My father lived through the Great Depression. Like many men and women who experienced that period of want, he has a hard time throwing things away. He has sheds full of things he has saved, because “someone might need it someday.”
At a recent conference in England I had the opportunity to hear Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek. Bill has often said that “the local church is the hope of the world.” I couldn’t agree more! As the Body of Christ, who is the Light of the World, the local church is God’s Plan A to heal the woundedness of individuals, families, and the culture.
Where there is no vision, the people perish.”– Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
Vision is destiny. Our feet will generally take us where our eyes are focused, so if we want to get anywhere, we had better have a clear picture of where we’re headed.
Restoration is the theme of God’s Word and the purpose of His activity throughout history.
The early chapters of Genesis tell us how a loving God built an environment where His image-bearers, the crown of His creation, could dwell in perfect harmony with Him, with one another, and with all created things.
Light shines most brightly in the darkest places. That’s what Edwin Wolff learned during his incarceration, when his copy of God’s Word sustained him. Hear more from Jim Liske about his remarkable story of transformation and hope.
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At a graduation ceremony for students completing Prison Fellowship’s four-year Prisoners to Pastors program, a tearful dad confessed to me, “I thought my son would never complete anything but a prison sentence!”
We were at South Bay Correctional Institution in Florida.
There’s a story of a German pilot in World War II. He was one “kill” short of earning the Iron Cross when he spotted an American B-17 bomber crew in trouble. They’d already taken heavy fire from Nazi guns, and they would have been easy prey.
A Seattle Times article recounts the story of 12-year-old Orlando, a boy whose father fled from the law and whose mother was committed to a mental hospital. Not yet a teenager, Orlando was left in charge of seven siblings, including a set of triplets still in diapers.
Video footage from Monday’s tragedy shows that, a split-second after the deafening blast near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, confused crowds, including runners already near exhaustion, scrambled for a place of safety. But among them were some who ran back – toward the smoke, toward the roar, toward the danger – to help the wounded.
The appalling murder of Tom Clements, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, appears to be part of a growing trend of violence against criminal justice officials. Since the beginning of the year, brazen attacks have also taken the lives of the Kaufman County, Texas, district attorney, his wife, and a lead prosecutor.
Frontlines is a video series that brings you close to the work of Prison Fellowship through the lens of Prison Fellowship Ministries CEO Jim Liske’s encounters with the inmates and families. In the latest edition, Jim relives his visit to a chaotic neighborhood where he met a brave little girl full of potential.
Over Easter weekend I met a young man in a prison infirmary. He wore a Styrofoam helmet to protect his badly damaged skull. His had been terribly incapacitated by the same drunk-driving accident that killed his boyhood friend. As the driver in the accident, this young man was facing a 40-year sentence.
This past Easter, the newly elected Pope Francis made waves by choosing to spend Maundy Thursday washing the feet of young prisoners in a juvenile detention center in Rome.
The pontiff’s decision to visit those behind bars during Holy Week reflects an Easter tradition that has been observed at Prison Fellowship for 35 years.
This Sunday Prison Fellowship will celebrate the Resurrection with services behind bars. Some prisoners will be hearing the Gospel for the very first time, and my prayer is that their hearts will be softened as they listen. Others will already know the Gospel.
Recently I met Randy, a quiet, unsung hero of the effort to bring men and women safely back into our communities. Randy’s background is not exceptional. He’s a carpenter without a college education. He’s a former addict. But when we talked, he was just about to open his sixteenth transitional home to keep a roof over the head of former prisoners.
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