Dear John,

For most, the signs of autumn conjure thoughts of sweaters and changing leaves. For those of us at Prison Fellowship, autumn means it’s Angel Tree season!

By October, we are diving headfirst into planning for Angel Tree Christmas! This year, that includes new preparations to ensure every child gets served, regardless of any COVID-19-related restrictions at Christmastime.

As of this week, we have received the final deluge of Angel Tree applications from parents in prison. Although some signups are still being loaded into the database, it appears we are on track to have 215,000 children to serve this year—praise Jesus! We know gifts shared through Angel Tree lead to improved relationships between incarcerated parents and their children. And the joy that results when children wake up on Christmas to see that their mom or dad in prison has not forgotten them is simply priceless. That’s why we dedicate ourselves each year to ensuring that every Angel Tree child gets served. And since prison visits have been prohibited for more than six months, this Christmas it’s more important than ever to keep families connected through Angel Tree this Christmas.

Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, the number of churches and groups signing up to serve Angel Tree children with a gift and the Gospel on behalf of their incarcerated parent is behind schedule. In response, we have continued to develop our new Virtual Angel Tree platform. This will allow churches to go to an online “tree” and choose children to serve, and Prison Fellowship will facilitate the remote delivery of the gifts, Bibles, and the messages from incarcerated parents. This new way of serving, which will operate in parallel with our traditional in-person delivery of gifts, will help us ensure again this year that every child gets served. Would you join us in praying more churches and organizations around the country will sign up to be the hands and feet of Jesus, helping incarcerated parents connect with their children this Christmas?