Our History

BRIEF OVERVIEW

ARM began ministering to prisoners in the United States in 1973. At the time, there were only 234,000 people in the nation’s prison population, where it had consistently hovered since the 1940s. Today, ARM ministers domestically to more than 1.8 million people who are incarcerated in America’s 1,500 state and federal prisons, and another half-million inmates occupying the nation’s 3,200 jails.

Beginning in 2001, ARM expanded its efforts internationally, beginning with a prison in Mexico and subsequently expanding to Africa, India, and Russia. Later, branch ministries were added in Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines. Today, ARM takes the Gospel into jails and prison cells in two international branch ministry locations (Cambodia and the Philippines).

FOUNDER’S STORY

Joe R. Garman is founder and president of ARM. He is a graduate of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO. Joe and his wife, Linda, were serving as missionaries to Korea in 1969 when a U.S. military chaplain told them about four American servicemen who were incarcerated in a Korean prison. With great fear and trembling, the Garmans entered their first prison, halfway around the world.

A great love for these American prisoners developed and Joe began going to the prison to visit them on a regular basis. The warden subsequently asked Joe if he also would consider visiting the Korean prisoners. Word quickly spread that an American missionary was willing to minister to Korean prisoners and Joe found himself in full-time prison and reformatory ministry throughout the Republic of Korea, commonly known as South Korea.

After the Korean prison ministry was firmly established, Joe and Linda turned the ministry over to the local churches and moved to serve as missionaries in Israel. When Israeli authorities refused to renew the Garman’s visas, they returned stateside to found American Rehabilitation Ministries and ARM Prison Outreach International.

ARM is an ordinary mission that God is using to accomplish extraordinary things. We stand amazed as we look back and see the valleys and mountaintops, discouragement and elation, pitfalls and stepping stones God has led us through. We believe that continual, fervent prayer is the secret to the fruitfulness and vitality of this mission work.

Call it what you will: awakening, renewal, revival. There is a very real moving of the Holy Spirit in many prisoners’ hearts today. Young and old, they are discovering that God wants to change their circumstances, their lifestyles, and their eternal destination. We solicit your prayers and monetary contributions as we continue this important work.