By Hudson Driver –
An app just for prisoners has brought 977,000 salvations in correctional facilities in 33 states.
The Pando app, downloaded on 535,000 prison tablets and viewed 500M times to date, has Bible stories, testimonies, 200 books, faith-based movies. While anyone can download the free app, it is designed specifically for inmates.
“I just want to do the craziest things before I die,” says the app’s designer Isaac Holt with God Behind Bars ministry.
Incredibly, he’s not a coder; he’s a marketing expert.
“I’m great at project managing and seeing problems and finding the right person to fix that problem,” says Isaac, 30.
The app launched in 2021 in Florida. In one of the “problems” that needed fixing, it wasn’t caching correctly. Fortunately, ChatGPT came along and solved the problem, he says.
The app is named for the pando, the quaking aspens of 47,000 trunks that is actually just one genetic organism in Sevier County, UT. Depending on how you classify trees, it is the world’s largest tree weighing 6,000 tons.
Genetically, it’s the same tree that spread by shooting roots and popping up clones. The trunks cover 106 acres. The interconnected root system and reproduction of new trunks (appearing to be individual trees) was the idea of what God Behind Bars wanted to do.
“The largest living organism is the pando,” Isaac says.
God Behind Bars CEO Jake Bodine pressed Isaac to design Pando. At the time, Isaac was running a marketing company full time and wasn’t sure if he could commit fully to the undertaking – until he read Habakkuk 2:2 KJV:
“Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it.”
Isaac knew the app would be used on secure, prison-dispensed tablets. Prisoner are not allowed to have cell phones. When he saw the word “tablet,” it hit him like a thunderbolt.
It was his burning bush.
Immediately he called Jake: “OK, I’m all in.”
Isaac received Jesus in high school, which is a bit surprising being so late, as he was a PK, a pastor’s kid.
The Colorado Springs native grew up knowing about Jesus but never accepting him. “I never really understood why Jesus died on the cross,” he says. “I thought I’m a good person.”
But when he transitioned from home schooling into high school, he had trouble fitting in and felt deeply depressed. Then he tore his shoulder labrum playing baseball and was in a sling for three months.
One day, his dad told him: “God is going to heal you.”
Isaac was skeptical. But when he woke up, all the pain was gone. He had full use of his arm. He began playing baseball again the next day.
“My arm was completely healed,” he remembers. “I didn’t need surgery.”
Suddenly the love of God became more than an abstract concept. He’s been in church and ministry since. Invited to participate in prison outreach, he fell in love with the ministry.
“Everything you do makes an impact and matters. Showing up is 90% of it,” he says. “Even if nothing works, the sound equipment doesn’t work, if we just bring the joy of Jesus into this prison, hearts will shift.”
He’s participated in daddy-daughter events at San Quentin and concerts and revival in Jackson, MS.
One prisoner sleeps with Pando playing worship music softly under his pillow. Another prisoner, released in Florida, got on a bus to North Carolina to join the Pando-affiliated churches. They hooked him up with housing, a job and Jesus.
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