Bo Mitchell was doing just great. The longtime chaplain of an NBA team, he had founded churches and was a business success. Then, suddenly, it was all gone.

Bo pled guilty to a crime that he had no idea he had committed, as a result of trying to help his friend financially. And he was sentenced to 11 months in federal prison.

But it was behind bars that God began to set him truly free from the prisons of performance and pride that had held him for so long. But that journey of healing was a long process that continued after his release.

“I was happy to be back working and to be with my kids and Gari again, but I just was kind of broken and falling into the arms of the Lord and it took a while.”

“The interesting part though is that even in the eighty’s when things were going so well, I was going so fast as a competitor – which I had learned in sports – that I knew I needed to get better as a husband and as a dad and as a businessman.”

“I knew I was too aggressive, too confident, even in my church work. I didn’t know how to get better.  At some level I knew I needed to get better, but I didn’t know how. God knew how. He took me from the fast lane of life way over to a parking lot called the Federal Detention Center.”

But Bo’s prison cell became the scene of a long awaited transformation.

“Gari calls it an enforced spiritual retreat! A pretty fancy name for what I’m living through here with the bad food and bad roommates.”

“I really had the thought – I’m happy just to do any job. Drive any car. Live in any rental home, and I really thought I was on the bench for life. But slowly, God pulled me off the bench. I learned it was Him who is able, not me. It was God who is doing these things – not me. So once I sort of learned my lesson and got it straight, I slowly was pulled off the bench and got back involved in ministry work and other things. Since then we have been abundantly blessed.”

“I guess it’s taken twenty five years to fully live this story before we felt like writing in a book, but I hope people benefit from reading it who are discouraged or struggling right now themselves.”


Bo and Gari Mitchell are the Colorado couple behind an extraordinary story of faith and perseverance. After a shocking prison sentence and a serious illness, they book discovered God in ways they never anticipated. Their book is called  .

On the Road with Bo and Gari Mitchell