By Laura McKillip Wood
Joe Garman started American Rehabilitation Ministries (ARM) in 1973. Later, the ministry’s name was changed to ARM Prison Outreach. On May 11, the ministry celebrated its 50th anniversary at its offices in Joplin, Mo.
Garman never intended for prison ministry to be his life’s work, however. Not long ago for the Our American Stories podcast*, he told an interviewer the story of how God set him on a new ministry path. . . .
SERVING IN SOUTH KOREA
Joe and Linda Garman were serving as missionaries in South Korea in 1969 when a U.S. military chaplain asked him to fill in for him by meeting with four American servicemen being held in a Korean prison.
Garman reluctantly agreed to do it just one time. He’d never planned on doing prison ministry and wasn’t particularly interested in it. Besides, he had many other ministry obligations.
“I said yes, but in my heart, I said no,” Garman told the interviewer. His wife encouraged him by saying, “You just might like it.”
On the appointed day, Garman met with the American prisoners.
“I spent 45 minutes with those guys, not 46 . . . and I was on my way out.”
As he was leaving, a Korean prison chaplain asked Garman to come back later to speak with Korean prisoners. Again, Garman reluctantly agreed. When the day arrived, the Korean chaplain led Garman to a packed gym filled with about 400 prisoners sitting cross-legged on the floor.
As he preached, with the aid of a translator, “I could see the hunger in their eyes. The Spirit moved upon me. I preached like a dying man to dying men. . . .”
When he finished, since there was no room to come forward, he asked that anyone who wanted to make a commitment to Christ to stand.
“The whole room stood as one body,” Garman said. “I turned to Mr. Kim [the translator] and said, ‘They must have misunderstood. Have them all sit down.’”
Garman then had his translator recap his sermon (“Tell them exactly what I said”). When the translator finished, Garman told him to say, “Only those who want to make a commitment to Christ, and become Christians, and leave all other religions behind—please stand. And the whole room stood like one body.”
“That’s the day that I saw where I needed to be,” Garman said. “I went home that day and I told Linda we’re going to go full-time into prison ministry.”
Sometime later, when his ministry duties in South Korea were firmly established, the Garmans turned their work over to local churches and returned to the United States.
A NEW BEGINNING
At the urging of Cecil Todd of Revival Fires Ministry, Garman set out to start prison ministry in the U.S., where almost no one was doing ministry among prisoners in an organized way, he said. Garman wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed, but decided the place to start was Washington, D.C. He heard that the chief of chaplains over the federal prison system was in the Pentagon, so he went there, and spoke with the man’s secretary . . . but Garman had neglected to make an appointment.
No matter, “within five minutes I was sitting down at [the chief chaplain’s] desk. I learned that day that that’s exactly where I should have gone.” New rehabilitation programs start at the federal level and “trickle down” to states, counties, and cities.
“I still get shivers just thinking about it,” Garman told the podcast interviewer. “He gave me a letter to get into any federal prison in America. I mean, this is the first time I met the man.”
In 1973, when American Rehabilitation Ministries/ARM Prison Outreach started, America’s prison population was 243,000, according to ARM’s website. Numbers have increased significantly since then. Now, more than 1.8 million people are incarcerated in America’s 1,500 state and federal prisons, with another half million in America’s 3,200 jails.
In 2001, ARM turned its eyes internationally, reaching out to prisons in Mexico, Africa, India, and Russia. Today ARM works in prisons and jails on six continents and has five international branch ministry locations.
“Now we are in all 50 states plus all five of the territories and many nations overseas,” Garman said. Prisoners around the world hear the gospel through their work.
CARD MINISTRY
ARM Prison Outreach provides resources for chaplains and others ministering in prison settings. For example, the ministry partners with Dayspring to provide inmates with Christian greeting cards. These are cards retailers return to Dayspring when they do not sell in stores. Dayspring sends them to ARM, where they are sorted and packaged and shipped to chaplains working in prisons for distribution to inmates. Prisoners and inmates use these cards to stay in touch with loved ones and maintain relationships outside the prison walls.
BIBLE AND BIBLE STUDY DISTRIBUTION
In Korea, Garman helped provide Bibles to the prisons. Later, he discovered some prisons were using Bible pages for toilet paper. Upon hearing this, he angrily vowed never to provide another Bible to a prison. Then he received a letter from a Chinese prisoner who told him he had read John 1 on the paper he was planning to use. The prisoner had never heard that God is love; the message was life-changing for him. He asked for a complete Bible, and Garman decided to resume Bible distribution to prisons.
ARM Prison Outreach now partners with the American Bible Society to provide Bibles and Bible study courses to inmates. ARM provides approximately 17,000 Bibles to prisoners in 195 institutions yearly. ARM has also partnered with the American Bible Academy to provide high-quality, advanced Bible correspondence courses. Inmates receive these courses free through a scholarship program, and their spouses can also take the courses.
BAPTISTERIES
ARM Prison Outreach also offers handcrafted Communion tables that contain molded fiberglass tanks so that prisoners who accept Jesus can be baptized. The baptisteries are light enough to be moved easily by two men. ARM also offers a collapsible and portable baptistery designed for use by missionaries or in churches or jails; it can be folded into the size of a large suitcase and weighs only 30 pounds. It is free for prison ministries; they pay only shipping costs. ARM’s website says the portable baptisteries have been used for tens of thousands of prisoner baptisms.
The ministry’s website states, “ARM’s primary mission is to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those in prison and to provide resources for those who are preaching and teaching the Gospel in a variety of mission fields.”
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Learn more about ARM Prison Outreach, donate to help provide resources, place an order, or sign up to volunteer at www.arm.org.
*From “The Story of Joe Garman and One of the Largest Prison Ministries in the World” episode of the Our American Stories podcast; May 1, 2023; accessed at www.iheart.com.
Laura McKillip Wood, former missionary to Ukraine, lives in Papillion, Nebraska, and writes about missions for Christian Standard.
I didn’t know about the connection with Dayspring cards—that is wonderful! I can imagine how much it blesses the giver as well as the family/person receiving card. Great article! I have heard Mr Garman speak—wonderful servant of our Lord
Loved reading this story about Joe and Linda.
I served as a Clinical Chaplain for the NC DOC in 2003-2004. The Superintendent at the prison where I worked was very supportive of the Chaplaincy. I was quite surprised back then to discover that we had a baptistry from ARM. In my brief time there 55 inmates confessed Christ as their Lord and were immersed for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I’m so thankful that we had this opportunity, and for the role Joe and ARM played in my ministry there.
I thank God for Joe and Linda Garman and the staff and volunteers at ARM Prison Outreach! It was my privilege to travel for the ministry for 13.5 years and present the work in order to raise funds for prison evangelism. The ministry has been blessed by God to reach thousands around the world and in the U.S. May the Lord Jesus continue to bless the staff and volunteers as they continue the great work of reaching the lost and training the converts!
I remember Joe Garman traveled with Cecil Todd as a young man. He helped with a tent crusade near Wentzville, Mo. From that crusade a beautiful congregation and a church was established that has grown. It was probably about 1965. At that time we knew that young man would be doing great things in the name of Jesus. Congratulations to Joe and Linda on a job well done.
I remember Joe Garman as a student at Ozark Bible College when I taught there in the 60’s. I had him in a number of classes. I thank God for the passion he had/has for the lost and the energy God has given him to serve through the years. To both him and Linda I say, “Thank you for the years you have given to the great ministry of ARM. May God continue to use you as you reach thousands who otherwise would not know our Savior.”
I first heard Joe Garman at my home church when he was our revival evangelist back in the late 60’s. He baptized my brother while there & many decades later, when my brother was stationed in Japan, he saw a man walking toward him at the American Embassy & said, “Joe?!” My brother had married a Korean girl when stationed there (USAF) so they went to the church where Joe was preaching that evening & my sister-in-law was baptized by Joe that night! Joe has been a blessing to so many no matter where he was & we were glad for his efforts to reach all those prisoners for Christ for so many years. We became FB friends when l told him who l was & l love staying in touch (Hi, Joe!)!