PRISON FELLOWSHIP: Christmas

Christmas can be a lonely season, especially when families are separated. But we can take joy in knowing that God is with us every step of the way.

"Times were hard. I was now free from prison, but I was dirt poor and raising my three daughters alone."

Purchasing gifts for your friends and family this season? Did you know you can also give to Prison Fellowship through Amazon Smile at no extra cost to you?

As we gather with our families to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, let’s remember those who will not be home for the holidays this year.

Nearly every fourth Tuesday of the month, a shabby batch of bicycles arrives at the gates of Folsom State Prison.

Members of the Cameron Park Rotary Club collect the misfit bicycles from a warehouse in Diamond Springs, California, and send them off to Folsom to be repaired, repainted, and restored.

For most people familiar with it, talk of Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program brings to mind images of Christmas presents and seasonal parties with cookies and carols playing in the background. So you might be surprised to know that summer is a very busy time for Angel Tree and its mission to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the families of prisoners.

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes―and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In case anyone might have missed it, we have entered headlong into the holiday season.