in
cheek. I graduated after taking the summer session in 1982 and have been blessed almost daily because of my
time spent at B.J.U.
Once graduated I got talked into planting a church up in New England which lasted about one year. Again I
realized that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing. The Lord through a series of interceding got me
back on track and I traveled down to Hurlock, MD to work in the small local prisons (six or seven in all) to pass
out Bible lessons and Bibles and do a lot of praying both alone and with inmates. We worked out of Grace
Baptist church where Carol worked in the town of Seaford, DE and I worked part time as a printer in several
areas until our support was close enough so I could go full time. I was ordained by a group of pastors and
Deacons at this church and they still today are a part of our support group. The pastor was my best friend at
B.J.U. Bob Bridner. After several years they opened a large new County prison in Salisbury, MD called The
Wicomico County Detention Center (W.C.D.C.) and got a group of local pastors together to select the man who
would be the new Chaplain. There were twenty three pastors I believe, white and black, from the area and they
asked me to sit in on the selection process since I was already doing the work. Each meeting found them asking
me what I was doing to take care of this or that type of problem etc. and finally they asked me to step down
from the selection committee and be a candidate for the chaplaincy. I called all of my supporting churches and
asked them to pray and send me an answer as to whether they wanted me to be the chaplain. They all came to
the conclusion that as long as I was still involved with full time prison work that they had no problem with it.
To show How God worked in this matter I had put out a fleece asking that if the Lord wanted me to take the
position He would get me seventy five percent of the votes. I was astounded when they did finally choose me
over several other candidates and told me that ultimately they had decided it by the vote of 23 for and none
against.
Today I am working on my twenty first year at the detention center (W.C.D.C.) as the only chaplain that they
have ever had. On many of my weekends I go to some of Maryland's largest prisons and preach to hundreds of
prison inmates the wonderful glories of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. I preach at places like Roxbury
Correctional Institution (R.C.I.) once a month, in Hagerstown, MD, three and a half hours from home on the
second Sunday of every month (two services). Approximately five hundred or more inmates will have attended
in the two services at the end of the day. I also go to Maryland Correctional training center (M.C.T.C.) in
Hagerstown, MD where they house close to four thousand inmates at any given time and I hold a combined
service at twelve noon in the largest chapel I have seen in any prison and it is normally full. It is not unusual to
see ten or twelve men come for salvation in a service. We always follow them up with our Bible studies as a
way of getting them grounded in God's word. I go to three other prison sections to preach on a regular
basis. Two have over fifteen hundred inmates the other about six hundred and all connected to Eastern
Correctional Institution (E.C.I.) in Westover, MD. By God's grace I have seen literally hundreds come to know
Christ as savior over these many years and if He allows it I will continue to service Him in these capacities
until He takes me home or makes it clear that it is time to step down. All that I am, or ever hope to be, I am by
the grace and love of almighty God because of Jesus Christ my Lord and savior. I have left many things out of
this testimony because of time and space but these cover what happened and where I am today. All I can say is
Thank you Lord for taking a lost sinner, an ex-alcoholic, an ex-convict and ex-ing them all out and making me a
new creature in Christ. And wonder of wonders, using me, such as I was, to bring others to my precious
savior. Bringing me from being a lost sinner to one who is saved and serving. Thank you Lord, thank you.
Because Of Calvary,
Chaplain Gene Brown
(1 Corinthians 15:58)
Listen to a sermon by Chaplain Gene Brown
preached at Faith Independent Bible Church October 17th, 2010
preached at Faith Independent Bible Church October 17th, 2010
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