Daniel is enrolled in the Prisoners to Pastors program (also known as The Urban Ministry Institute) at his prison. That means he is a committed, engaged follower of Jesus. He spends hours every week in the classroom, going through rigorous, seminary-level classes. On his own time, he’s reading theology textbooks, and he’s thinking creatively about how to reach his fellow inmates for Jesus.
The single most transformative moment Daniel has experienced in prison, though, hasn’t been a classroom lecture or a homework assignment. Through a program called One Day with God, Daniel’s children and others were able to come into the prison for a day and spend some real, quality time with their fathers – an unbelievable privilege for a prisoner and his family.
As Daniel laughed and talked with his little ones, it hit him: How he does his time, the sort of man he becomes while he is incarcerated, will forever shape his children’s future. He glimpsed what’s at risk if he doesn’t come home redeemed and restored.
Some men who graduate from Prisoners to Pastors will go on to be church leaders, but that’s not Daniel’s calling. He knows his calling is to be a father. He’s studying every chance he gets so that when he gets home, he’ll be prepared to be a leader for Christ within those four walls, and a man that his children can be proud to call “Dad.”
It matters what we do with the time we have. Even as you look to ‘redeem the time’ in your own circumstances, you can help people like Daniel reach their full potential in Jesus, too. Sound good? Learn how at www.prisonfellowship.org.