God transforms prison inmate into prison minister
Prison inmates used to tremble whenever John Foster was near. He was a big man full of anger. At one point, corrections officials wouldn’t even give him a cellmate for fear of what he might do.
Today, Foster is a totally different person. The 58-year-old is gentle, soft-spoken, and loving. And he has dedicated his life to bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to imprisoned men and women across Minnesota and North Dakota.
Foster works as the Prison Reentry Coordinator for The Salvation Army Northern Division’s prison ministry team. His job includes leading church services inside of North Dakota prisons, and providing resources for men and women who have been released from prison in the Twin Cities, Greater Minnesota, and North Dakota.
Foster is good at his job because he knows from experience just how difficult it is to survive prison. He spent 24 years in and out of juvenile institutions and prisons, including an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence for armed robbery and a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for violating his probation.
Foster’s past troubles were the result of being raised in an abusive home; his mother never once told him “I love you” and his stepfather was a mean alcoholic.
“I’m humbled by how God is taking all of my bad experiences and poor choices and using them for His glory,” Foster said.
Miracle moments
Foster’s life changed one night in 2003 while he was in solitary confinement. He’d be sent there after getting caught with drugs.
That night at about 3 a.m., Foster laid awake on his bunk in pitch blackness and total silence, reflecting on his life.
Suddenly, God showed up.
“God started showing me the faces of all the people I’d hurt, injured or harmed during my lifetime,” Foster said. “One by one, their faces were popping into my head in frames. I began to weep.”
At the time, Foster didn’t know much about God. But he could feel God’s undeniable presence, and he knew for certain that he was not imagining things.
Foster responded with this prayer: “I told God, ‘I don’t know you, but if you can do what they say you can do, then I promise to serve you from this day forward. If you can take away my guilt, my rage, and my resentment, I’ll know you’re real.”
Slowly, God’s presence slipped away. Although Foster was alone in solitary confinement, for the first time ever, he did not feel alone.
“A peace fell over me in that cell,” Foster said. “Even though I was behind bars, I felt more free than I’d ever felt in my life.”
Soon, strange and wonderful things began to happen to Foster. The first event occurred three days later, when prison officials inexplicably released him from solitary confinement almost three months early.
“When that happened, God really got my attention,” Foster said.
A few days after that, God spoke to Foster again – this time during a game of poker.
“Poker was a means of making money, and out of habit, I’d say yes when my friends asked me to play,” Foster recalled. “But when I started playing, I kept hearing a voice say, ‘Remember what you promised.’ It was weirding me out. So I threw the cards down and quit.”
The following Sunday morning, God’s voice returned again.
“He told me to get my clothes on and go to church,” Foster said. “During the church service, it’s like the pastor was talking directly to me. I was crying the entire time.”
Foster went on to launch a Bible study in a prison ward that housed the prison’s most violent offenders. At first, the Bible study included Foster and one other man.
“By the time I left prison, there were 30 or 40 men coming to that Bible study,” Foster said.
Path to success
Soon after Foster was released from prison in 2006, he began living in a small town in Ohio, where a local pastor and his wife welcomed him into their home and ministered to him for a year.
In 2008, the pastor and his congregation raised enough money to send Foster to The Salvation Army Harbor Light Shelter in Minneapolis, which at the time offered a unique one-year residential program for men who wanted to learn how God intended them to live.
Foster graduated from the program in 2009 and was hired as a maintenance worker at the North Minneapolis Salvation Army. In 2011 he started the first of nine years working at the Harbor Light Center (pictured in 2011), including five years as a security officer and three years as volunteer coordinator.
In May 2019 Foster began his current job in prison ministry. So far, he loves it.
“Every hand that God has allowed me to shake, and every person I’ve met, has led me to this moment,” Foster said.
Some of his job duties include:
- Helps lead a Thursday night support group for men and women who have recently been released from prison (pictured right). These events provide food, clothing, spiritual guidance, and other support. All are welcome to attend these meetings, held Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. at the North Minneapolis Salvation Army, 2024 Lyndale Ave. N.
- Preaching in North Dakota prisons once per month.
- Leads a Bible study at Harbor Light every Saturday.
- Provides one-on-one support for men enrolled at The Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center in Minneapolis – which provides free residential addiction recovery for men.
Foster enjoys his job because he never knows what each day will bring. Last week, for example, he received a call from a man he didn’t know; the man was scared and frantic, saying he needed help and that somebody had given him Foster’s name and number.
Foster picked up the man and brought him to The Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center, where the man is now receiving addiction counseling. Foster stops by to support him regularly.
“I’m not surprised that a stranger called me for help, because I’ve circulated a lot of my cards around the city,” Foster said. “I’m amazed by the position that God has put me in to help people – especially after all the things that happened in my life. I always tell people that God doesn’t waste anything.”
Foster now lives in the northern Twin Cities suburbs with his wife. He has two sons: one in Ohio who works as a radio personality, and a step-son who lives in Texas and works as a television reporter.
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