“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” — 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, (NASB)

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Warren County Jail Chaplain Earnie Hall knows these New Testament verses by heart, and they in turn form the heart of his ministry.

In addition to the hours Hall spends each day talking and praying with prisoners at the jail, he runs a youth group each Thursday night for Vicksburg children whose lives have been nicked by contact with the barbed side of the criminal justice system.

Hall calls the youth group Children of the Most High, the title taken from Psalm 82, in which God encourages the psalmist to take care of the poor, the needy and the fatherless.

“We want them to identify with being the children of God rather than children of their neighborhood,” Hall said. Every one of the children has a family member who is or has been incarcerated, he said.

Hall has been, too. He endured his own set of troubles growing up and served time as a younger man, which he draws upon in his ministry, applying those verses from 2 Corinthians to treat the kids with compassion, empathy and dignity.

“The last thing we want them to do is end up where we’ve been,” Hall said last week, surveying a group of about 30 children, from infants to older teens, meeting in what he calls The Dream Center. The brick building with the wood floors on Clay Street is not fancy, but the goals the youth leaders have reach far beyond its walls — and Beyond Walls Ministry is the name by which Hall is known.

“We’re trying to put dreams in them,” said Anthony Clark, a member of Triumph Church and one of Hall’s helpers. Triumph owns the building and allows the youth group and other churches to use it for Bible studies and other faith-based functions. “We want to give them something to look forward to.”

Clark became a Christian as a teenager, wandering into a church where things were different — joyful, energetic, not what he thought church was going to be — and he wants the children in this youth group to experience that same transformation. “We want them to be changed.”

The program follows a basic structure. After about 20 minutes of “loud loose time” as the children arrive, visit with each other and move around the large front room, they are rounded up and brought into the back room, where folding chairs are arranged in curved rows around a stand-up microphone. Two or three of the youngsters volunteer to lead the opening prayer, then there is praise singing, Scripture reading and a message. The group ends with snack time and sometimes a craft.

“We’re trying to teach them to take these lessons back and be ministers in their own neighborhoods,” Hall said. “They really want to be a part of something; they want to be loved, to be a part of something positive.”

Though as many as 60 children came in the early days of the youth group, Hall said attendance has stabilized around a core group of about 25. The group has met in the Dream Center for about four months, but Hall has been working longer with some of the children.

Hall, Clark, music leader Steve Taylor and his wife, Christie, are all about building relationships with the kids, the foundation of ministering to them, helping them improve relationships in their lives and ultimately build an eternal relationship with God.

“When it seems like it’s hard, God will send someone to come along and walk beside you,” Clark told the children.

Last week’s guest speaker and frequent volunteer was Larry Terrell Fung, a Vicksburg resident who grew up in the Jackson area.

“He has been down that road, in prison,” Hall said of Fung. “He turned his life around and now he ministers in the jails and has done a lot of work in the community.”

As Fung took the stage and began reading from the Bible, some of the children sat in rapt attention. Others looked away, their attention wandering. Most were somewhere in between. But when he began to personalize the lesson, speaking of his own hard lessons, the children sat absolutely still and quiet, listening intently.

One 17-year-old, a student at Warren Central High School, said he attends each week “to praise Jesus and to learn.” He said he also gets courage from the lessons and prayer.

Hall, 46, has been in full-time ministry for six years but has been preaching off and on since the early ’80s. In addition to serving as jail chaplain, he is also a chaplain for Providence Hospice.

“We realize our limitations,” he said. “We’re just trying to plant a seed. I can’t change these kids. Only God can do that.”

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.