A southwest Iowa minister has written a book about a jailhouse conversion. Reverend Terry Amman, a Presbyterian minister in Creston, has written “Wednesdays with Barry.” It chronicles the weekly visits Amman and another pastor made to Barry Chubbick, Junior of Creston who was accused of murdering his girlfriend. Amman says Chubbick went through a religious conversion during the 10 months he spent in the Union County Jail in Creston. Amman says something “really dramatic happened” and he says it’s a story “that needed to be told.” Amman says his book gives a glimpse of life behind bars, as well as the life of a pastor in rural Iowa. He hints at a surprise ending, too. Amman is convinced Chubbick changed and became a committed Christian. Amman says in jail ministry, “the con is always on” but he says someone who’s been involved in jailhouse ministry, you get an idea of what’s real and what isn’t. Chubbick was sentenced and is serving time in a state prison now, and Amman keeps in touch mainly through letters. Amman says in jailhouse lingo, a letter is called a kite, so he says the two send kites to one another regularly. The book will be for sale — for the first time — next Friday night at a bookstore in Creston, or you can order it on-line from www.thechurchofthewayministries.us. The pastor late this week issued an appeal for Creston residents to respect the privacy of the family of the woman Chubbick killed, and some of Chubbick’s relatives have expressed doubts about his religious conversion.
