Ministry to Juvenile Prisoners

Job Description

The ministry is to teenage boys who are detained in a government facility for a range of crimes. The detention center allows Christians to enter the facility each week to run a range of programs and provide counseling to these boys. OMF missionaries help to support and train local volunteers in this work.

Prisons and detention centers in Taiwan are mostly open to Christian ministries. This role helps to reach a group of people who otherwise will not have opportunity to hear the gospel. Many of them also come from working class communities in which other OMF missionaries are serving. This enables follow up after their release.

Missionaries live in apartments in the neighborhood where they are serving, mostly in urban environments. Taiwan is wealthy and advanced, so the standard of living is relatively high. Communications and transportation are excellent. The culture, language, food and values of the people are primarily Chinese.

Responsibilities

Participating in the current team activities, including:

* running a church service in Taoyuan Reformatory.

* maintaining contact with the youth after their release.

* mentoring and discipleship of detainees.

There is scope for those with the burden and gifts to expand the work into other institutions, help establish half-ways houses, etc.

Qualifications

* Must have initiative, a burden for evangelism, and definite evidence of fruitful evangelistic ministry.

* Experience working with unchurched youth or in a prison ministry or similar is not required but would be a plus.

* Willingness to persevere as the ministry brings many disappointments and a strong conviction that with God there are no hopeless cases.

* Some formal Bible college training is necessary. The government also requires incoming missionaries to have recently spent one to two years in Christian ministry.

Living Situations

* Willing to learn Mandarin or Taiwanese to a high level in order to communicate effectively.

* Need to adjust to a busy, crowded, and often noisy environment. Life in Taiwan is often exciting but also exhausting.

* Oral methods of communication (e.g. Bible storying, testimonies, music, drama) are most effective in evangelism and discipleship. A willingness to learn these ways of communicating the gospel is essential.

* Taiwanese people are deeply religious. Spiritual attack and demonic activity are not uncommon. Spiritual maturity is needed to deal with these situations.