The Lord led Phil and Carole Wagner to found Set Free Prison Ministries in 1977 in Chicago while Phil served there as a chaplain in the Cook County Jail. Since then, they have been used of the Lord to establish thirty other prison ministries across the U.S., reaching prisoners in all 50 States.

Sent out from their home church, Fairhaven Bible Chapel in California, Phil and Carole have ministered to hundreds of thousands of prisoners, bringing them the good news of the gospel.  They have also put Bible study courses into the hands of those same men and women in prison, enabling them to systematically learn the Word of God and grow in their spiritual lives. 

The Set Free correspondence ministry has covered the cost of all the postage involved in distributing and correcting the courses, so that no prisoner is left out because of a lack of funds to buy stamps and envelopes.

With the transformation of the political situation in Russia in the early 1990s, the Lord opened the door to expand Set Free's gospel outreach and serve several prisons there.  Phil and Carole had the distinction of being the first foreigners to serve in Moscow's maximum security prison beginning in 1993.

Many lives were touched in the following decade and much humanitarian aid was provided to prisoners suffering through the harsh Russian winters.

Then in 2002, Phil and Carole received an invitation by prison officials familiar with the ministry in Russia to begin Set Free work in Kazakhstan, Central Asia.

This country is a former Soviet state and given the severe conditions that exist in these countries, providing humanitarian aid has become a significant aspect of the outreach.  It has opened the hearts of many thousands of prisoners and prison staff over the past several years and continues to be an integral part of the Wagner's ongoing service to the children, prisoners and those released from prison in this region of the world.