Our Editors

Thor has been married to his sweet wife, Trish since 1972.
They have 3 children and 10 grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

Thor Carden accepted Christ as his Savior in December 1973, and was called into the ministry March 2003. In April 2003, Thor initiated the Bibles for Soldiers Project, which donated Bibles to the military deployed in Iraq. Thor graduated Cum Laude with a Master of Arts Degree in Religion from Liberty University in January 2005. He served as a Volunteer Chaplain at Tennessee Christian Hospital from 2006 - 2007, holding two services every Sunday morning for the patients.

Since September, 2008, Thor and Trish have been focused on the jail ministry. Trish and Thor go once or twice a month to the local jail and hold worship services in rotation with other worship teams. Thor realized that this was insufficient to really disciple the men. We developed Bible lessons which we mail to the inmates and they mail back for personal feedback and instruction. They liked the lessons. Soon the number of students was overwhelming and we had to limit it to just the inmates we met face to face in our worship services. In January, 2014 we launched this website to begin to make those Bible lessons available to other jail or prison ministries, particularly pen pal ministries.

A Little More Background

Several years ago Pastor Thor and Trish began trying to start a church. In, Easter, 2004, when a family visited our church. They looked like good prospects and visited several times. Suddenly the father of the family was arrested and put in jail. He was accused of murdering a prostitute who was blackmailing him. Pastor Thor visited him in jail. A ministry there invited Pastor Thor to help them and he began going once a month to help with a worship service they gave weekly. Soon Trish joined him in this. In February, 2007, we branched out on our own and began going once a week to hold worship services in the jail.

After a month it was obvious that we needed to do more if we were going to have an impact. Pastor Thor started writing Sunday School lessons for the men to do on their own, and turn back into us at the services. The only part of the church ministry that really grew was the jail ministry. As God closed the doors of the church, He was opening a window into the jail ministry. In September, 2008, we decided to just concentrate on the jail ministry.

The men we minister to are waiting for trial. After a few months they are either set free or go to prison. Some of the ones who went to prison continued to take our lessons by mail. Word spread quickly and we soon had students in prisons from California to New Hampshire. God has truly blessed this work. As I said above, it became overwhelming and we had to refocus our ministry. It is our hope and prayer that God will use these Bible studies to bless many.

Age has caught up with us, and we are no longer active in prison ministry, but we have left these lessons here for those who might be able to use them for the glory of God. You can visit our personal web page at tntcarden.com/thor.htm