Hope Events

You can help give hope

That’s what Dave needed more than anything. His adoptive parents loved him dearly. But when he was nine, he was sexually abused by a neighbor. Out of fear, he kept the abuse a secret, but his increasingly troubled behavior soon got the attention of his parents and his teachers.

And then one night, when Dave was 14, he and a friend got high on marijuana and stole his father’s car.

Their joy ride turned into a police chase that landed Dave in a juvenile detention center. The memory still troubles him—“It was the first time I ever saw my dad cry,” he recalls.

Badly frightened, Dave resolved then and there that he would turn his life around.

After graduating from high school, Dave enlisted in the military. He returned home from Operation Desert Storm as a decorated combat veteran. It looked like the demons of his past were behind him.

But after battling cancer and becoming unemployed, his depression and the addictions from his past came roaring back.

Dave made bad choices and before he knew it, he was on his way to prison. “It was a horrible place,” he remembers. One night Dave was nearly killed when another inmate tried to bash his skull in using a lock attached to a belt.

And yet God was at work, even in that darkest of moments.

You see, after receiving treatment for his injuries, Dave was transferred to a different prison. While he was there, he was invited to an evangelistic event in the prison yard, hosted by Prison Fellowship.

It was like nothing Dave had ever experienced before—incredible entertainment, music that spoke to his spirit, and a powerful Gospel message. But it was the volunteers who took time to mingle with the prisoners afterward who broke through to Dave like nothing else could.

Dave came to know Christ in the prison yard that day. Like thousands of prisoners who have been reached through similar outreaches—which we call Hope Events—he’s never been the same.

The gateway to new beginnings

God has given us an enormous vision to expand our Hope Event outreach in 2018. Each of these events has the potential to reach hundreds of prisoners and transform them.

But in order to fully fund this vision, finish the current year strong, and seize the other opportunities that God has set before us, we need $6.8 million by December 31. That’s just a few days away. We need your help.

“That [Hope Event] was where my life really began to change.” —Dave, A PRISONER WHOSE LIFE WAS CHANGED AT A PRISON FELLOWSHIP HOPE EVENT

ACADEMY

You can help rebuild ruined lives

Chris smoked his first joint when he was just 12 years old. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but it was the first step on a journey that would just about destroy him. By age 16, he’d been kicked out of school.

“I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, and that wasn’t a good thing,” Chris recalls.

But when his mother died of cancer, Chris’s life went off the rails.

That began a four-year spiral into drugs and theft. Chris’s choices inevitably caught up with him and landed him in prison. Facing 69 felony charges, he had to watch from behind prison bars as his 8-year-old son waved goodbye.

That might have been the end of Chris’s story. But one day, suddenly, he was invited to fill a vacancy in a Prison Fellowship faith-based dorm.

“The first time I heard the worship, it was 80 hard-core prisoners,” Chris recalls. “It sounded like angels. My heart just broke at that point.” Three days later, he surrendered his life to Jesus.

That began a process of transformation that ultimately led Chris to the Prison Fellowship Academy.

The Academy is an intensive program that transforms broken men and women by addressing issues like substance abuse that often lie at the root of criminal behavior. It is also extremely practical, applying biblical principles to a wide range of real-life concerns, from relationships to finances and parenting, that prisoners will face when they return home to their communities.

Chris thrived during his time in the program. The man he’d been before faded into memory, and a new Chris started to emerge. Today, more than a decade after his release from prison, he is a business owner and a leader in his church and community.

By God’s grace, he’s also become the father he never dreamed he would have the chance to be again.

Will you help do for other prisoners and their families what you did for Chris? God is calling us to do great things in 2018. Expanding the Academy to 100 prisons in 30 states is a key part of the vision He has planted.

We need your help to turn this vision into reality.

“The first time I heard the worship, it was 80 hard-core prisoners. It sounded like angels. My heart just broke at that.” —Chris, ACADEMY GRADUATE

WOMEN’S MINISTRY

You can rescue broken women

Lorie will never forget her father’s fits of blind rage. The things she endured and saw him do to her mother were awful. When Lorie was 13 years old, she literally fled to the streets.

She was young. And naïve. An easy target for the pushers and the pimps. There was no one to rescue her. So she numbed the pain instead.

Lorie dropped out of school and started using drugs. She started getting arrested. Sadly, she didn’t start getting help. When Lorie turned 18, she got a job at a strip club. The next step—prostitution—was almost inevitable from there.

After many arrests, Lorie found herself in prison on a drug conviction. She vowed to turn her life around when she got out, but she couldn’t. “I thought, Everything is going to be different,” she says. “But it wasn’t different. I was still an addict and an alcoholic. It just got worse.”

It wasn’t long before Lorie was arrested again. She took a plea bargain, but she still faced years behind bars. A year and a half into her sentence, she also found out she had cancer.

Against all odds, it was in the prison medical ward that Lorie finally found the answer she’d been looking for—a support group for prisoners with cancer, led by volunteers from Prison Fellowship.

“I walked out of there a couple of times because the music was too joyful,” Lorie remembers. But she couldn’t get over the warm welcome she had received, so she kept coming back. The loving example of that group of women eventually led Lorie to trust Jesus. She also enrolled in the Prison Fellowship Academy.

Lorie was part of one of the first Academy programs designed specifically for women who are in prison. “That’s how I made it out of this,” she says today. “And I made it out with Jesus.”

Now a free woman living successfully outside of prison, Lorie continues to rave about the difference Prison Fellowship has made in her life. She has a good job, is cancer-free, and has a bright future ahead.

But other women are still struggling to be free of their past. In fact, women are now the fastest-growing segment of the prison population. Prison Fellowship is determined to reach these women with programs that offer grace, acceptance, hope, and a way forward.

But there are only a few days left to raise the $6.8 million needed for women’s ministry and the other key components of Vision 2018.

We need your help.

“Prison Fellowship didn’t just leave me at the door of the prison. They held me. They hold me today. On the days when I’m not sure, they are there.” —Lorie, FORMER PRISONER

ANGEL TREE

You can rescue broken women

Christopher is only 9 years old. But his father is in prison, and he’s had to grow up fast. Sometimes that means he doesn’t get to do things most other kids do. Until last summer, he had never been to summer camp.

Angel Tree changed that by providing a place for Christopher at Angel Tree camp. “We hiked and swam and slept on bunks in a cabin,” he remembers excitedly. “We sang songs and played games and had a bonfire every night. I liked that!”

Christopher will always remember some of the stories the counselors told. He loved hearing about the things they had experienced. But the best thing about that week, he says, was the chance to learn more about Jesus.

That’s so important for children like Christopher. They pay a heavy price because their parents are incarcerated. And many struggle to find their way. Angel Tree gives prisoners’ kids a chance to make a course correction. Camp is just one of the ways.

You probably know about our Angel Tree Christmas outreach. But did you know that Angel Tree also hosts sports clinics that give prisoners’ kids a chance to rub shoulders with the pros and meet real-life heroes who have strong Christian testimonies?

Amazing things can happen when you help introduce a child to the love of Jesus. That’s why, in 2018, Angel Tree is committed to aggressively expand each of these outreaches. Our plans include reaching at least 288,000 prisoners’ children through our 2018 Christmas outreach, sending thousands more to camp, and hosting Angel Tree sports clinics in four states.

But with December 31 just a few days away, time is running out to fund these efforts, as well as the rest of Vision 2018.

“Thanks to you, I accepted Christ.” —AN ANGEL TREE CHILD

Make a difference for eternity today

No place on earth is darker or more desperate than a prison cell. But God’s love is piercing the darkness through the efforts of His people like you. Vision 2018 is the next vital step.

Will you help make it possible? We need $6.8 million by December 31 to finish this year strong and seize these opportunities that God has set before us. Thanks to the match, your gift today will also be DOUBLED—up to $10,000.

Please help today. God wants to redeem many more lives that have been ruined by crime, but to answer His call we need your help!

“Thank you.Please never stop delivering hope in Jesus Christ’s name.” —TERRY, A prisoner from Tennessee