Dear John,
I hope you enjoyed my last email, as I shared a bit of our recent history and reflected on the changes we’ve seen at Prison Fellowship during my seven-year tenure. As my time here winds down, I want to continue reflecting on the four priorities we’ve been focused on during this time.
As I shared a couple of weeks ago, the team and I took on four major initiatives during our transition from being a founder-led to a mission-led organization under my leadership: 1) growing the footprint of the Prison Fellowship Academy, 2) ensuring that all our programs are operating at peak efficiency and meeting their primary goals, 3) rebuilding the network of churches engaged in serving the incarcerated and their families, and 4) improving the culture of the organization.
In my last communication, I discussed the amazing growth of our
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Prison Fellowship Academy, which is core to our mission at Prison Fellowship. New program sites are opening across the country, and we are seeing lives change as a result. We celebrated with a group of 25 women who graduated from an Academy site in Ohio just a few weeks ago. Graduates and their guests cried tears of joy as participants shared their testimonies of how the Academy not only changed the direction of their lives, but also how God drew them into a personal relationship with Himself, many for the first time.
Just this week, we heard from Lewis, another graduate in Oklahoma, who shared:
Prison Fellowship Academy has taught me how to find tools to step out in rebuilding the broken relationships that I have caused with my family members, such as my daughter, and most of all God. It is my responsibility to become a better man so I can leave this world knowing that I made a positive impact [on] people’s lives while on this earth.
It’s not just the Academy that is flourishing. The team has worked tirelessly to streamline operations across all our programs, improving efficiency and outcomes to ensure that we’re stewarding our finances and responsibility effectively.
We’ve increased our evangelism efforts in prison as well, providing more than 123,000 Inside Journal Life Recovery Bibles and increasing our presence through Hope Events across the country.
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We recently hosted events featuring two former Major League Baseball players—Darryl Strawberry and Willie Aikens —at Boonville Correctional Center in Missouri. The message that was shared brought many of the attendees to tears. To God be the glory!
Our work in the criminal justice space has also been growing. Whether it’s expanding the distribution of our
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Outrageous Justice small group study to churches, working tirelessly on
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criminal justice policy and reforms , or strengthening our
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Justice Ambassador program to train volunteers to advocate for justice that restores in their communities, the team has been hard at work to shape the public debate—using our biblical values as the foundation.
We’re seeing great progress and program expansion in all areas of the ministry, and in these next four weeks I look forward to continuing to share about how we’re engaging churches in the work the Lord has given us and creating a true Christian culture of collaboration within the Prison Fellowship team.
Thank you for covering the ministry in
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prayer as we move through this leadership transition. And, as always, we are so grateful for your continued
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support to restore those affected by crime and incarceration.
Praising Him,
JAMES J. ACKERMAN
President and Chief Executive Officer
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Prison Fellowship P.O. Box 1550, Merrifield, VA, 22116-1550 US
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