An IFI Grad Returns to Prison - To Serve

IFI graduate David Trickett received a vision for ministering to prisoners while still serving his own prison term.

“God put it on my heart to do a different ministry. I wanted to engage people,” says Trickett, director of Christ Hope and Reconciliation Ministry (CHARM). CHARM visits prisons around the state of Texas to engage the men in sporting events and share a message of love and forgiveness.

 

Trickett, who served nine years in prison, now has a wife, two kids, and a career as a real estate agent. Yet he is the first to acknowledge his indebtedness for the change in his life.  “It is not about me, it’s all about Him,” says Trickett. "I could lose it all tomorrow if I don’t remain humble before the Lord.”

 

On this day, Trickett and other CHARM volunteers are visiting the Carol Vance Unit of the state prison in Richmond, Texas.  Their opponents are members of Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative. The game is volleyball and the result is a good time of fellowship. All that participated put forth an effort to win, yet the competition maintained a spirit of friendship humility—characteristics not always associated with competitive sports.

 

Volunteers are a major aspect of Carol Vance Unit, which was established in 1997 as a faith-based alternative to traditional prisons. Yet Trickett acknowledges a time when even he questioned the motivation of those who chose to give of their free time to prisoners like him. “I could not understand why volunteers came in,” he says.

 

He understands now. Trickett and his fellow volunteers are affecting many men’s lives.  A man who once could not understand the volunteers is now one of them, giving back by sharing his testimony and spending time with prisoners whose struggle he knows first-hand.

“God showed me through the volunteers that He was real,” says Trickett.

 

Trickett is committed to not becoming part of the growing statistic of prisoners becoming repeat offenders. Instead, he hopes to be part of a different kind of statistic—of prisoners who are committed to returning to their places of incarceration to serve those still behind bars.

 

Speaking to the men of the Carol Vance Unit, Trickett warned those preparing for release to maintain the relationships they had built with the volunteers who have ministered to them, and to avoid some of the temptations that led them to prison in the first place. “Stay connected and don’t get caught up in the cares of the world,” he advised.  “I was always in the fast lane. I had to learn how to take it slow."

As Trickett finished his talk, he told a story that explains why he is not giving up any of the progress he has made in life. He spoke from the heart about his family and shared what his 3-year-old son had to say when he was leaving. “Daddy, you going to the prison to talk to the men about Jesus?” his son asked. Such a perspective will keep any man humble.