GraceInside Expanding Chaplaincy Hours in 2025

Updated August 21, 2025

GraceInside is pleased to share that we have expanded chaplaincy hours in 6 facilities over the past 4 months: Red Onion, Wallen’s Ridge, Beaumont, Coffeewood, Haynesville, and CVCU#13. We are grateful to be able to provide over 200 additional hours combined at these facilities each month, thanks entirely to our donors!

Since June, GraceInside welcomed Chaplain Eddie Mullins and Chaplain Tim Compton as new Special Assignment Chaplains at Wallens Ridge State Prison. This is only possible because of the support of a donor who envisions having more pastoral care available to the men in Wallens Ridge Restorative Housing units.

On August 16, GraceInside welcomed Chaplain Luis Medrano to be a Special Assignment Chaplain for the Hispanic populations at Coffeewood and Haynesville. In March, I (Chaplain Meyer) did a site visit to Haynesville Correctional Center with Chaplain Medrano, who had been a volunteer at Coffeewood since 2019 and wanted to reach the Hispanic guys at Haynesville. During our introductory visit, Chaplain Lisa Brown called several inmates from the Hispanic church to her office to meet with us. One of the gentlemen immediately teared up, and said in Spanish “la iglesia aqui ha estado orando por un pastor.” “The church here has been praying for a pastor!” Praise God, who has heard the prayers of the prison church.

Chaplain Medrano’s chaplaincy has been made possible by a matching grant of up to $40,000, of which we have about $18000 (which will support about 15 months of his part time ministry). We are actively raising money to be able to sustain Luis Medrano’s ministry for years to come. Please consider contributing by September 30 so we can take advantage of these matching funds. Monthly giving is especially helpful as we plan for additional expansion of our ministry. GraceInside has the platform, reputation, and structure for these ministry positions to be possible, and God has raised up these 3 new workers to join our team.

GraceInside continues to be “Sent by the Church to nurture faith and hope in Virginia’s prisons.” As a Chaplain, I understood my work to be an expression of the wider church’s call to remember those in prison. Now, as the Executive Director, my work has shifted to reminding the churches of Virginia that all churches have a stake in a vibrant, well supported GraceInside prison ministry. Thank you for your financial and prayerful support of our chaplains, and for sharing in our call to remember those in prison.