03/22/2025
Vermont Church at Prison leader authors memoir, “Don’t Burn My House Down” www.dontburnmyhousedown.org
Most people will never visit a prison. They never wonder what it’s like because they’ve already been told: it’s where society puts the bad folks.
That’s what IBM engineer Pete Fiske, the father of a thriving family in Underhill, thought until the unexpected happened - he began to experience a calling to “do God’s work” inside prisons.
Fiske describes his unexpected calling and subsequent decades of ministry in a 2025 thrilling book/teaching tool, “Don’t Burn Down My House.”
Soon after his calling began, he found himself at a Christian seminar inside a prison where he faced his fears of encountering the most dangerous men on earth. Instead of a showdown, he experienced a true revelation: God opened his heart to these men and inspired the man later to become known to thousands of men and women inside and outside the walls of Vermont prisons as “Pastor Pete’ to help them salvage their lives through the love of God.
In 1992 with his late wife Agnes, Pete Fiske assumed the leadership of what was to become The Church at Prison. He retired from IBM a year later. God told Pete this ministry was a “church” and thus in 1997 The Church At Prison, Inc. (CAP) was incorporated as a church in the state of VT. Since then, he has devoted his life to God for the purpose of guiding lost souls (infamous murderers, drug dealers, addicts and thieves) to the spiritual redemption by Jesus Christ and its wonderful expressions of substance abuse recovery, law-abiding living, work, and successful family life. In November of 2004 Agnes passed away after a 5 year battle with cancer.
In April of 2006 Pete invited Joanne Falise to a church service inside prison. She continued serving alongside him inside prison and they were married Dec 30th with another ceremony inside prison in January 2007. In February, 2025, Fiske, 80, and his wife Joanne (Jo), 77, retired from the leadership of The Church at Prison, Inc. They still remain active as ‘emeritus’ leaders, serving on the Board and continue as Pastors within CAP. They live in Jericho at the edge of a town forest with their Border Collie Asher and Maine C**n cat Simba.
Fiske’s 2024 book/teaching tool “Don’t Burn Down My House,” details Pastor Pete’s life work in prison ministry, his calling to do God’s work, and how he is endlessly inspired by the beauty of the natural world that God has provided in rural Vermont.
Drawing on his life experiences, ‘DBDMH’ describes a path forward for other people feeling the tug of an improbable calling to serve others in God’s name: “trust and embrace God's calling. Step boldly into your purpose. Empower your journey with faith.”
The book was released on Amazon March 10, 2025. A signed copy of “Don’t Burn Down My House” can be purchased at dontburnmyhousedown.org. A portion of each sale will go to the Church at Prison, Inc.
Media, church leaders and other interested people are encouraged to contact Fiske at [email protected], 802-999-2368 and FB Messenger. For more information about the ongoing ministry of the Church at Prison, go to www.churchatprison.com and look into their other affiliate ministries. (Contact the author for bulk purchases and to help fund books for inmates and ex-inmates.)
