By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
MOUNTAIN CITY — When Gale Hartley moved to Mountain City nearly five years ago to become pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, he discovered the church had an active prison ministry thanks to the passion of deacon Mike Long.
Long felt called by God to minister to prisoners at Northeast Correctional Complex where its minimum security annex holds approximately 300 offenders and an additional 180 at its Carter County Annex in Roan Mountain.
Long initiated the prison ministry at Bethany Baptist, Hartley said. “When I came he encouraged me to get involved. God had already dealt with my heart and called me to jail and prison ministry years ago while I pastored at East Side Baptist Church in Elizabethton before we went overseas with the International Mission Board,” he recalled. [Read more…]


