Hello! My name is Cain Kellerman and I am in full time prison ministry in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, let me tell you how it all started.
A bit about myself first, this is the short version I guarantee you. I grew up as an only child in an atheistic home and started using hardcore drugs at a very young age. I was a very angry person and would lash out in anger at the drop of a hat. I spent a lot of time in jail and in those years I received 2 felonies, a lot of traffic violations, many probation violations and countless misdemeanors. I tried just about every religion that there is and found absolutely no comfort in any of it. Many people invited me to church and I always refused. I knew that what I was doing was going to lead me to an early death but I could not care less. I was in jail in 1995 and a man (also inside jail) challenged me to read the Gospel of John, I had nothing better to do so I decided to read it. It absolutely blew my mind! I never knew that anybody could actually love, let alone love me. God was definitely breaking through to my hard heart and showing me that I could have a life that has meaning. I accepted the love that God showed me by sending His one and only Son to die in my place and pay the debt of sin that all of us incur. Jesus has radically and powerfully changed my life completely. Shortly after this I met and married my lovely wife and have been married for the last 18 years and we have 6 wonderful children. I have been sober the the last 19 years! I never thought that would happen!
To make a long story short, in 2006 after many ups and downs in our life we were living in St. Cloud, MN serving under our Pastor there and a friend of ours called us and said: “Look I know you are doing things there but I feel like God is telling me that you could be doing so much more for Him. Why don’t you think of coming up to the U.P. to visit?” What was the U.P.? Where was it? We had no idea. Now both my wife and I had thought of our serving in St. Cloud as being temporary but we had only been there for 11 months! We decided to visit the U.P. and see what this was about. The week we were going to leave for the Upper Peninsula, I was at work in St. Paul, MN and the business was located next to a treatment center. I was on my way out the door to start the drive home and a man from the drug treatment center was there staring at a few Christian bumper stickers on the back of my car. He asked, “Do you actually believe this” and then used a swear word. I said, “As a matter of fact I do, you got a problem with that?” As you can tell I didn’t really want to talk about the love of Christ at that moment. We started arguing very loudly and then we started talking about the Lord and what He has done for a wretch like me. He wanted to accept Christ into his life! After we had prayed he asked me a very strange question, “Have you ever heard of a town called Iron River, MI? It is in the Upper Peninsula and It needs somebody like you to go there and tell people about Jesus like you did to me!” Wow was I floored. Two days later we arrived in Iron River and I immediately hated it, it was too small, it did not have any big stores (unless you count Pamida a big store hahaha). It was a absolutely dead town! I decided to go for a walk down the main street around 11pm to have a look around and complain to God about Him even thinking of having us up here. I stopped at a gas station on my way back and saw two small boys maybe 6-7 years old inside. It being so late I thought it was strange but when I walked in the cashier was saying to the children “I’m sorry your mom did not feed you again, you can have a couple of hot dogs if you want.” That was so sad and that was what God was using to break my heart for the area. I was sold but my wife was not. We came up one more time during my wife’s birthday weekend and visited. On our way home we had to stop multiple times so she could vomit because she got the flu while we visiting, nice trip huh? We could not stop thinking about the area and were really drawn to it so we decided to pray about where to live “IF” we would move. I was at work and my wife was at home and we both looked at a map. The city of Crystal Falls popped out at me and I found out that it also popped out to my wife. Well in a the beginning of 2007 we were renting a house in the area and moving up. We could not deny what God was doing and what He wanted to do here with this little church on the edge of civilization.
We tried multiple ministries and had each one of them fail miserably, when somebody mentioned I should go into the local jail and do Bible studies. Now you have to understand that I never wanted to go into a jail again because of my past. I hated hearing the doors close behind me, the orange jumpsuits, the sandbag beds. I knew God was calling me to this for years but kept doing everything else but jail ministry because I just didn’t want to relive those memories. But God would not stop putting this on my heart. So finally I went in with a man who has been doing this for decades. I was hooked! God showed me in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that we are to comfort others with the comfort we have received and me going into the jail was a small example of that. While I was going into the jail, I started to feel a burden to try and get into a prison to do Bible studies. Now being a convicted felon this is not the easiest to do, but with God all things are possible( Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27) so I pressed on. After 3 months of the prison losing my application and phone number 3 different times and of my application having to get approved not only that prison’s administration but also by the head of the Department of Corrections for Michigan, I finally was approved. Started going into Ojibway Correctional Facility the in March of 2009 and have loved every time I am able to be inside those walls. The service I started with was at 5:20 p.m. on Sundays and it started out with around 10-15 men and it quickly grew to 40 (the max for the room). I have been able to fill in when other volunteers are not able to make it and I am there for 4 services one Sunday a month. I now also have a Bible study every Friday there. God has also opened a door to be able to do 3 services a month at Marquette Branch Prison in Maximum Security since March of 2013. It took 3 years of prayer and applying for that opportunity to happen. My heart hurts for the sheer amount of depression there is and the absolute lack of hope. Most of the population are not Christians and some of them hate Christianity and all it represents. God has and is continuing to give me favor there with the men inside as well as the administration and guards. So much so that the men who are not believers have begun to warm up to me and are starting to ask questions! This is so cool! People are getting saved almost every week and there is quite a bit of fruit showing. There are many examples of this but one in particular stands out. A man who was known to fight at the littlest annoyance was in my service and he got saved. A little while later a man came and ripped up his bible in front of him. Now this would normally have been more then enough to set this guy off, but instead all he did was calmly try to put his Bible back together! Now that is a life change that only God can do!
I felt led to call it Full Throttle Freedom prison ministries because only God can give you real freedom and without Christ we will always be in the chains of our sin whether you are behind prison walls or walking down the street. Also without giving everything to God and following Him as hard and as fast as you can go, what is calling yourself a Christian worth? We who call ourselves Christians should stand up go full throttle for prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14)
Please look at Isaiah 42:7 and Matthew 25:32-46 to see more verses that show the burden but above all please join me in prayer for the salvation of the men inside those walls and the continued vision of the prison ministry.
Thank you,
Cain Kellerman
A bit about myself first, this is the short version I guarantee you. I grew up as an only child in an atheistic home and started using hardcore drugs at a very young age. I was a very angry person and would lash out in anger at the drop of a hat. I spent a lot of time in jail and in those years I received 2 felonies, a lot of traffic violations, many probation violations and countless misdemeanors. I tried just about every religion that there is and found absolutely no comfort in any of it. Many people invited me to church and I always refused. I knew that what I was doing was going to lead me to an early death but I could not care less. I was in jail in 1995 and a man (also inside jail) challenged me to read the Gospel of John, I had nothing better to do so I decided to read it. It absolutely blew my mind! I never knew that anybody could actually love, let alone love me. God was definitely breaking through to my hard heart and showing me that I could have a life that has meaning. I accepted the love that God showed me by sending His one and only Son to die in my place and pay the debt of sin that all of us incur. Jesus has radically and powerfully changed my life completely. Shortly after this I met and married my lovely wife and have been married for the last 18 years and we have 6 wonderful children. I have been sober the the last 19 years! I never thought that would happen!
To make a long story short, in 2006 after many ups and downs in our life we were living in St. Cloud, MN serving under our Pastor there and a friend of ours called us and said: “Look I know you are doing things there but I feel like God is telling me that you could be doing so much more for Him. Why don’t you think of coming up to the U.P. to visit?” What was the U.P.? Where was it? We had no idea. Now both my wife and I had thought of our serving in St. Cloud as being temporary but we had only been there for 11 months! We decided to visit the U.P. and see what this was about. The week we were going to leave for the Upper Peninsula, I was at work in St. Paul, MN and the business was located next to a treatment center. I was on my way out the door to start the drive home and a man from the drug treatment center was there staring at a few Christian bumper stickers on the back of my car. He asked, “Do you actually believe this” and then used a swear word. I said, “As a matter of fact I do, you got a problem with that?” As you can tell I didn’t really want to talk about the love of Christ at that moment. We started arguing very loudly and then we started talking about the Lord and what He has done for a wretch like me. He wanted to accept Christ into his life! After we had prayed he asked me a very strange question, “Have you ever heard of a town called Iron River, MI? It is in the Upper Peninsula and It needs somebody like you to go there and tell people about Jesus like you did to me!” Wow was I floored. Two days later we arrived in Iron River and I immediately hated it, it was too small, it did not have any big stores (unless you count Pamida a big store hahaha). It was a absolutely dead town! I decided to go for a walk down the main street around 11pm to have a look around and complain to God about Him even thinking of having us up here. I stopped at a gas station on my way back and saw two small boys maybe 6-7 years old inside. It being so late I thought it was strange but when I walked in the cashier was saying to the children “I’m sorry your mom did not feed you again, you can have a couple of hot dogs if you want.” That was so sad and that was what God was using to break my heart for the area. I was sold but my wife was not. We came up one more time during my wife’s birthday weekend and visited. On our way home we had to stop multiple times so she could vomit because she got the flu while we visiting, nice trip huh? We could not stop thinking about the area and were really drawn to it so we decided to pray about where to live “IF” we would move. I was at work and my wife was at home and we both looked at a map. The city of Crystal Falls popped out at me and I found out that it also popped out to my wife. Well in a the beginning of 2007 we were renting a house in the area and moving up. We could not deny what God was doing and what He wanted to do here with this little church on the edge of civilization.
We tried multiple ministries and had each one of them fail miserably, when somebody mentioned I should go into the local jail and do Bible studies. Now you have to understand that I never wanted to go into a jail again because of my past. I hated hearing the doors close behind me, the orange jumpsuits, the sandbag beds. I knew God was calling me to this for years but kept doing everything else but jail ministry because I just didn’t want to relive those memories. But God would not stop putting this on my heart. So finally I went in with a man who has been doing this for decades. I was hooked! God showed me in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that we are to comfort others with the comfort we have received and me going into the jail was a small example of that. While I was going into the jail, I started to feel a burden to try and get into a prison to do Bible studies. Now being a convicted felon this is not the easiest to do, but with God all things are possible( Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27) so I pressed on. After 3 months of the prison losing my application and phone number 3 different times and of my application having to get approved not only that prison’s administration but also by the head of the Department of Corrections for Michigan, I finally was approved. Started going into Ojibway Correctional Facility the in March of 2009 and have loved every time I am able to be inside those walls. The service I started with was at 5:20 p.m. on Sundays and it started out with around 10-15 men and it quickly grew to 40 (the max for the room). I have been able to fill in when other volunteers are not able to make it and I am there for 4 services one Sunday a month. I now also have a Bible study every Friday there. God has also opened a door to be able to do 3 services a month at Marquette Branch Prison in Maximum Security since March of 2013. It took 3 years of prayer and applying for that opportunity to happen. My heart hurts for the sheer amount of depression there is and the absolute lack of hope. Most of the population are not Christians and some of them hate Christianity and all it represents. God has and is continuing to give me favor there with the men inside as well as the administration and guards. So much so that the men who are not believers have begun to warm up to me and are starting to ask questions! This is so cool! People are getting saved almost every week and there is quite a bit of fruit showing. There are many examples of this but one in particular stands out. A man who was known to fight at the littlest annoyance was in my service and he got saved. A little while later a man came and ripped up his bible in front of him. Now this would normally have been more then enough to set this guy off, but instead all he did was calmly try to put his Bible back together! Now that is a life change that only God can do!
I felt led to call it Full Throttle Freedom prison ministries because only God can give you real freedom and without Christ we will always be in the chains of our sin whether you are behind prison walls or walking down the street. Also without giving everything to God and following Him as hard and as fast as you can go, what is calling yourself a Christian worth? We who call ourselves Christians should stand up go full throttle for prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14)
Please look at Isaiah 42:7 and Matthew 25:32-46 to see more verses that show the burden but above all please join me in prayer for the salvation of the men inside those walls and the continued vision of the prison ministry.
Thank you,
Cain Kellerman
