Amanda Cheatwood
Nov 1, 2025
He remembers August 11, 1998—the day he walked into a prison cell block where men in orange jumpsuits were holding hands and singing. They broke their circle and made room for one more. Chris lifted his face and let years of exhaustion spill out in tears. That’s the day everything turned.
“I’d tried everything else,” he said. “Relationships, drugs, my own way. My best thinking landed me in prison. Why not give God a try?”
What followed wasn’t a single moment. It was a steady rebuild—class by class, job by job, yes by yes—until the man who couldn’t quit became the man others now call when they’re ready to try again.
Today Chris serves with ABEL Ministries, a work that grew out of ABEL Electric, founded by Joshua Vandusseldorp. Chris didn’t start it—he joined it. Two men chasing the same runaway met at the same door and realized they shared the same assignment.
“We see an individual and God sees an army,” Chris said. “We see a tree and God sees a forest. He just needs our yes.”
Preparation in Unlikely Places
Before the truck routes and jail visits, there was a lawn mower. Chris worked as the warden’s landscape guy—“the head honcho,” as he puts it. He trimmed hedges, watered grass, and planted flowers. Most days ended the same way: the warden coming out to the back porch with a tray and two glasses of ice water. They’d sit, talk, and build a kind of trust few inmates ever experience.
That relationship opened doors no one expects for a man serving a fifteen-year sentence. Chris joined Inmates Making a Difference, a team allowed to travel to Alabama schools and churches to share their story and sing gospel music. He calls it “crazy favor.” It was preparation for what came next.
That relationship opened doors no one expects for a man serving a fifteen-year sentence.
Inside, he took on everything he could: choir, praise team, skit team, and classes. He earned an associate’s degree in business, a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), and a personal training certification—“a whole stack of things.” His mother had always prayed he’d sing in a choir. She was right—just not about which choir.
“When you surrender,” he said, “the Lord opens up abilities you never imagined.”
When you surrender, the Lord opens up abilities you never imagined.
The Delivery Route That Became a Ministry Route
After release, Chris didn’t step onto a platform. He climbed into a FedEx truck. Six years behind the wheel with his Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) gave him something rare for men with records—stability. It also gave him a route with a hundred stops a day: loading docks, office counters, and front doors. He wore a Bluetooth so he could pray and encourage people between deliveries. Friends from church called about sons or husbands who were spiraling. Pastors called about men the church couldn’t reach. He took every call.
One of those calls changed his life. A mom reached out about her son. Chris poured into him for months while driving his route. The young man left Atlanta for Columbus and got a job at ABEL Electric. When he relapsed, two people started looking for him from opposite directions: the owner of ABEL Electric, Joshua (Josh) Vandusseldorp—who had started ABEL Ministries—and Chris, the FedEx driver who wouldn’t stop calling.
The two met, and their shared heart for broken men became a partnership. Josh had a business to run and a stack of letters from county jails he couldn’t answer. He prayed for help and felt permission to bring someone on to pastor the ministry side. Chris prayed, talked with his wife, and hung up his keys. He joined ABEL more than six years ago.
“It’s been a blessing,” he said.
Rescue. Equip. Send.
Rescue begins in county jails—four right now, two in Georgia and two in Alabama—where ABEL teams show up every week. It also starts on sidewalks and porches when parents call, or when a man finally answers the number he’s had for months. “Not everyone we help comes through a jail door,” Chris said. “But most of them are trapped in the same cycles—incarceration, addiction, hopelessness.”
Equip happens on two tracks—practical skills and spiritual growth.
On the practical side, ABEL Groups places men in trades that build confidence and provide a future: electrical, HVAC, painting, construction, and a growing auto mechanic program with its own dedicated bays. They also partner with businesses like Turner Fence to give men opportunities to learn and earn.
On the spiritual side, everything is shaped by four core pillars, in this order:
Repentance — turning away from destructive patterns
Faith — trusting God to rebuild what was broken
Identity — learning who they are in Christ
Community — walking out transformation with brothers beside them
“We’re in the Word every day,” Chris said. “Monday through Friday, service from six to seven before the workday begins.” Classes continue through the week, reinforcing those pillars until they form a man’s new foundation.
ABEL has also seen that when men embrace life in the Spirit—prayer, obedience, and a willingness to follow God’s lead—their long-term outcomes shift dramatically. “Identity and community are powerful,” Chris said. “When a man knows who he is and he isn’t walking alone anymore, everything starts to change.”
Once a man is rooted in those four pillars, it’s time to send him—into work, into the community, into purpose. A job. A church. An apartment. A child’s school event. The simple responsibilities that become a brand-new story.
“No ribbon cutting,” Chris said. “Just a quiet restart built on the right foundation.”
When Mental Health Walks Through the Door
Some men arrive with multiple diagnoses and a plastic bag full of medication. ABEL isn’t a medical facility, and Chris doesn’t pretend it is. “We partner with places that are,” he said. “Sometimes we’re not the right fit, and we make that call early.”
He’s also seen many so-called mental health issues change once a man gets sober and safe. “A lot of labels come from the life—drugs, toxic relationships, chaos,” he said. “When a man clears his mind and starts walking in truth, you can see the difference.”
The one thing ABEL can’t give anyone is desire. “You’ve got to want help,” he said. “We can’t want it more than they do.”
Bread, a Back Injury, and an Entire Family
One of Chris’s favorite stories from his time in federal prison began with two slices of bread.
He met a young man there the Lord highlighted to him. Chris didn’t preach; he listened, walked with him, and gave him bread when he was hungry—even when other inmates mocked him for it. “For God’s sake,” he thought, “it’s bread.”
One day he saw the young man in the chow hall, bent over and in pain. A back injury from the weight room had left him desperate. Out of options, he agreed to let Chris pray. Chris opened the Gospels and showed him what Jesus actually did with the sick. “Believers will lay hands on the sick and they will recover,” he told him.
The pain didn’t vanish immediately, but within three days, it was gone.
“Healing sometimes looks like that,” Chris said. “Not instant—just gone.”
Pain relief became trust. Trust became salvation. Salvation became water baptism. Then came the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Pain relief became trust. Trust became salvation. Salvation became water baptism. Then came the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Before the young man left prison, his mother and sister both gave their lives to Jesus. He went on to Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Atlanta, wrote several books, joined Jesus Image in Orlando, and with his wife, was asked to help start a new ministry in California.
“It all started with bread,” Chris said. “We see an individual. God sees an army.”
Chaplain in a Hard Place
As a jail chaplain, Chris starts by listening. “Be quick to listen, slow to speak,” he said. “Every story’s different.” He uses the Word to point people toward hope.
He remembers being 28 and overwhelmed by anxiety. An elder taught him how to use Scripture as a weapon—how to take God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind and fight back until light pushes away the dark. He tried it, and it worked. That was 1999. He’s been teaching it ever since.
The Day It All Shifted
Ask Chris when his life truly changed, and he goes back to that prison cell block in 1998. He had been adopted from foster care and raised by Christian parents, but had rebelled for years. On that day, he surrendered completely.
“It felt like a heart transplant,” he said. “Stone out, flesh in.” He started writing letters to people he had wronged, apologizing and reconciling. “When I was in the world, I didn’t hold back,” he said. “Why would I give God less?”
Growth took time, but willingness moved him forward. “He puts His super on our natural,” he said. “Then you start doing things you never imagined.”
When It Hurts the Most
The hardest part of ministry, Chris said, is watching someone you’ve poured into fall back. It never gets easier.
He’s learned to let go of what isn’t his responsibility. “It’s not my job to give the increase,” he said. “That’s God’s. My job is to sow, to water, to be faithful. God’s waiting on cooperation. He won’t override a man’s will.”
He keeps casting his cares on God, again and again, until peace returns. “As soon as a prodigal turns,” he said, “the Father runs.”
A Model Built to Share
ABEL’s leaders want to spread their model, not their brand. “This belongs to God,” Chris said. “It doesn’t have to have our name on it.” The dream is to hand off what’s working—structure, rhythm, and lessons learned—to other ministries and communities across the country.
“We’re a body,” he said. “Every part matters.”
The dream is to hand off what’s working—structure, rhythm, and lessons learned—to other ministries and communities across the country.
The Heart of His Message: God’s Love Still Reaches
“God loves you,” Chris said. “Not when you have it all together—He loved you while you were still a sinner. The same Jesus who carried our guilt made us the righteousness of God in Christ. That means freedom from fear, from oppression, from terror. No weapon formed against us will prosper. Believe that love. Live from it.”
He leaned forward. “He’s not mad at you. His gifts and callings are irrevocABEL. If we miss it, He doesn’t cancel the plan. He’s patient. He’s waiting on our surrender so He can walk us into what He’s had ready for us all along.”
He’s not mad at you. His gifts and callings are irrevocABEL. If we miss it, He doesn’t cancel the plan. He’s patient. He’s waiting on our surrender so He can walk us into what He’s had ready for us all along.
A Prayer for the Road
Before leaving, Chris prayed. He thanked God for His goodness, asked Him to draw close to anyone who didn’t know Him, and to pull those who do even closer. He prayed for growth, for strength, and for the Kingdom to break in through everyday lives.
Chris Cloud didn’t found ABEL Ministries. Josh did. Chris just brought his yes. From pre-dawn chapel to job sites and county jails, he and the ABEL team are doing what they do best—rescuing, equipping, and sending—one man at a time, one yes at a time. And somewhere, a mother will tell a friend that it all started with two slices of bread.
For more information and to partner with ABEL Ministries, visit www.abelministries.org.
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