Story of the Week: A Life Marked By Love

Jose has served twenty-five years of a life sentence at Ark Valley. It’s a sentence that would break many men. Instead, Jose shows love to everyone he meets.

There is a shortage of many things in prison. Love is one of them. However, if you meet Jose Peña, you’ll witness an inmate who has chosen a different path — a man who understands what it means to love intentionally.

Jose has served twenty-five years of a life sentence. It’s a sentence that would break many men. Instead, Jose carries joy to everyone he meets.

In his prison role as a Mental Health Peer Assistant, he has the unique privilege of being able to enter any building in Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, where he helps those suffering from mental illness. That includes men in solitary confinement.

Jose says, “I use this platform to share the gospel, especially when they call me to segregation (solitary confinement). That has a special place in my heart.”

In Jose’s early years, it was hard to foresee the life of love he lives today. Hope was in short supply.

ON THE RUN

Both of Jose’s parents were working two jobs and had little time left over. In the ninth grade, Jose became a father. With all his male role models addicted to alcohol or drugs, he followed their path and began dealing.

Jose confesses, “By the time I was 18, I’d broken all ten commandments.” Wanted by Colorado, Texas and Mexican authorities, he spent a decade on the run.

In January 2001, he was arrested and spent a year in county jail. He passed time by “fighting off Christians who were on a pursuit to tell me about Jesus.” Jose recalls, “I wanted nothing to do with God or Christians. I called them cowards. I told them there is no God. But two of them wouldn’t give up on me.”

One day as these two men were eating in the chow hall with their Bibles open, they asked if they could pray for Jose. Driven by a life of anger, he chose that moment to teach the two a lesson.

RIVERS OF TEARS

He attacked the two inmates, striking one with a tray and slicing the man’s face. As the guards subdued Jose, the man, bleeding profusely, placed his marked-up Bible with Jose’s property. That night was Jose’s first experience in solitary.

After a long cold night in the hole, an officer brought him his property. Jose said, “That’s not my Bible. I don’t want it.” The officer told him who it came from, saying, “Keep it. It will change your life.”

“Alone with that Bible, I had no clue what an Old Testament or New Testament was. I didn’t understand why there were so many Johns,” Jose recalls with a smile.

Then he stumbled on the words of 1 Cor. 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Jose says, “I prayed for the first time: ‘God, if You are real, take away my desire for suicide.’ Rivers of tears came.”

AT THE CROSSROADS

God continued to author Jose’s story, even as he moved to a new location. “In 2002, I was transferred to Ark Valley with a life sentence. It would become my home, my church, the place I would serve God,” he says.

Jose encountered a lot of gang violence in his new home. He also encountered Chaplain Patterson, who told him he had two choices; follow Jesus or become a gang member. The chaplain told him, “Both will be difficult.” Jose made the pivotal decision to follow Jesus for the rest of his life.

He became involved with a ministry called Ark Valley Christian Fellowship, and found an inmate mentor named William Sofa. William had Jose read the Bible to him an hour each day.

Jose shares, “My character and language had changed. Principles of scripture began coming alive in my life. I began teaching our Spanish community in Ark Valley.”

LEADING LIKE JESUS

In August of 2018, Jose’s Christian community at Ark Valley became a Woodmen campus. It was a natural step, as the men had been worshiping and learning along with Woodmen services for a while and Woodmen ministry partners had established deep connections with the Ark Valley guys. Jose says, “I’ve never been more empowered than I have with Woodmen. I’ve learned to lead from the bottom up.”

In addition to his work with mental health, Jose is involved with CrossFit, allowing him to reach men who may not come to church. He disciples many men in the Ark Valley congregation. He says, “Not a day goes by that I’m not pouring into my brothers.”

After 25 years in prison, there’s a possibility Jose could gain release. Many years ago, a female sheriff told him, “You will be a Paul in prison. And when you get out, you’ll know it’s God’s doing and not yours.”

The first part of that statement has come true. The rest of it is still in God’s hands. For his part, Jose remains committed to living a life marked by loving well and changing lives through Christ. He shares, “I believe our lead team [of inmates] is making a huge difference in this place. We continue to glorify God in the building of His kingdom. I believe that when each of us leaves prison, we’ll be well equipped to be better sons, husbands, fathers and leaders.”

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