The Prisoners to Pastors program at the California Institution for Women has helped to restore Gloria’s faith in her God-given potential.
One dark night in January, a cold drizzle enshrouds the California Institution for Women. But inside the education wing, one room overflows with light, life, and joy.
More than 20 prisoners at CIW are the first women to be part of Prison Fellowship’s Prisoners to Pastors program, a four-year, seminary-level program that will train them to become Christian leaders behind bars and back in their homes and communities.
As class begins, women of diverse races and ages enter a room awash in fluorescent light. Amid the smell of erasers and dictionaries, they laugh and chat as they take places in rows of pine desks.
After a time of prayer and worship, the class facilitators – Prison Fellowship staff member Deborah Postell and volunteers Nancy Gary and Shirley Houston – handed back the students’ most recent final exams. Together, the women achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.43 on the first unit they completed!
Gloria, a student whose two children live with relatives in another state, stands up to explain how God has used the Prisoners to Pastors program to restore her faith in her own potential.
“My parents always used to get bad reports from school. I would always get kicked out,” she explains with a rueful smile. “So now, to me, to have an A- on my final is …” She chokes up, unable to finish, while her sisters in Christ applaud and encourage her.
Not only is Gloria learning to master the program’s challenging curriculum, but she is also using her expanded knowledge of God’s Word to lead Bible studies for Spanish-speaking inmates on the prison yard. And along with Sylvia, a fellow student, she just helped translate the first Spanish-language edition of Inside Journal®, Prison Fellowship’s newspaper for prisoners.