PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG

Jozelyn received Christmas gifts on behalf of her dad, and she knew everything would be OK.

My wife Cathy’s family calls this time of year ThanksMas. As Cathy’s brothers married, and we all moved away and starting having kids, her family made up this holiday to create a time to gather. The meal consists of both Thanksgiving and Christmas fare, and we give gifts.

Every year, Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program provides the children of prisoners with gifts on behalf of their incarcerated parents.  With the help of churches, church coordinators, and volunteers, these kids are reminded that they are loved by their mothers and fathers behind bars, and that they have a Heavenly Father who provided them with the ultimate Christmas gift—a Child, born in a manger, who would take away the sin of the world.

When most people talk about a “prison code,” they likely referring to an unwritten code of conduct amongst prisoners—one that lays out the expectations for how those behind bars are to behave, and one that defines what type of “inmate justice” might result if those rules are disregarded.

Last Tuesday, Dec. 2nd, Prison Fellowship participated in #GivingTuesday—a global campaign that encourages charitable giving on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving.

On this one day, Prison Fellowship received a wonderful outpouring of support and raised enough money to help over 1000 prisoners and their families.

For over 30 years, Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program has been providing children Christmas gifts on behalf of their mothers and fathers in prison, as well as a simple message about God’s love and forgiveness.  Through Angel Tree, families have been restored, kids have been encouraged, and the Gospel has been proclaimed.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, thousands of Angel Tree children are still unassigned. This means that boys and girls in your own community may not get to unwrap a gift from their mom or dad in prison and hear the Good News of our Savior. Will you help share the joy of God's greatest gift to us this season?

President Abraham Lincoln signed a document in 1863, declaring a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” to fall on the last Thursday in November.

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation came not at the victorious conclusion of the war, as might have been expected, but in the midst of its stormiest days, when the future of the country was far from certain.

God can use any church of any size to serve children with incarcerated parents.

At a recent event in New York City, I was privileged to introduce Quovadis Marshall to a group pf people who financially support the ministries of Prison Fellowship.

“Q,” as we call him, shared his story: He was raised in poverty by a single mom who worked diligently to feed her kids.

On Dec. 2, 2014, the world comes together to give. Join Prison Fellowship as we participate on #GivingTuesday to support our mission to change the lives of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families through Jesus Christ. We ask our friends, donor, fans, and followers to remember the prisoners on the first Tuesday in December.

"What happened for you gives me hope!"

This is Benny's dream: helping former prisoners rebuild their lives.

If you haven’t looked at a calendar recently (or, in the case of much of the country, looked out the window or walked to your car in sub-freezing temperatures), winter is fast approaching, and Christmas is just around the corner.  And here at Prison Fellowship, that means the Angel Tree Christmas program is well underway, helping to provide gifts—and hope—to children on behalf of their incarcerated parents.

In the conversation about building safer communities, it’s easy to get caught up in the big topics: record-breaking incarceration rates, headline-grabbing crime trends, and large pieces of criminal justice legislation.

But it’s often the littlest ones among us who are hurt the most by crime.