United Prison Ministries Intl

It was in 1980 when Richard and Carolyn Bland, founders of UPMI, were invited to visit a local prison in Alabama. After this visit the Holy Spirit convicted them that the inmates were hungering and thirsting to know about Jesus Christ. The Blands were impressed to give 200 copies of Desire of Ages and Steps to Christ to the prison chaplain for the inmates. The prison chaplain was so greatly impressed by these books that he requested one thousand more copies! This excited the Blands and it gave then the desire to do more. The Blands organized a small group of volunteers from several local churches. This was the beginning of United Prison Ministries. In just over a year UPM grew from one to nine prisons per week with 110 volunteers. In 1984, UPMI expanded to other states. In 1989, after visiting prisons in Russia, Romania, Ukraine, and Norway and giving them thousands of spiritual books, United Prison Ministries became United Prison Ministries International (UPMI). UPMI is currently reaching into over three thousand prisons in all 50 states and hundreds of prisons around the world such as Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Africa, India, Canada, France, Indonesia, Philippines, plus many more. UPMI has distributed more than 70 million Bible lessons, Bibles, and life changing books free of charge to prisoners around the world. Now, thousands of prisoners have made a decision for Christ and are keeping His Ten Commandments because of your prayers and giving.