PRISON FELLOWSHIP: InnerChange Freedom Initiative

In today’s confusing society it is no wonder our children, spouses, and other family members and friends end up in trouble or even prison. Call me ‘old school,’ but throughout a large portion of a young person’s developmental years they live in this confusing world where there are no absolutes.

By the time he was 15 years old, Arthur Medina was a runaway living on the streets in Texas. It wasn’t long before he turned to crime just to survive.

Art earned his living stealing cars and running them across the border.

This past Sunday was a time of great celebration at IFI. Eighteen formerly incarcerated men returned to the Carol Vance unit to graduate before their families and other program participants.

Last year, Bob celebrated his 90th birthday inside Minnesota's only level five maximum-security prison, Oak Park Heights. Bob has led Bible studies there since the late 1990s.

A version of this article originally appeared on the Justice Fellowship website.

It’s “boring” to work in prison units where faith-based programs thrive.

According to Justice Fellowship Policy Analyst Jesse Wiese, who served a sentence in an Iowa prison, corrections officers often complained that it was boring to be in a prison unit filled with men and women who were involved in religious programs that taught morality—because there wasn’t much discipline to enforce.

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!

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.