Like so many things in life, there is far more to Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program than buying a gift for a child of an incarcerated parent! My recent conversation with an ex-felon who is now a full-time dad proves this.
True, Angel Tree does provide inmates the chance to participate in the holidays with their family. Inmates across the country are able to apply for a gift for their children. Prison Fellowship works with prison chaplains to ensure as many prisoners as possible are receiving applications. An ex-felon told me last month that when his daughter received a gift while he was in prison, she exclaimed, “I knew daddy wouldn’t forget!” When you buy an Angel Tree gift, you are making sure a “mommy” or “daddy” is able to remember.
Angel Tree also provides the caregiver of a child who has an incarcerated parent – or two – with the ability to place a gift under the tree on Christmas day. Many of the caregivers are family members of the person in prison and have little means to care for their own kids or the other grandkids, let alone buy Christmas presents. Many foster families who care for the children of incarcerated parents do so because they have massive hearts of love, not burgeoning bank accounts. Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree is a service to the foster families in your county.
But Angel Tree has an impact beyond Christmas day. More and more Angel Tree children are able to attend summer camp. As spring approaches, local volunteers are given names of children in their area who received one of your gifts. Some of these kids are invited to a week-long camp where they are loved with the love of Jesus, interact with adults who look like Jesus and model grace and hope for them, and are given the opportunity to follow Him from that day right through eternity.
These programs make a 52-week difference in the life of a family. More and more volunteers are becoming involved in mentoring Angel Tree kids. In some areas of the country, the kids who are able to go to camp are then able to be paired up with a trained mentor. This part of Angel Tree continues to emerge.
I am praying and praying that more and more people will partner with Prison Fellowship to make this happen all over America. Can you see the smiles on the kids’ faces when they finish camp knowing they have a friend waiting for them in the weeks to come who will continue to love and nurture them – who knows what a child of an incarcerated parent needs?
Angel Tree reaches way outside those families who sign up for a gift. I was with an ex-inmate and his daughter recently and I asked her if she had received Angel Tree gifts at Christmas when her dad was in prison. She immediately smiled and said, “Yes, they were great!” Her dad looked at me and exclaimed, “Do you know that all the guys in the prison I was in signed their kids up for Angel Tree? Do you know that the Muslim guys, the Atheists, the gang leaders, everyone signed their kids up? Then when the kids came to visit after Christmas they would bring the Gospel books they received with their gift to show their dads. Men decided to follow Jesus because of Angel Tree. Did you know that?”
With each gift comes a simple explanation of the meaning of Christmas – that the Son of God entered the world in human form and died as a convicted felon on the cross, forgiving us and freeing us to enter into the kingdom of Jesus forever!
Angel Tree is about gift giving – it is about giving the gift of the Gospel. I’m giving that gift this year to kids whose parents are serving time in prison. Are you? My wife Cathy and I are giving that gift this year to parents and caregivers and communities. Are you? I am giving that gift to “the least of these my brethren” as an act of worship and love for God. Are you? I hope and pray so. A child, parent, family, community and country are depending on it.