Thirty Eight at Estelle: The Story of Bethesda from a Texas Prison

Estelle is one of the largest state prisons of Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), located in Huntsville, Texas. It is a complex prison unit comprising of over three thousand offenders, and it also has the high security unit which houses some of the most violent male prisoners in the State of Texas. This book highlights author's personal experience of seeing the effects of human suffering, loss, and brokenness from a very real, close, and visible place at Estelle. Also being a Christian minister for last fifteen years has allowed Dr. Mathew to witness the struggles of many hearts at various places and stages of life. Yet nothing had prepared him for the raw, intense and rough fight for the human soul, inside the penitentiary and its dark effects within the community. From these places of darkness emerge the stories of some that have been touched, healed and transformed, because of an encounter with the Rabbi, the Teacher. The same Teacher, who saw, learned, asked, and changed a life, touched a human, redeemed a community, and healed the world when He met the man who lay paralyzed for thirty-eight long years at the pool of Bethesda. In this book, the narrative of the man from Bethesda is looked upon closely to understand the world in which he belonged to and the world in which he could not belong to. This ancient scripture unfolds the fears, selfishness, and injustice that surround our life within and without, and invites us to live a life differently as we see it lived by Jesus Christ, the Teacher.