"During the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said, “Go and stand in the temple courts and proclaim to the people all the words of this life.”
Acts 5:19-20 ESV
Calling
I am called to lead them through the gates of Second Prison by building relationships with those incarcerated before they are released, mentor them, work with them to formulate their reentry plan and then encourage them once they come home. Reentry often means rebuilding families as well.
I work with several other ministries that all contribute to successful reentry. Many of the issues faced by those incarcerated revolve around broken homes and missing fathers. Part of this ministry is to help restore fathers to their families, provide fatherhood coaching and to mentor kids living in broken homes to provide positive role models to help break the cycle of broken homes and crime from generation to generation.
Two ministries I work with in particular are Prison Fellowship Angel Tree and the Spokane Fatherhood Initiative. You will find links to both of these ministries at the bottom of this article.
We also work with prisoners and returning citizens to give them voice through Urban Verve Publishing with fiction based on real life stories about Christian redemption, witness testimonies and Christian teachings. We have much to learn through the experiences of those who have been swept up into the prison systems. From their personal stories we learn ways to break the cycle of crime, drugs and broken homes.
Since 1993
The four major areas of my ministry are:
April is
Second Chance Month is an annual, Prison Fellowship, international initiative to increase public awareness abut the challenges Returning Citizens (those released from prison) must overcome in order to be successful and not re-offend and return to prison. For more information and simple ways you can help click on the following button:
*Second Prison
Second Prison is what returning citizens enter when they walk out of the prison gates. They are metaphorically fenced in by over 48,000 laws and regulations that block them from jobs, housing, voting and some social services. Public perception and discrimination often prevent acceptance as neighbors in the community.
The term “second prison” was coined by Prison Fellowship. The Christian nonprofit also founded Second Chance Month to increase public awareness about the second prison during the month of April every year. Second Chance Month is observed by hundreds of partner organizations, congregations and businesses and has been recognized through a Presidential proclamation, U.S. Senate resolution, and by many other state and local jurisdictions.