Jack's Story: Finding Faith Behind Bars

By Paige Deur  |  July 1, 2024

Jack’s early life was fraught with neglect and emotional abuse. His parents were distant and dismissive, often prioritizing their free time over his well-being. As a child, video games became his primary companion, as he was rarely allowed to spend time with friends.

On his sixteenth birthday, his parents took him to McDonald’s. Instead of treating him to a celebratory meal, they left him there with a job application, demanding rent from his first paycheck.

Jack’s perception of family and faith, tainted by his upbringing, led to hardships and struggles as he became a husband and father. For years, he had been skeptical of Christianity, viewing it as restrictive and uninteresting.

Crossroads Prison Ministries Table

Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 20, Oct. 2024, 9:30 a.m.
End Time: Sun 20, Oct. 2024, noon

Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, October 20, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministries, talk with ministry volunteers, and learn how you can get involved.

Am I Making a Difference?

By Douglas Cupery

Seated at a reentry ministry’s breakfast event, I glanced around at the faces of those in attendance, my mind racing with memories. I saw friends, chaplains, and mentors who had been involved since the beginning of the reentry ministry twenty years ago. As I listened to the speakers, it became clear that many of the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated people remain unchanged. The personal and systemic societal obstacles we addressed years ago stubbornly persist. I leaned over and asked a friend, “Have we made a difference?”

Many of the volunteer mentors at Crossroads have asked me the same question. It is an understandable question to ponder as we endeavor to live out our faith in a broken world. One might easily conclude that our world’s challenges are insurmountable. I’ve been in conversations where people ask, “Why bother trying? I am just going to live my life.”

Crossroads Prison Ministries Table

Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 21, July 2024, 9 a.m.
End Time: Sun 21, July 2024, noon

Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, July 21, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministries, talk with ministry volunteers, and learn how you can get involved.

Critical Need: Seeking Spanish-Speaking Mentors to Support Students

We are writing to share an urgent need within our organization and to seek your support in addressing it.

In 2022, a significant challenge emerged in our Spanish program. Due to a lack of Spanish-speaking mentors, we encountered a backlog that resulted in over 900 student lessons sitting in our office for several weeks. This backlog led to Spanish-speaking students experiencing a delay of over two months before their completed lessons could be reviewed by mentors. The impact of this was profound and disheartening.

The situation escalated to the point where, regrettably, we had to suspend new enrollments from March to September of that year. This decision meant turning away over 840 Spanish-speaking incarcerated individuals eager to engage in studying God’s Word through our program.

Today, we are facing a resurgence in Spanish student enrollments. To effectively manage this, we urgently need to recruit new Spanish-speaking mentors. We are reaching out to you, our valued partners, to assist us in this mission. Your influence and networks could be instrumental in helping us find dedicated individuals who are passionate about mentoring and making a meaningful difference in the lives of our students.

We would be incredibly grateful if you could share this need within your networks. Together, we can ensure that no student is turned away and that everyone expressing a desire to learn more about God receives the guidance and support they need.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at mentor@cpministries.org.

You can refer anyone interested to our Spanish website: https://www.cmcarcelario.org/.

Blessings,

Jen Pichardo Mentor Support Team

Crossroads Prison Ministries

p: 800.668.2450, ext. 2225

mentor@cpministries.org 

Crossroads Prison Ministries Table

Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 21, April 2024, 9:30 a.m.
End Time: Sun 21, April 2024, noon

Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, April 21, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministries and learn how you can get involved.

Crossroads Prison Ministries Table

Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 21, Jan. 2024, 9 a.m.
End Time: Sun 21, Jan. 2024, 7 p.m.

Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, January 21, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministries and learn how you can get involved.

Crossroads Prison Ministries Table

Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 15, Oct. 2023, 8 a.m.
End Time: Sun 15, Oct. 2023, noon

Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, October 15, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministries and learn how you can get involved.

Mentor Helps Students Discover New Family in Christ

Several months ago Paige Deur, one of the staff at Crossroads Prison Ministries, interviewed a longtime Parkside Church mentor, Gerry Hoeltge. She recently published her notes on the CPM blog. Read his story here.

Crossroads Prison Ministries Workshop Recording Available

On March 4, 2023, we held a training workshop with Douglas Cupery, Director of Church Mobilization at Crossroads Prison Ministries in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Main workshop sessions are available to stream below:

Session 1 (12 minutes): https://pkschurch.com/Crossroads2023_1

Session 2 (1 hour, 20 minutes): https://pkschurch.com/Crossroads2023_2