Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program connects families of prisoners with local churches. At Christmastime, church members deliver gifts and a presentation of the Gospel to prisoner’s children, and Prison Fellowship’s hope is that these children and their families will be enveloped into the church’s community through a year-round relationship.
The Angel Tree program works because God provides volunteers with hearts for helping children with an incarcerated parent. Sometimes finding these kids who need to be served has less to do with the structured programs and just more to do with a volunteer’s ability to see a need and the willingness to reach out when he or she hears God calling.
Marie-Louise Crane, the Angel Tree coordinator for First Presbyterian Church in the small town of Danville, Va., is one of these willing volunteers. Six years ago, a friend passed down the coordinator position to Marie-Louise. Every year, the church holds an Angel Tree Christmas party and also delivers gifts to families that can’t attend the party. This past year, the church was even able to pay to send two Angel Tree kids to camp in Northern Virginia.
But Marie-Louise’s strongest relationship with a prisoner’s child is one that arose naturally from her seeing a need in her community and seeking out ways to help, rather than through a traditional program assignment.
More Than Lunch
About 10 years ago, the textile mill in Danville shut down and the tobacco company moved away, leaving many residents jobless. Ever since, the unemployment rate has been high and the downtown area has been poor. While things have begun to improve with the addition of a few big businesses in the area, many residents are still struggling.
For the past 12 years, First Presbyterian Church has been partnering with other local churches and organizations to serve up lunch every Saturday for people in the community who are in need of a meal. But this program has become more than just lunch; the church began holding a Bible study before the meal as a way to spiritually feed the community as well.
About four years ago, a new man and woman started attending the lunch ministry. Marie-Louise found out that the woman was pregnant and personally invited them to church. Marie-Louise and other women in the church took her under their wings. After their son, James, was born, the man and woman sat in the back of the sanctuary, holding him throughout the service.
Soon after, the family disappeared. Marie-Louise checked on them and learned that the woman had been on parole and had returned to prison because of a parole violation.
From Marie-Louise’s experience as an Angel Tree volunteer, she knew that James would need someone to come alongside him while his mother was in prison. God was calling her to help this family affected by incarceration.
Going the Distance
Marie-Louise and James at an Angel Tree party
Marie-Louise stepped in to be the “female influence” for James. She has helped James’s father, who’s been struggling to provide, with things like teaching James how to brush his teeth, potty training him, and taking him to doctor appointments. Last school year, Marie-Louise and some of the other church members worked to get him a scholarship to the church’s day school, too.
Marie-Louise takes James, who is now 3-and-a-half years old, to church with her every Sunday. She sees him paying attention and befriending new kids during Sunday school, nursery time, and at adult church.
“The Sunday school teachers all go out of their ways to give him their love and attention,” she says. “He is just part of our church family.”
Marie-Louise talks to James about his mother regularly and shows him pictures of her. Four times a year, she takes James to visit his mother for a special program where he gets to play in the gym with his mom all day.
Marie-Louise also writes letters to James’s mother and sends her photos of him. She writes about God’s grace, encourages her to read her Bible, to attend church services, and tells her she is praying for her every day.
A Calling of Hope
Although the corrections facility where James’s mom is located does not yet have the Angel Tree program, Marie-Louise has adopted James as her private “angel” anyway.
She says, “We hope and pray that we can show him and his family the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and keep the bonds with this precious child strong now to sustain him the rest of his life as he reminds us of those other children in our community that also have to miss their mommy or daddy throughout the year, but especially at Christmas time.”
Marie-Louise urges others with a heart for prisoners’ children to always have their eyes open for opportunities like this as they go about their daily lives. Her advice for others ministering to these kids is to tell them stories about Jesus’ love and to keep the relationships among the child, caregiver, and the incarcerated parent alive.
She knows firsthand that it’s not always easy to be in these situations, but she notes that we’re not alone. “If we feel called to be involved, then with prayer, faith, trust, patience, strength, and grace, we will be able to fulfill that calling.”
