Rev. Aaron Johnson was tough. After all, he had survived being beaten and dragged from a segregated dime-store lunch counter. But it was the plight of prisoners in North Carolina that brought him to tears.
He had worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights movement. He held the position of Secretary of Corrections in his state. All of this prepared him for the moment in 1990, when he pleaded with Prison Fellowship’s leadership team to help him reach prisoners with the Gospel.
As told in his autobiography, Man from Macedonia, Rev. Johnson opened his mouth to start his appeal, but tears came instead. Moments later, the entire leadership team was weeping with him over the hopeless state of so many prisoners around the country.
When his voice returned, he said, “I am the man from Macedonia, and I’ve come to ask for your help.”
Echoing the Apostle Paul’s vision of a man in Macedonia begging him to come and help, Johnson’s request for in-prison evangelism sounded straightforward but enormous. He wanted to reach every prisoner in North Carolina with the Gospel—in just one week.
But could Rev. Johnson and Prison Fellowship pull off such an audacious plan?
Grayson Pope 