The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry for women is located at the Hobby Unit for Women, in Marlin (30 minutes south of Waco).  The historic first class of women, the 30 women of the class of 2025, are nearing completion of their freshman year of study.  

“Seeing is believing.” There is no more powerful proof of that old expression than to go into a men’s maximum-security prison with us.  We often take new friends of our work into the prisons to visit our Field Ministers. We often take donors as well. And our visitors encounter experiences they never could have imagined. 

Studies show that the illiteracy rate in prisons is as high as 70%. The Field Ministers skillfully teach men and women to read. Learning to read requires a great deal of vulnerability and trust on the part of the student. The Field Ministers, as men and women of God, patiently and kindly teach their peers how to read throuh the Field Ministers Reading Acceleration Center. Throughout the instruction time, the Field Ministers have the opportunity to pray with their student, listen to them, extend godly counsel, and display the heart of Christ as they share the good news of Christ.

What drives us in this calling?  It is to take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the darkest of places. For us, those places are where men and women in solitary confinement live out their days, and often years, alone unless their heart changes. They are not alone any more. The Texas Department of Criminial Justice allows a new kind of man and a new kind of woman to show up at the cell door to visit—a godly peer carrying the good news of Jesus Christ called a Field Minister now takes faith, hope, and love from cell to cell.

Since 2011, the Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry has spearheaded the vision for Field Ministers in Texas. It is a privilege, as the college, to provide the education of men and women with long prison sentences toward the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry.