Prison Ministry
Recent Blogposts
-
Event
Crossroads Prison Ministries Table
Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 16, July 2023, 10:30 a.m.
End Time: Sun 16, July 2023, noon
Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, July 16, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministries and learn how you can get involved.
-
Event
Crossroads Prison Ministries Table
Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 16, April 2023, 9 a.m.
End Time: Sun 16, April 2023, 1 p.m.
Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, April 16, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministries and learn how you can get involved.
-
Event
Crossroads Prison Ministries Workshop 2023
Location: The Venue at Parkside Church
Start Time: Sat 4, March 2023, 9:30 a.m.
End Time: Sat 4, March 2023, noon
We will host a volunteer training workshop on Saturday, March 4, for all current Crossroads Prison Ministries mentors and for anyone who is considering becoming a mentor. The training will be held in the Venue at Parkside Church from 9:30 am-noon with Douglas Cupery, Director of Church Mobilization at Crossroads' headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The purpose of the workshop is to hear how God is using Parkside mentors to affect the lives of prisoners, to provide training for mentors, to connect more experienced mentors with newer mentors, and to develop a network of fellowship among local Crossroads mentors. The event is open to those who do not attend at Parkside Church. A continental breakfast and lunch will be served.
If you are a Crossroads mentor, have any interest in becoming a mentor, or just want to find out more about Crossroads Prison Ministries, join us on March 4!
There is no cost for the workshop but, please register so that we can have enough materials and food prepared.
-
Event
Crossroads Prison Ministries Table
Location: Hallway outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 15, Jan. 2023, 10 a.m.
End Time: Sun 15, Jan. 2023, noon
Stop by the table outside the Venue on Sunday morning, January 15, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministry and learn how you can get involved.
-
Event
Crossroads Prison Ministries Table
Location: Outside the Venue
Start Time: Sun 18, Sept. 2022, 9 a.m.
End Time: Sun 18, Sept. 2022, noon
Stop by the table on Sunday morning, September 18, to find out more about our partnership with Crossroads Prison Ministry and how you can get involved.
-
Volunteer with Crossroads
Parkside partners with Crossroads Prison Ministries in providing Bible lessons and encouragement to those incarcerated. Volunteers grade papers and write letters to inmates anonymously. To learn more, email Dave.
-
‘This is one of the first things I’ve been faithful to besides drugs’
by Elizabeth DeGroot, Crossroads Intern
In describing the worst moments of his life, Brian, a Crossroads student in Louisiana, mentions drugs and darkness. In describing the best moments of his life, Brian mentions Jesus. He shared with Crossroads, “God saved me from drug abuse, death and hell. . . . I live with Jesus, and He gives me life.”
Brian’s battle with substance abuse began in the aftermath of his parents’ messy divorce. He wrote that, after his parents split, “I stayed with my dad, and I watched him struggle and hurt. It brought a lot of pain and sorrow on me.” To ease the pain, Brian, a young teenager at the time, turned to drugs and alcohol.
At first, Brian was “just experimenting and having fun.” But soon, things spiraled out of control. Brian dropped out of high school, tried and failed to work with his father at a roofing company and strained all his close relationships. He wrote, “I couldn’t pick myself up. The only time I felt good was when I was high, extremely high. So, I used drugs to cover up a broken heart and pain. But I was just making things worse for myself.”
-
"I felt the weight lift from my shoulders."
by Amy Cain
Harry had been serving time in prison for twelve years, guilt and regret weighing heavily on his heart. Having taken another man’s life, he knew he still had years to spend in that cell. He didn’t know how to move forward with his life, and he was losing hope that he ever could.
One day, he received a letter that changed everything.
“On April 2, 2014, I received a letter from my victim’s daughter,” Harry remembered. “She forgave me for taking her father’s life twelve years prior. She also sent me a Bible and invited me to build a meaningful relationship with the Lord. That turned my entire life around.”
Harry was overwhelmed by this woman’s act of forgiveness and grace. He knew it must have come from God.
“[God] had touched her heart to forgive me, and I felt the weight lift from my shoulders,” he said. “It was then I chose to live for Him and die to self.”
-
'He didn't leave me wandering'
by | Feb 21, 2022
“If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.” – Matthew 18:12–13
Another mistake, another arrest. Luis found himself in jail—again. He was sick of the cycle, but he didn’t know how to break it.
He had grown up in a Catholic family that attended mass every week, but he found religion boring. It didn’t take long for him to choose his own path. “I lost myself at a young age,” Luis remembered. “By twelve, I was using drugs and drinking. My days were spent on the streets. I thought life was great; I did what I wanted when I wanted.”
-
Crossroads Wrote Letters When No One Else Would
by | Dec 27, 2021
Timothy spent his high school summers volunteering on mission trips with a local church. But Timothy wasn’t a Christian—he was a professed atheist.
“Although the youth center [that I had joined] was separate from the church, they often invited us to events and missions,” Timothy remembered. “I began building houses in Mexico for this church but refused to be part of studies or talks about Jesus. The church members respected my stance about God; therefore, I wasn’t required to participate in studies or discussions.”
When he was eighteen, the volunteers were forced to relocate from their usual place of service because of cartel activity. Their new mission was to build a school for a recently established church in Mexico.