Lee honored for his role in creating the Pearl River County Prisoner’s Ministry

Published 7:00 am Friday, March 3, 2017

As a youngster, Paul Lee had everything a kid from Leetown could ever ask for, including a love for his Lord and Savior.
That love eventually led him to meet his wife, become a pastor and help form the Pearl River County Prison Ministry.
Lee grew up working on the 820-acre family farm alongside his father, Chester Lee, before serving in the Mississippi National Guard and the U.S. Marine Corps from 1956-1962. Upon his return, Lee went back to his roots, tending the farm, which ended up changing his life forever.
While plowing soybeans in the field on the family farm on July 24, 1966, Lee experienced a perpetual urge.
“I stopped everything I was doing, knelt down on the soil and surrendered myself to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Lee said.
Three days later, Mississippi licensed him to do what only 23 other people have done since 1928, preach the gospel at Lee’s Chapel #2 Baptist Church in Leetown, he said.
On May 4, 1973, God led Lee’s father to begin the Prisoner’s Bible Crusade, a ministry that provided Bibles to prison inmates around the nation. Lee became a Board member of the ministry. After Lee’s father passed away in 1985, Lee became director of the PBC until 2000. Then, Lee took what he learned through his experiences as the director to build a prison ministry for Pearl River County.
“Paul was the main leader and initiator in forming the Pearl River County Prison Ministry,” Carl Myers, administrator of the ministry, said. “He didn’t just organize the ministry, he was also very involved in training others to do what he did.”
Lee said it seemed like the prisoners in Pearl River County at the time were taught everything but the gospel. So he wanted to change that; but he initially did not know how much of a change he would end up making in thousands of lives.
To this day, the ministry has given 243,684 Bibles to prisons and jails, 67,475 New Testaments, 64,818 study books and 183,578 Bible study sessions, Lee said.
“I’m just a plowboy from Leetown, Mississippi who got lucky enough to meet such a wonderful woman, my wife Gretchen, and who was chosen by the Lord to take on this task,” Lee said. “If it weren’t for Gretchen pushing me and being there when I needed it, and for God’s blessing, I would not have been able to accomplish any of this.”
Lee was recently honored for being the instrumental force in creating the Pearl River County Prison Ministry, Myers said, along with many other devoted minister volunteers.
Lee said he hopes that more people will take on the Lord’s message and spread the gospel to those in need.
Members of the ministry recently honored Lee for his work in establishing the organization with the presentation of a plaque.

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