“When you’re in the early years with young children as a stay-at-home mom, it can definitely be isolating [and] sometimes not as mentally stimulating as I was used to,” says Arijaan.

Arijaan’s own mother encouraged her to look into becoming a mentor with Crossroads Prison Ministries. It’s a unique ministry opportunity from home where Christian mentors correspond with Crossroads Bible study students in prison through writing letters.

“To take on a ministry that I could do from home and really see the impact and believe in it was so exciting for me!” she shares.

Arijaan Norwood and her family. (Photo courtesy of Arijaan Norwood with Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Now, as a Crossroads mentor, Arijaan not only engages with inmates through Bible study but also sees the spiritual impact on her own family.

Arijaan shares, “My kids see me working on the lesson or writing the letter [and] they’ll ask about what I’m doing. I love sharing with them about God’s heart for those who are in prison and the role that we can play. We pray for them together.

“Another positive impact I would say is on my marriage, kind of unexpectedly. But there are times where my mentee will write something that I’m not sure how to respond to. I’ll bring it up with my husband and we’ll talk it through, and it just brings about deeper conversation than just the day-to-day conversations.”

Through prison mentorship, Arijaan has found a tangible way to connect with the Great Commission and witness God’s movement — both in her life and in the lives of others.

She says, “It’s definitely worth it to invest into the lives of not just those that you see right in front of you, but to gain that eternal perspective as you’re reaching out to all sorts of people that God has a heart for.”

If you or someone you know may be interested in becoming a Bible study mentor with Crossroads, Arijaan encourages, “It’s definitely a step of faith, and it’s easy to think that you don’t have time. I will say that it does take discipline to set aside really just about an hour a week, so it’s not long. But it’s really mentally and spiritually engaging.”

Learn more about becoming a mentor with Crossroads!

Header stock photo courtesy of Sixteen Miles Out/Unsplash.

The catalyst for this transformation is Crossroads Prison Ministries’ mentor program.

“We connect mentors from churches with our students in prisons, and they correspond back and forth with each other through letters and our Bible study lessons,” explains Brian Kamstra, Crossroads’ Director of International Ministries.

During a recent visit to Langata Women’s Prison, Kamstra and his team witnessed firsthand how the Holy Spirit is moving. “That was just a very, very touching time for us,” he shares. “We spent time worshiping with the women and learning some of their stories. A couple of students shared how going through the Crossroads lessons has transformed their lives.”

One moment stood out to Kamstra. “I looked down in front of me, and there was a Bible sitting on the chair. A woman had written on the pages of her Bible — the word ‘blessed.’ As I looked at that woman, we were in our time of worship and she was just singing at the top of her lungs.

“How ironic to see the word ‘blessed’ on her Bible when she’s locked up in this prison, but probably is more free than she has ever been through learning more about Jesus and the life transformation she has gone through.”

Jane from the Langata Women’s Prison in Kenya. (Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

The reality of life in Kenyan prisons is sobering. Overcrowding is a massive issue, partly because more than half of incarcerated individuals are still awaiting trial — sometimes for over a year.

Kamstra says, “One of the reasons why women are going into prison is because of fighting or domestic violence issues.” He describes tragic situations where a woman, defending herself against an abusive partner, might unintentionally cause harm and find herself imprisoned.

Crossroads is a lifeline for many women at Langata. One inmate, Jane, shared how the lessons sustain her. “She said, ‘When you’re in prison, you have to forgive. I have to forgive my neighbor…because I have to live with that person.'”

Through Bible study, women are learning about their identity in Christ.

“Those are the things that our ministry is all about,” Kamstra says. “The Crossroads lessons have helped people understand forgiveness, understand that they’re a child of God, understand that they are loved, understand that a mentor cares for them, [and] understand that there are churches out there that want to be involved and engaged in prison ministry.”

Crossroads carries out ministry to prisons in Kenya and four other African countries. You can advance this critical Gospel outreach by supporting Crossroads at their website.

Header photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

Pastor Hiram Vega of Chase Oaks Church explains, “When people hear about going into prison or prison ministry, they think, ‘Oh, it may take a lot of time.’ Or ‘I cannot travel…. How do I get into a prison?’ Fears combined with ignorance, it’s a lot of trouble.

“But in this case…anybody could do it because anybody who is a Christian who knows how to read and write could be a mentor. I was excited about the possibility of opening up something that my church could do, and we could serve, at the same time, our community — which is Latinos or Spanish-speaking people.”

Crossroads often faces a shortage of Spanish-speaking mentors. They currently have a 4.5-week backlog of Bible studies from Spanish-speaking prisoners waiting for a letter from a mentor.

One-year celebration of prison ministry partnership between Crossroads and Chase Oaks Church. (Photo courtesy of Pastor Hiram Vega)

Pastor Vega urges more Christians, especially Spanish speakers, to become mentors with Crossroads and experience the mutual blessing of prison ministry.

“From the mentor’s perspective, the Bible says it’s better to give than to receive. So whenever they give encouragement, they get encouraged back!”

What about you? Is God calling you to write letters with prisoners and share Christ’s love?

Spanish speakers can learn more about becoming a Crossroads mentor here! For English, click here.

Pastor Vega says, “My encouragement will be the same as [the Bible’s] encouragement: Remember those in prison as if you were in prison alongside them.”

Header photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

Pastor Hiram Vega with one of the “founding” mentors. (Photo courtesy of Pastor Hiram Vega)

The congregation at Chase Oaks Church didn’t just catch the vision for prison ministry — they ran with it.

Today, 19 people from Chase Oaks Church are enrolled (either actively or on-hold) as Spanish-speaking mentors with Crossroads, and a total of 41 church members have been involved over the past year.

Pastor Vega says they recently marked the one-year anniversary of prison ministry with Crossroads by throwing a party for the mentors. At the celebration, they honored “founding” mentors with diplomas and a small gift—a nice pen for writing more letters to men and women in prison.

Pastor Vega says, “When we celebrated and we shared what we were doing for a year, people got excited and five people decided to join the ministry right then!”

The mentors at Chase Oaks Church are big on encouraging one another with Gospel wins. They share testimonials and stories of how they see the Lord working in the hearts of men and women they correspond with in prison.

Pastor Vega emphasizes that prayer is another key foundation of the ministry. “Whenever somebody presents a prayer request, we have a group chat. They share a prayer request, and we all pray. So it’s like we are being reminded of the difference we can make, not just answering the letter but praying for them.

(Photo courtesy of Pastor Hiram Vega)

“It’s a circle. We get an answer [from a prisoner], we pray, and then we see the difference in our lives too. So we get enriched both ways.”

Praise God for one year of Gospel prison ministry at Chase Oaks Church! Pray for more mentors, especially Spanish-speaking mentors, to join Crossroads.

Learn more about becoming a mentor with Crossroads here.

Header photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

With Crossroads Prison Ministries, any follower of Christ can get involved to encourage incarcerated men and women with God’s Word. Crossroads makes the process simple and addresses several concerns for potential ministry partners.

First, some people think that prison ministry can only be done by going into the prisons themselves.

This misconception keeps many Christians from even considering prison ministry as a discipleship opportunity.

Paige Deur, Crossroads’ content and social media specialist, says, “If you are looking at prison ministry, in general, going into prison is an intimidating thing. I think, particularly for introverts, it’s a very overstimulating environment and you often have to talk to a lot of people.”

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Christians involved with Crossroads don’t have to physically travel to prisons for ministry. In fact, they don’t even have to set foot outside of their homes.

Instead, mentors correspond with incarcerated Bible study students through the mail. Together, mentor and student walk through the Crossroads curriculum and dive into God’s Word. All communication is done through letter writing, and Crossroads handles the rest.

Another concern that potential mentors have is anonymity.

Crossroads church mobilization director assistant Alaina Zwiernikowski says, “I hear often people are hesitant to sign up because they don’t want to give out their personal information, and they think that they might have to do that. So as a Crossroads mentor, we make it so that all their information is anonymous!”

Finally, a third major hesitation is simply: What if I don’t know what to say?

Alexis Ryan, Crossroads’ mentor coordinator, says, “Another pushback I’ve heard from some prospective mentors is that they don’t know if they’ll have all of the right answers because they’ve never experienced something even similar to being in prison or jail. That is a good thought, but I think that the lessons do a great job of aiding in giving the mentors something to say to the students, even if they have no similar experiences.

“Each time a mentor corresponds with a student, they are going to be reviewing a lesson that the students filled out. So they can really focus on the biblical lesson content and learn together as a mentor and student.

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

“We also provide answer keys for mentors, so those answer keys will give lots of good details, Scripture references, [and] example answers of what students might say so that mentors can best respond to a student.”

Learn more about becoming a Crossroads mentor!

Crossroads is especially looking for more Spanish-speaking mentors to correspond with Spanish-speaking Bible study students.

Most importantly, Deur says, “I pray that the Holy Spirit would work in and through the words that are exchanged between both our students and mentors so that [they] continue to grow in their faith through this ministry. [Pray] that doors would continue to open for us to serve even more students as we face different mailing restrictions from different facilities.”

Header photo courtesy of Milad Fakurian/Unsplash.

Jose Pichardo, Crossroads’ mentor support team manager, says last year, “We had a backlog where over 900 lessons [from Spanish-speaking students] were sitting in our office for several weeks.

“These are completed lessons from men and women behind bars that were interested in studying God’s Word with us. But because we didn’t have enough Spanish-speaking mentors to review those lessons and write those men and women letters, there was a delay of over two months.”

(Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Eventually, Crossroads had to stop enrolling new Spanish-speaking students in their prisoner Bible study program. From March to September, they turned away over 840 Spanish-speaking students.

“It’s just really discouraging when you have to turn people away because you don’t have enough people available,” says Pichardo.

Crossroads has resumed Spanish-speaker student enrollment, but the backlog is piling up again.

“Our ministry currently needs Spanish-speaking people to come alongside us to take on their lessons and write them letters so that they can, again, receive that encouragement from someone on the outside and just continue growing through their Bible studies.”

God can use you just by writing letters with a Bible study student in prison.

If you or someone you know speaks Spanish and is interested in becoming a mentor, visit Crossroads’ website here!

Header photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

For more introverted Christians, becoming a mentor with Crossroads Prison Ministries could be a great way to share your faith in a low-pressure setting.

Alaina Zwiernikowski is the assistant to the church mobilization director at Crossroads. As a self-described introvert, Zwiernikowski says introverts face different challenges when it comes to finding ministry and discipleship opportunities.

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

“My biggest challenge is just going for it. I feel like, being in a larger crowd of people, I usually have some nerves and anxiety that comes with that. So just signing up or just making that initial effort to do that is a challenge.”

Paige Deur, Crossroads’ content and social media specialist, agrees, “As an introvert, I’m more of an internal processor. So it’s harder to be in a setting where you’re necessarily having to share on the spot…. I think that is a lot of ministry opportunities. Maybe you’re doing a teaching type of thing where you’re interacting with people and having to respond to things on the spot. [It’s] harder for introverts because they’re internal processors.”

Crossroads mentors are essentially pen-pals with prisoners and walk with them through Crossroads’ Bible studies.

Deur says, “Something that’s really special and unique about Crossroads is it gives you that time to process things and to write them out. You can scrap it and come back to it and work on it, and you don’t have to necessarily be so ‘on the spot.'”

Alexis Ryan, the mentor coordinator at Crossroads adds, “We have a whole team at Crossroads that’s here to support all of our mentors and that’s our number one priority and job. So if a mentor has any question about anything in a lesson or any interaction that they’ve had with a student, they are always welcome to contact us.”

Along with being the mentor coordinator, Ryan is a mentor herself. She says serving as a Crossroads mentor works well with her current life stage.

(Photo courtesy of Bookblock/Unsplash)

“I have an eight month old baby, so I get to stay home with her some days a week,” says Ryan. “It’s an interesting time of life because I feel like I have more time — but only at certain points in the day, right? So I can’t commit to something after 7 pm anymore. But I definitely can do something by myself at home for a couple hours during nap times.

“So this is something that I…can do where I feel like I am building up the Church.”

If you are interested, click here to discover more about becoming a Crossroads mentor!

Pray that God would soften the hearts of men and women in prison to Gospel truth. Ask the Lord if there are ways He can use you with your gifts and talents to build His Kingdom. Maybe prison ministry is the next step?

Header photo courtesy of Unseen Studio/Unsplash.

Since May, over 450 believers have been killed in targeted attacks across northern Nigeria. Yet, Greg Kelley with World Mission says these threats stand out.

“The thing that’s most concerning to me is the location of it,” Kelley says. “Plateau State is very much in the center of Nigeria.

“Now, in the past, we’ve been talking about these atrocities and the challenges and the attacks and the killings and the violence. It’s all primarily happening in the northeast/northwest areas of Nigeria. This is very much right in central Nigeria, which is incredibly concerning…. It feels like things are really moving south and there’s a real intentionality to it.”

These disciples of Christ are passionately sharing God’s Word in Northeastern Nigeria.
(Photo, caption courtesy of World Mission)

The conflict is farmers who are mostly Christian and the Muslim Fulani who are cattle herders.

Locals in Hukke Village, Riyom, and Barkin Ladi received these letters written in Hausa, the Fulani language. The letter also expressed no desire for peace with the Christians.

Kelley says, “I really believe, at the end of the day, this is a spiritual battle because Nigeria is the most strategic country in the entire continent of Africa. You have over 220 million people living there – by far the most populated country. It’s located right in the central part of Africa.”

The best way to calm the ongoing conflict in northern Nigeria is with more efforts to bring the Gospel.

World Mission sends solar-powered audio Bibles called Treasures into northern Nigeria, specifically to reach Muslim communities with God’s Word.

Kelley says Christian survivors of attacks also need counseling and the support of the Body of Christ. “It’s not easy to preach the Gospel to the oppressed and the brokenhearted and the traumatized. These people need food, they need water, they’ve lost their home, and then that doesn’t even mention the issue of the safety of the missionary.

“There’s a lot of challenges that are going on, but God is able. We have to continue to pray for Nigeria that there would be peace.”

Pray for the Gospel to take root in northern Nigeria, and for protection against any threats of attack for Christians in central Nigeria.

Header photo courtesy of World Mission.

“The holidays are an incredibly difficult time for men and women behind bars,” says Anne Hamming, communications director of Crossroads Prison Ministries. “They know all the festivities that are going on outside of prison walls and they are not able to participate in them with their families.

“Many people behind bars are parents or grandparents. Many of them have children growing up without them home. So especially for those men and women, the holidays can be incredibly painful to get through.”

Art by Sean Rikers, the cover art of Crossroads’ 2022 Christmas card. (Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

However, God has not forgotten those in prison. Crossroads makes sure prisoners know that by mailing Christmas cards to their incarcerated Bible study students.

This year, Crossroads mailed over 18,000 Christmas cards to men and women behind bars.

The Christmas cards feature beautiful artwork by other prisoners, and serve as a profound source of encouragement.

Hamming says, “To put it in context, many of them get zero mail. They get no visitors. So on top of the ones who feel the pain of being away from their families, others feel the pain of utter isolation and feeling forgotten. Many, many students tell us that our lessons and our Christmas cards are the only mail that they get.”

Crossroads can always use more believers who are willing to volunteer as mentors in the Bible study program. It’s like being a Bible study pen pal with a prisoner.

What better time than Christmas to begin a new mentoring relationship with someone behind bars who needs the encouragement of a Savior?

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Hamming says, “Many of our volunteers can do it at their convenience. Several of them volunteer while they’re having their morning coffee before they get their day started. It’s really easy to volunteer with Crossroads. It’s a small time commitment. It just takes an hour to reflect and if you have some encouragement in your heart that you can put down on paper, it means the world to someone living behind bars.”

Learn more about becoming a Crossroads mentor!

Header image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

The report goes up to 2019 and doesn’t yet cover pandemic numbers, but Anne Hamming with Crossroads Prison Ministries says COVID made things even harder for prisoners’ mental health.

“Through the pandemic, especially when the lockdowns were in every facility, [we saw] just despair and loneliness,” says Hamming. “‘I don’t get to leave my cell. I don’t get to have visitors. I can only communicate via mail with my family, and sometimes not even that.’ There were staffing issues, so a lot of inmates didn’t even get their mail through parts of the pandemic because COVID created staffing issues. It was just a huge compounding of issues that added to the isolation, and it was prolonged.

(Photo courtesy of Karsten Winegeart via Unsplash)

“Now, we’re three years into the pandemic and things have opened up, of course, and returned much more to normal. But there still are these conditions that create isolation over and above conditions that already contributed to risks of falling into mental illness.”

Crossroads pairs prisoners with Christian mentors to write letters and go through mailed Bible studies together.

Hamming says, “First of all, we are eyes and ears. So if a student in a Bible study or in a letter conveys some suicidal ideation or some thoughts that cause us concern, our staff immediately contacts the facility where the student resides to make sure that appropriate interventions happen.”

The biggest part Crossroads mentors can play is to provide emotional support and spiritual encouragement.

“That’s the role of our mentors — to pray for the students, to offer them encouragement, and to write them a letter with every lesson. The impact of that is students know they aren’t forgotten. That’s the single largest concern for inmates because the vast majority of them do not receive any mail. A fair number of them receive no visitors, and they do feel absolutely forgotten.

“Time after time, they say, ‘Thank you for remembering me, and letting me know I’m not forgotten. Thank you for letting me know that God loves me. Thank you for letting me know and showing me that God has a purpose for me and that incarceration is just one period of my life. I am not my crimes. I am the person I am now in Christ.’”

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Hamming emphasizes, “We are not mental health professionals at Crossroads, yet we are able to provide some things that would complement mental health services for students.”

If you know someone behind bars who would benefit from participating in the Crossroads program, refer them to Crossroads here!

You can also become a Crossroads mentor yourself. Hamming says, “The beauty of Crossroads is that you can do it anywhere. People who are mentors say, ‘Man, I don’t have to go travel miles and miles and go into a prison. I can have this connection.’ And they’re always surprised at the connections that they make simply by writing a letter and walking through a Bible study with a student.”

Finally, pray for men and women in prisons both in the US and around the world to know the hope they have in Jesus Christ.

Header photo courtesy of Ye Jinghan via Unsplash.