A Brief History of Prison Mission Association
In 1955 Joe Mason had a visitation ministry in a small circuit of county jails in Texas. As inmates responded to the Gospel the need increased for a free Bible correspondence program to help new Christians become grounded in the scriptures. The result was the establishment of Prison Mission Association, formed with the goal of reaching prisoners for Christ and helping them study God’s Word.
Here is a Leadership timeline for PMA:
Joe Mason, Founder and Director, 1955-1990
Vern Bigelow, Director 1990-1995
Nathan Whitham, Director 1996 -2001
Bob Bobo, Interim Director, for 6 months in 2001
Don Sommer, Director 2001-2011
Joe Campos, Director 2011-2013
Dwight Anderson, Director 2014- present.
Although PMA’s primary focus is on America’s inmate population, it became apparent that not all of our students were incarcerated. There are also many groups and individuals not directly associated with PMA who are using our materials for prison and non-prison ministries both in the US and abroad. Bible Correspondence Fellowship is the branch of PMA that handles all English correspondence courses.
Biblico Bereano was established to minister to the Hispanic community through Bible correspondence courses. Today our student base is drawn from nearly twenty countries spanning all six populated continents.
PMA’s home office is now located in Port Orchard, Washington with a regional office in Burnsville, MN where Pastor Dwight Anderson is located. We have expanded our ministry by making our correspondence lessons available through e-mail and over the Internet.
As we celebrate 60 years of prison ministry, we have embarked on a bold new 10 year vision to expand our courses to the next level with Biblical leadership and ministry training to help inmates reach inmates for Christ and plant churches in prisons! To read more on this exciting new outreach and find link to download our new trifold that explains this.
www.prisonmission.org/new-10-year-vision-for-pma-helping-inmates-reach-inmates-for-christ