Please pray that Steve will continue to live his life for Jesus, and that God will give him many more opportunities to point others who are still in prison to the hope that he’s found.
Thanks to Prison Fellowship partners, men and women like Fernando are experiencing bright futures!
Participants in the Pathway to Freedom program. (Photo courtesy Pathway to Freedom.)
It is an unfortunate and sad reality that we live in a world with limited resources. Sometimes that means that meaningful programs and projects are discontinued for a want of funding or manpower.
Society often discounts the contributions a former prisoner can make to his or her community, but at Prison Fellowship, we know that rehabilitated men and women who have been transformed by God have so much to offer if given the opportunity.
At Prison Fellowship, we don’t want to do ministry to prisoners. We want to do ministry with prisoners. That one little word makes a big difference. Prisoners aren’t our projects – they are our partners. As you and I walk with them on the road to restoration, men and women behind bars become leaders of the Church behind the walls … sharing the Gospel and discipling those around them, serving their families, and preparing for a new life back in the community.
By living out the core values he learned in prison, Michael is an inspiring example God's power to transform prisoners into mighty men of valor.
Kate Campbell is a summer intern with Prison Fellowship, working with Inside Journal. She is currently studying photojournalism at Boston University.
Recently, the Wisconsin State Journal published an article about a program called Reading Connections, which allows incarcerated fathers and mothers to record videos of themselves reading stories for their children.
On a recent trip to Minnesota, I visited with the ladies who are part of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) unit in Shakopee, the only women’s prison in the state. I asked them, “If you could tell the people who support this program anything, what would you say?”
Every year, over 700,000 inmates are released from state and federal prisons across the United States. The joy of their new freedom, however, is tempered by the realization that substantial roadblocks remain to successful reintegration. The stigma of being an ex-prisoner makes it hard to find regular employment or housing, and the temptation to return to old friends and old habits is always present.
Jeffrey Leonard never expected to be free from a lifelong cycle of crime and addiction. He envisioned himself going back behind the walls every time he was released. “The first thing I’d do when I left prison was buy a gun,” he confesses.
From his wife’s hand, John drew his first snort of meth. One encounter with the choice fruit plunged him into a twisted romance with addiction.