Seventeen-year-old Linda smoothed the wrinkles on her jeans and walked onto the dance floor. It was her first year in Tidewater Virginia’s public schools, and she desperately wanted to be part of the “in” crowd. She danced and drank with her friends until the night’s revelry was suddenly interrupted: Someone turned up the lights.

Dallen Peterson, a Prison Fellowship board member and the business entrepreneur who founded Merry Maids, has been involved in prison ministry since 1974. In his autobiographical book Rags, Riches, and Real Success, Peterson discusses the balance necessary to run a successful business and maintain a solid ministry. Jubilee Extra asked him to share his advice and experience in bringing the love of Jesus Christ to those behind bars.

I met Jeff Andrews in 1986, when we both were serving time in a federal prison in Connecticut. We worked together in the same area of the cable factory and, for a while, played on the same prison softball team. Jeff helped put together recreation programs and talent shows for the inmates. Years later, after losing touch completely, we discovered another connection: Jeff’s a volunteer with Prison Fellowship in Virginia; I’m a PF staff writer in the same state. It seemed only natural for us to get together…“