Eyes Not Lifted
The mission
to equip incarcerated believers for ministry through academic biblical education and resources
About us
The Need For Academic Biblical Courses
Eyes Not Lifted is a one family prison ministry. The husband-and-wife team David (M. Div.) and Stephanie (MATS) are passionate about brining academic biblical studies to inmates. We have been absolutely astounded by the passion of inmates for serious academic biblical studies. Despite the incredible limitations and obstacles, there are many inmates who do what they can to teach themselves, biblical Greek, Hebrew, exegesis, history, etc. On the outside, anyone could simple go to take an on-line course to do this. In prison, these courses are simply not available.
Initial Success
In 2021-2022 we tested three academic courses in-person; Biblical Exegesis, Greek 1 and Romans. All were retooled academic courses taught at undergraduate and graduate levels - the same material one would receive at a university. The courses were a hit. We had filled the chapel with 30 students. Even after the courses were complete, students continued on with their own Greek studies. Over a year later our Greek students are now teaching their own courses.
The Future
Our desire is to utilize the recent wave of rehabilitation focused programs in prisons to make serious academic biblical studies available to inmates across the US via inmate tablets through apps such as Edovo. We have currently completed Greek 1 and 2 and are working on a Biblical Backgrounds course that introduces students to biblical history, geography and archeology. Eventually we dream of having a full Bachelors of Arts program available to inmates at no cost to them.
Where Are We Now?
For now, we’re just getting started. The Greek 1 and 2 courses are done and ready to get to inmates. We are working to find partners to help us get this content to inmates. We are also currently developing more courses and getting textbooks to inmates who are teaching themselves. In hopes to garner support we have also started a podcast to discuss what the Christian life is like in prison and the development of our little ministry.
What are we up to?
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Blog
Anything involving the system is slow, but we’ll keep posting updates as we grow our ministry.
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Greek 1 Preview
Check out a selection of our Greek I for inmates course.
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Podcast
We take calls from inmates and talk about life, coming to faith, doing ministry and living as a believer in prison.