One of the main ministries of the church that's behind these prison walls is one of compassion...
For so many prisoners, life has dealt them many cruel blows. It is not just a matter of people making wrong choices, although committing a crime is certainly a wrong choice.
Yet our world is not so simple that you could put everything in black or white, right and wrong.
I say this because so many who are doing time in prison have few life skills to make it in the outside world. They struggled with mental diseases like schizophrenia and clinical depression. While others came from dysfunctional homes where there was no love. There was no one around to encourage them to lead law-abiding lives. They grew up in households where one or both parents were alcoholics or drug addicts. They, too, followed in the path their parents set before then, and they became substance
abusers.
For some there were commitments to juvenile detention centers. They started early as criminals. And yet for others, there were commitments to psychiatric institutions. But whether they found themselves incarcerated or hospitalized, they were all off to a bad start. That these kinds of people end up in adult prisons should be no surprise. For most of their lives they lived outside of the mainstream of society. They never seemed to fit in.
Nevertheless, looking at my fellow prisoners with the eyes of a Christian, there are wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel with them. Their hearts yearn for love and forgiveness. And God offers these things to them and more.
D.B.
Yet our world is not so simple that you could put everything in black or white, right and wrong.
I say this because so many who are doing time in prison have few life skills to make it in the outside world. They struggled with mental diseases like schizophrenia and clinical depression. While others came from dysfunctional homes where there was no love. There was no one around to encourage them to lead law-abiding lives. They grew up in households where one or both parents were alcoholics or drug addicts. They, too, followed in the path their parents set before then, and they became substance
abusers.
For some there were commitments to juvenile detention centers. They started early as criminals. And yet for others, there were commitments to psychiatric institutions. But whether they found themselves incarcerated or hospitalized, they were all off to a bad start. That these kinds of people end up in adult prisons should be no surprise. For most of their lives they lived outside of the mainstream of society. They never seemed to fit in.
Nevertheless, looking at my fellow prisoners with the eyes of a Christian, there are wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel with them. Their hearts yearn for love and forgiveness. And God offers these things to them and more.
D.B.