The 300 men and women divided into groups and deployed like commandos, moving quickly and efficiently into each cell at the Harris County Jail.

But these weren't soldiers or even police officers. Armed only with Bibles, Gospel tracts and a joyful spirit, the operatives at the jail on Friday were there to spread a message of God and hope to the inmates.

Organized by Mike Barber Ministries, a Christian ministry run by a former Houston Oiler, there's an elite prison evangelism event brewing at the jail this weekend. Something like the Olympics of jail evangelism events, it's called the Weekend of Excitement.

Until the end of today, hundreds of volunteer ministers and lay people will be leading worship services and doing personal counseling to spread the good news to the roughly 11,000 inmates housed at the jail.

“Whatever is meant for evil, God will change for good,” said Brandon Barber, Mike Barber's 28-year-old son who is helping to organize the weekend. “We've got brothers and we create friendships in here.”

The jail has a small staff of chaplains and a group of more than 100 religious volunteers from a variety of faiths who help minister to prisoners on a regular basis. And there are other similar evangelistic weekends the jail plays host to from time to time.

But the Barber event, which his ministry puts on at jails and prisons around the country each year, is among the biggest and grandest in Texas prison evangelism.

Spreading the Gospel in jail isn't for everyone. It often takes deep biblical knowledge, steely nerves and a strong stomach — a cell is far from a pleasant place.

But most of all, a good minister just needs to be able to listen.

Hands-on help

In the A-Pod on the jail's fifth floor, that's what Spring chiropractor Bill DeLoache Jr., a volunteer in Barber's ministry for the last seven years, was doing Friday as Donald Odom told his story.

“It's not easy, it's not easy,” Odom said. “I got caught up with the wrong person, got caught up in a mistake.”

Odom, who is in jail for a felony conviction of delivery of a controlled substance, said he's survived by reaching out to God. He's fashioned a small cross out of cloth and used a piece of string to create a Christian necklace. He's filled a plastic bag with religious books and says he tries to tell younger inmates to turn to Jesus for help.

As Odom finished talking, DeLoache grabbed his arm and began to pray for him.

DeLoache later sat on one of the pod's steel benches and began speaking to 40-year-old Earl Landry. The two prayed for salvation and DeLoache handed the prisoner a Gospel tract. On it he wrote “February 19, 2010.”

“That's freedom right there,” DeLoache said. “Today is the day you've been set free, today's the day you've been saved, brother.”

Landry said later that he hoped the prayer would be a catalyst to change his life.

“I've used drugs and broke the law,” Landry said later. “I hope this can make me do things different.”

In the jail's women's unit, 18-year-old Cheyeane Perez said she just wanted to be with her one-month-old baby. Perez, in trouble for violating her parole, has been on the run from the law for years.

Bonnie Klein, a secretary in Barber's ministry, teased out the teenager's worries: How Perez was bound for the Texas Youth Commission. How she was worried she wouldn't able to see her child.

“Pray with me and write to me,” Klein told her. “Get your life right with the Lord and your chances of making it are good.”

An ‘amazing' place

The ultimate aim of prison ministry is to reduce recidivism, but it also serves as a point of peace for the volunteers.

It's that way for Roy Gage, an 81-year-old who has spread the word in jail for the last three years and was helping to show Barber's volunteer preachers around.

“If you have a spirit of evangelism, it won't be difficult for you to evangelize here,” Gage said. “There are some amazing things in here and, despite what they've done, some amazing men too.”

moises.mendoza@chron.com