Out of the darkness, Frank Gossett saw a great light.

And for seven years, the light has guided Gossett’s path.

For some four years, Gossett has been in full-time ministry. He is the assistant chaplain at William C. Holman Correctional Facility through the We Care Program, and has his own ministry called Breaking Every Chain.

“I felt like that there was always a calling on my life, but I’ve run from it for so many years,” Gossett said. “While I was in prison, I was involved in seminary classes. I preached in the chapel and on the yard. That was a God thing.”

Gossett said he quit school because he hated speaking in front of people.

Gossett started drinking at 8 years old, and using drugs at 11. He started selling drugs at 15 to support his habit.

Before prison, he was a steel fabricator.

“I did custom trucks and motorcycles,” Gossett said. “I did that for the biggest part of my life. I still enjoy doing it. I do stuff in my yard.

“To make a long story short, 40 years of my life was devoted to drugs and alcohol,” he said.

He said it got so bad that he was trying to support at $200-$300-a-day cocaine problem.

“When you’re doing it every day and it’s the only way to function, it came to stealing from my family, robbing people, stealing from my employers; doing whatever I had to do to satisfy my problem,” Gossett said.

Gossett went to prison for the first time in 2001 and then again in 2006. While in prison, a man was put in his path that was serving two life sentences for the same crimes he had committed.

The inmate prayed for Gossett, and Gossett rededicated his life to Christ on Feb. 5, 2008. He was pardoned by the Lord and began to minister to men in prison.

At present, Gossett is the faith dorm director at Holman.

Gossett said God opened up doors for him to go back to prison and share his faith.

The We Care president at the time suggested Gossett go back to prison and minister to the inmates there before he realized he might be going back for good anyway.

“It hadn’t been too long before that before I was going to go back to prison,” he said. “I realized I had one charge still pending, and one charge that carried life without because I was a habitual offender.”

Gossett said while working at Ramey’s, or Food World back then, he told God one day that he’d be willing to go back to prison, whether as an inmate or a minister.

“’I’m willing to do what you want,’” he told God.

Gossett’s lawyer spoke with the judge trying his case, which resulted in him having to pay $18,300 in fines and restitution.

Within three months, those fines were paid off.

“God was showing me yeah, I want you to go back to prison and be an example of what I can do in their lives,” Gossett said.

During a normal week, Gossett spends his time at Holman and Century Correctional Facility. He is in Century on Thursdays teaching classes on recovery, does death row and general population services once a month.

He also helps in the main office on death notifications.

In the faith dorm at Holman, he provides help with guys who are struggling to cope with things.

“It’s very rewarding to me to be able to go in there every day,” he said.

Through his work as a minister, Gossett said he’s had some success stories, including one inmate who turned his life around.

Gossett said the inmate had such good behavior that he was transferred from Holman to a lower security facility, and had led 25 others to the Lord.

“My biggest encouragement in them is that you can look at facts at paper all day long, but the truth is Jesus Christ came to set the prisoner free,” he said. “It’s my desire to bring that hope to them, that there is still a chance.”