Ted Rios is the inmate that started the “Chosen Generation Inmate Church” at the Western Correctional Facility in Grants, New Mexico. God has since moved him to the farm at the Las Lunas facility which I believe he will start another church there in the Chapel. He is a powerful man of God and I am honored to call him friend.

Carolyn Evans

My name is Ted Rios and I am currently serving a prison term in the State of New Mexico. I’ve been in prison for the past ten years and still have two years left to do. I had been a Christian for many years but found myself in a backslidden state after the death of my first born son. I was angry at God for taking him at such a young age my life spiraled down from that point and once again I found myself hooked on heroin and facing prison for the fifth time. I wanted nothing to do with God anymore and I made it known to everyone I came across. But five years ago I walked into the prison Chapel to do a drug deal and by the end of the message I was down on my knees crying and asking God to forgive me. I rededicated my life right then and there and I haven’t been the same since. This may be hard to understand but I am so grateful that I am in prison today instead of dying out there in my sin. It is His Sovereign will being done in my life. His exact plan and purpose I stand in awe when I reflect on His unconditional love for me. Then He chose me before the very foundations of the world to be His child through and by the death of His Son on the cross.
Everything He has orchestrated in my life to date has been for the purpose of conforming me to the image of His dear Son. That means not only the blessings but every trial I’ve ever went through by His Grace alone, was all part of His Sovereign plan. Even all the people He has put in my path to help me reach that conformity has bee His will as well. And one of the many ministries I’m thankful for helping me become all that God has called me to be is Isaiah Ministries and all its volunteers. Most of society doesn’t realize the importance of prison ministry. Aside from heeding the words of our Lord about if you visit the prisoner you do it unto Him, but it also helps the prisoner make the transition back into society with faith, a sure foundation and a hope within his heart finally that he never knew existed.
Most of all I believe that God is raising up an army of believers in the prisons that will be equipped with His Word and go into the highways and by ways of the world and claim back the souls of the people who have no hope and give them the hope of Glory, Jesus the Christ. These prisoners who love God and hate sin who want to be part of what God is doing in the end times upon the earth have only one cause …Souls…
Therefore, I challenge you to be a part of or support financially the prison ministry within your church. If there isn’t one, I encourage you start one! The rewards are greater than all the labor. There are men and women in prison right now with the call of God on their lives waiting to be quickened in their spirit by God’s Word to fulfill that very call. I leave you with the verse found in Romans 10:14 How will they know unless they first hear by someone taking the Gospel to them in the prison.
In Christ Alone,
Ted RiosUpdate: Ted has been released from prison, and is now the director over Chosen Treasures, a men's reintegration home in Alamogordo, NM.