Posted on Mar 28, 2008 | by John L. Yeats
ANGOLA, La. (BP)–The inmate, seeing a visitor’s Southern Baptist nametag, said, “Thank you, thank you, please tell Southern Baptists thank you.
“When I see the hands of men raised in worship, I know these are the same hands that held a rape victim, the same hands that held stolen goods, the same hands that held the murderous gun,” the inmate continued.
“Now these are empty hands — holy hands lifted in praise to God. We could not experience that miracle of hope without the Southern Baptist seminary in New Orleans. Thank you,” said the inmate, a 2005 graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s course of study at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
The occasion was a Pastor’s Appreciation Day at Angola. More than 400 pastors from across the state gathered at the infamous penitentiary where inmates, chaplains and administrators expressed appreciation for churches and individual Christians who have been used of God to help facilitate a spiritual transformation at Angola.
Babby Mason, a recording artist from Atlanta, and Jim Cymbala, senior pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, were special guests for the March 25 event. This was not the first time Cymbala had visited Angola, but his fourth. “Other than my church,” Cymbala said, “I’d rather be here than any other place in the world because of how real these brothers are in the Lord.”
Part of the program included the premiere of a new DVD, “The Miracle of Hope,” featuring the Brooklyn Tabernacle singers and testimonies by several Angola inmates who have experienced the life-changing transformation of Christ.
An estimated 1,200 inmates have expressed newfound faith in Christ at Angola. The result is an amazing transformation has occurred at the geographically isolated 18,000-acre facility on the east bank of the Mississippi River. The name Angola originated from the Angolan slaves who worked the land in the early 1800s. In the mid-1970s, the prison had the reputation for being the bloodiest prison in the world. This was before Burl Cain became warden.

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