Mark knows a lot about overcoming—he barely survived a horrific car crash at age 12. As a passenger in a vehicle racing at a perilous 110 miles per hour, Mark was hurled through the windshield, causing his heart to stop. First responders pronounced him dead at the scene. But he was rushed to the hospital, where, miraculously, doctors managed to restart his heart and revive him.
Unfortunately, that brush with death wasn’t the only traumatic event in Mark’s childhood. His unstable home life included an alcoholic mother and a sexually abusive father who wasn’t around much.
In middle school, Mark started rebelling and lashing out. By 15, Mark was stealing and shooting up. Then, the untimely deaths of Mark’s mother, father, and older brother added to his troubles. As his grief increased, so did his drug use.
“My addictions had begun, and there was no stopping them. I was on the road to destruction,” Mark says.
A LONG, DIFFICULT JOURNEY
That road was a 20-year path of alcohol, drugs, juvenile detention, jail, and eventually prison, where he was stabbed three times.
Mark was in and out of prison several times. But his fifth sentence would be his last ever. He had finally hit rock bottom and was determined to change.
“I was just broken,” Mark says. “I was so broken that I started to see that I needed help. So that’s why I reached out to God.”
Mark had attended church as a kid, and he didn’t recall going more than a few times—but later he learned that wasn’t true.
“I had memory of only attending church on occasions,” Mark explains. “But one of my cousins told me recently that her dad used to pick us up, me and my two brothers, every Sunday, and we’d go to church.”
Mark now realizes these regular church visits were shortly before the molestation by his father began at home, and he now believes he blocked out a lot of his memories from those traumatic years.
But even if he didn’t realize it then, the seed of God’s love had been planted in him as a child.
LETTING GO OF THE GRIP
Despite wanting to get closer to God while in prison, Mark was still hesitant—until a Prison Fellowship volunteer came to lead a Bible study. During this Bible study, Mark read Jesus’ words in Revelation 3:20: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.”
That verse hit him hard. He began to open the door of his heart to let Jesus in.
Mark signed up his kids for Prison Fellowship Angel Tree®, but his motives were selfish.
“I was still prideful,” he says of his Angel Tree involvement. “I think I was doing it out of a [sense of] ‘Look what Mark’s doing for you!’”
In hindsight, he sees that he hadn’t yet surrendered his life—and his lifestyle—to Jesus, and he still had some spiritual growing up to do.
“The Bible says when we were children, we acted like children. And I acted like a child a long, long time,” says Mark. But the more he softened his heart, the closer to surrender he became. “At the age of 42 years old, I’d finally grown up and let go of that childish behavior.”
He wholeheartedly surrendered his life to Jesus on April 20, 2005.
“Someone told me a long time ago I should always remember the date I got clean and sober from drugs and alcohol and the date I started my relationship with Jesus,” Mark explains. “And those two dates have been embedded into my heart.”
“The Bible says when we were children, we acted like children. And I acted like a child a long, long time.”
—Mark
REPLACING PATTERNS WITH PEACE
Mark’s sober date is July 18, 2007, two years after he accepted Christ. During that period, he was released from prison, but he relapsed and was in and out of jail several times.
Thankfully, those slip-ups didn’t stop him from getting right back on the straight and narrow path. He was facing yet another prison sentence when he says he felt a peace: “God had a whole different plan for me.”
As he finally made the “conscious decision to not use drugs or alcohol ever again,” the courts decided he did not need to return to prison after all.
Shortly after being paroled for the last time, Mark was connected to a mentor named Rocky, who taught Mark about the ripple effect and how you can’t keep what you have unless you give it away.
“I didn’t really know what that meant until I got in recovery and learned about my serenity, my peace, my love, my joy, and all that other stuff. I can’t keep that unless I give it to you,” explains Mark.
Mark stayed busy, serving God and others through activities big and small. When Mark was asked to clean toilets at a thrift store, he jumped at the chance, willing to do “whatever it takes” to give away the love God had given him.
Mark volunteered for Prison Fellowship Angel Tree sports camps, where he would tell the kids: “Today, there’s hope for a better tomorrow.”
“There were some amazing moments with those children,” Mark says. He recalls a boy who went up to Mark a year after a camp: “He said, ‘I remember some of the stuff you told me, and I took it back and applied it to my life and my school stuff, and I’m thankful for the things you said.’”
Mark volunteered for Prison Fellowship Angel Tree sports camps, where he would tell the kids: “Today, there’s hope for a better tomorrow.”
THOSE WHO WALK THE WALK
During this time period, a friend invited Mark to church. The moment Mark walked in the door of New Hope Community Church, he was home. The people of the church made sure of it.
“Two ushers were standing at the door, Sam and Phil, and they welcomed me with open arms. I told myself, ‘I’m going to come back next week,’” Mark remembers.
When Mark returned the following week, Sam and Phil were again at the door, and Mark was shocked by what happened next: “They remembered my name! And I’m not important at all, but they remembered me. And that right there was probably the first time I ever felt accepted in my life.”
Soon after, Mark was the one standing at that door, handing out bulletins and greeting people. He did this for the next two years without being asked. He wanted to show others that same welcoming love he had been shown—that ripple effect.
After becoming an usher, he became a deacon. He also began serving with the church’s Angel Tree ministry.
Through his many years volunteering with Angel Tree, Mark witnessed a full circle of his incarceration experience. He had numerous children open up to him about feeling hurt by an incarcerated parent. Some asked him questions about their parent’s prison environment, like whether their mom had a blanket in prison or what type of food their dad was eating.
“Just being there and delivering the gifts and being able to pray and answer some of those questions for those children and those guardians,” says Mark, "was a blessing.”
THE CYCLE OF KINDNESS
Mark knows the wide-reaching impact a simple gesture can make, such as Sam and Phil remembering his name. And he tries to create this ripple effect in all he does. When he’s delivering Angel Tree gifts, he offers to pray over the children and guardians and invites them to his church.
“We give them the opportunity to have a resource at New Hope Community Church. If you need help, we are here with open arms to help you,” Mark says.
He recalls one particularly powerful Angel Tree moment: Mark knocked on a woman’s door, holding gifts for her three children. When she answered, she explained that she was on the phone with the kids’ father. They put the phone on speaker.
“We then stood in a circle and prayed over the phone with him,” recalls Mark. “I was giving these presents to them while he was right there on the phone!”
When he saw the joy in those children’s faces, he knew he was exactly where God needed him to be, rippling out into the community.
Whenever he shares his story with others, he’s always amazed at how God then flows that hope outward. And Mark hasn’t just rippled out kindness to others. He has also received it. People have been so kind and supportive since his release.
One day, Mark told an acquaintance named Charley about the shame he felt not being able to give his kids gifts while incarcerated, outside of the times they participated in Angel Tree Christmas. Out of the blue, Charley took him to the store and bought and wrapped more than two dozen presents for Mark’s family.
“I was finally able to … physically hand [my family] presents and let them know I love them,” says Mark through tears.
When Mark saw the joy in those children’s faces, he knew he was exactly where God needed him to be, rippling out into the community.
PRICELESS EXAMPLES OF SECOND CHANCES
Mark is now 18 years clean and sober, and he owes a lot of his recovery success to Celebrate Recovery (CR), the Christian 12-step program he first connected with nearly two decades ago. He serves as a ministry leader and as a CR state representative overseeing 29 other CR groups.
For the past 13 years, Mark has been a maintenance technician for an apartment complex. “That’s a big achievement!” Mark says. “I’d never even held a job for 30 days [before prison].” He is grateful the company he works for values his work ethic and hasn’t let his criminal record overshadow that.
Mark is also happily married to his wife of eight years and gets along great with his adult children, who have long since forgiven him for the selfish behaviors he showed when they were young.
Mark is incredibly grateful for this season of second chances in his life.
BEING THE CHURCH INSIDE AND OUT
Having experienced profound support from churchgoers himself, Mark knows firsthand how important it is to truly “be the church” in this world.
When he recently volunteered at an in-prison Prison Fellowship Hope Event® (one- or two-day yard events introducing prisoners to the hope of Jesus), he shared his story with men who are where he once was, physically and emotionally.
“It’s pretty amazing to be able to get in there and share that hope with them, and let them know that there is hope for tomorrow,” Mark says.
That hope for tomorrow also includes supporting children of incarcerated parents. Mark says it’s important for churches to “[be] open to bring the children into the conversation, because our children are our leaders of tomorrow.”
Serving others and showing them kindness can have a far-reaching impact. And Mark emphasizes the importance of sharing God’s message of hope and love to men and women behind bars.
“So many people that are locked up feel that their hope is gone. They feel that their family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, don’t want them around,” says Mark. “And if we could show love to those people behind the prison walls, then there’s hope for them tomorrow.”
Mark emphasizes the importance of sharing God’s message of hope and love to men and women behind bars.
