American Rehabilitation Ministries (ARM) is located in Joplin, MO. Its primary mission is to bring the good news of salvation to those in prison.
ARM began ministering to prisoners in the United States in 1973 when there were only 234,000 people in the nation’s prison population, where it had consistently hovered since the 1940s. Today, ARM ministers domestically to more than 1.2 million people who are incarcerated in America’s 1,500 state and federal prisons, and another half-million inmates occupying the nation’s 3,200 jails.
Beginning in 2001, ARM expanded its efforts internationally, beginning with a prison in Mexico and subsequently expanding to Africa, India and Russia. Later, branch ministries were added in Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines. Today, ARM takes the Gospel into jails and prison cells on six continents and it has five international branch ministry locations.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN – ARM’s HISTORY
Joe R. Garman is founder of ARM. He is a graduate of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO.
Joe and his wife, Linda, were serving as missionaries to Korea in 1969 when a U.S. military chaplain told them about four American servicemen who were incarcerated in a Korean prison. With great fear and trembling, the Garmans entered their first prison, halfway around the world.
A great love for these American prisoners developed and Joe began going to the prison to visit them on a regular basis. The warden subsequently asked Joe if he also would consider visiting the Korean prisoners. Word quickly spread that an American missionary was willing to minister to Korean prisoners and Joe found himself in full-time prison and reformatory ministry throughout the Republic of Korea, commonly known as South Korea.
After the Korean prison ministry was firmly established, Joe and Linda turned the ministry over to the local churches and moved to serve as missionaries in Israel. When Israeli authorities refused to renew the Garmans’ visas, they returned stateside to found American Rehabilitation Ministries and ARM Prison Outreach International.
ARM is an ordinary mission that God is using to accomplish extraordinary things. We stand amazed as we look back and see the valleys and mountaintops, discouragement and elation, pitfalls and stepping stones God has led us through. We believe that continual, fervent prayer is the secret to the fruitfulness and vitality of this mission work.
Call it what you will: awakening, renewal, revival. There is a very real moving of the Holy Spirit in many prisoners’ hearts today. Young and old, they are discovering that God wants to change their circumstances, their lifestyles, and their eternal destination. We solicit your prayers and monetary contributions as we continue this important work.
BRANCH MINISTRIES
ARM currently has 2 International Branch Prison Ministry Locations:
CAMBODIA:
WOMAN’S ISLAND
Sokha Sath, Director
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
email: sathsokha@yahoo.com
PHILIPPINES:
Ernesto Ochoa Alocelja, Director
Digos City, Philippines
email: alocelja@yahoo.com
Statement of Faith
- We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the deity and supreme authority of Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, sinless life, atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal return in power and glory.
- We believe without reservation in the full and final inspiration of the Bible, that is the infallible Word of God, and thus the all- sufficient rule of faith and life.
- We believe in the reality of final judgment, heaven and hell as taught in the Bible.
- We believe in the divine origin and character of the church, and in the restoration of its unity and practice on the New Testament basis.
- We believe man is saved by the grace of God through faith, and that as taught in Scripture, man’s faith involves repentance of sin, confession of faith in Christ, baptism by immersion in water, and a life of faithfulness to Jesus and His Word.