Retired pastor observes positive changes during prison ministry

    Bill Lewis is a familiar face in the community even though he was gone for a few years.
    Lewis was full-time pastor at Westside Church of Christ in Imperial for 11 years before retiring in June 2007.
    Lewis didn’t know it at the time, but the road would lead him into prison ministry.
    After retirement from full-time ministry, he passed the state educational courses to become a real estate broker and opened an office in Benkelman.
    He later went to work as a broker for a large national company for several years while still doing occasional ministry. At this time, he and his wife, Gen, lived in Wray, Colorado.
    During the latter years of the real estate business, a small church in Holyoke, Colorado lost their minister and asked him to fill in temporarily.
    While ministering at that church, a friend asked him to accompany him to the Sterling Correctional Facility where he was a part-time chaplain.
    The correctional facility housed 2,500 men at that time with all five levels of security.
    “It is a self-supporting city in its own,” said Lewis.

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