Fadi Sharaiha serves with the MENA Leadership Center. This fall, their Emerging Leaders Program has made strong mentor-mentee pairings for Christians from the Middle East and North Africa seeking to grow.

“[A] mentor is someone who has been in the field for some time with a track record of spiritual maturity, achievement, and professional conduct,” Sharaiha said. 

One such match is for an Arabic-speaking church plant in Europe.

(Photo courtesy of MENA Leadership Center)

“They are trying to figure out what to do, what’s next for them, how to conduct the ministry in different levels,” Sharaiha said. “For them, we have someone who has been a pastor [and] who took care of pastors in Europe as well.”

Mentorship isn’t just for leaders. Jesus modeled personal discipleship in His earthly ministry, choosing twelve men and then three even more personally. That means investing spiritually in others is a call for every Christian, in big or small ways. 

“It’s an open invitation from God Himself to us as people of the Church to be more aligned with His purposes and to be more aligned with His heart,” said Sharaiha. 

Sharaiha invites you to dive into both giving and receiving mentorship as part of the Body of Christ! 

“How are you using your time, gifts, and the history, the experience that you have? Are you using it for the glory of God — through mentorship as an example?” Sharaiha said. “The reason I think that the Lord created the whole Church as one body is that we help each other. We are there for each other.”

Interested to take discipleship a step further? Reach out to the MENA Leadership Center if you might be able to offer mentorship to a leader in the Middle East and North Africa. Or consider partnering with this ministry financially to sponsor a life-giving mentorship already taking place.

Header photo courtesy of HIVAN ARVIZU @soyhivan/Unsplash.

Doug Cupery, director of church mobilization at Crossroads Prison Ministries, says, “There are some in prison who can run circles around you and me with their Scripture.

“One of the challenges I’ve noticed through my 20 years of volunteering inside prisons is when, yes, they understand the Scripture — but how do you apply that in [their] lives?”

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

In one sense, it’s a challenge every Christian must grapple with no matter where they are. Applying Scripture is how we practically live out our faith and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

For an inmate, however, the questions of application are unique to their situation.

Cupery says, for example, “How do I apply that [Scripture] with my cellmate? How do I apply with those that I’m in the chow hall with? How do I apply that when I’m out on the yard or in the day room interacting with others? How do I use that when I’m corresponding or talking to my children or my spouse or my parents?”

Biblical application is also crucial for imprisoned men and women as they prepare for release.

“Ninety-five percent of those we incarcerate will be coming home,” says Cupery. “So how do I apply that when I come home to the community that I’m going to live in?”

(Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Crossroads’s Bible study program leads individuals in prison through faith discipleship. A Christian mentor corresponds with a prisoner through letters. Together, the mentor and student go through the Crossroads Bible study, answer questions, share thoughts on the text, and discuss the application.

“When we focus our lives on Jesus and His light, in turn, we are to be the light so that others see Jesus through us. So how do we help those who are incarcerated to be that person?”

Cupery says, “We actually have to pause, reflect, and rely on the Holy Spirit for the right words that you can put down on paper knowing that those words will be the right words that are read by that person when they receive that letter.”

Learn more about becoming a Crossroads mentor here.

Please also pray for the men and women in prison coming to new faith, re-dedicating their lives to Christ, or seeking to grow spiritually. Ask the Lord to give them wisdom and joy as they faithfully apply Scripture to their daily context.

Header photo courtesy of James L.W./Unsplash.

Christian World Outreach’s Single Moms Raising Sons program began by supporting single mothers in South Africa with Bible studies. But quickly, the ministry realized they needed to help fatherless sons too by connecting them with a biblical community of male mentors.

From there, the Men Molding Men camps were born.

CWO’s Greg Yoder says, “We have two age groups that we do camps with. So it’s the younger boys, and then young men up to about 18-years-old. [They are] just dealing with being a young man and someone who is being raised by a single mom and needing a man around them.”

Men Molding Men camp (Photo courtesy of CWO)

CWO has six Men Molding Men camps in South Africa planned for 2024. The personal and spiritual impacts of these camps can’t be overstated.

“One of the boys just gave a testimony,” Yoder says. “He’s 18-years-old and the other young men that he came to camp with, they’ve become his family and they are encouraging him. He said, ‘I’m quitting smoking, and I know you guys will encourage me.’ So they do become a little community that can encourage each other and just keep each other focused on being Christ-centered in their lives.”

Ultimately, these camps introduce fatherless boys to their perfect and trustworthy Heavenly Father.

You can help make an eternal difference in the life of a fatherless boy in South Africa. Give to CWO’s Men Molding Men camps at their website!

Yoder also asks, “Pray for the leadership of the ministry as they make decisions [and] stay focused on what God’s given us as a ministry.”

Header photo courtesy of CWO.

As a Christ-centered, student-focused program, Crossroads connects people in prison with mentors who study the Bible with them via letters. 

“We have a presence in about 29 countries around the world,” says Joe Pryor, president and CEO of Crossroads. “The reality is, we are in some countries where we have not effectively accomplished translating all of our lessons into their language.”

(Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

The ministry has made staffing changes and hired a Translation Manager in 2023 to accomplish their strategic goal of translating 27 Bible study lessons into 10 languages. 

“When we go into a country, we’re treating it like a franchise. When a person opens a franchise, they have to have a lot of infrastructure in place before they ever open the doors, so that they can be successful when they do open the doors,” says Pryor.

“In the future, we’re not going to go into a country until we have all that infrastructure in place so that we can get everyone there, including the leaders and the students, every chance they need to succeed.”

Pray for Crossroads students around the world to be transformed as they study God’s Word and for God’s blessing on the ministry’s translation process. 

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

“How exciting it will be to be able to go into a country and to be able to say, ‘We not only have all these lessons, we have them in your language,'” says Pryor.

“Please pray for us as we accomplish this goal, because it’s so important to reach so many people around the world.”

To learn more about how you might get involved as a mentor with Crossroads, click here. 

Header image 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.

Joe Pryor, President and CEO of Crossroads says, “So what happens is the large number of people who make up that average sentence length, a lot of them are involved in Crossroads, but they’re just getting out of prison. They’re leaving, and that’s why we see a large number of those dropouts.”

To give students with shorter prison sentences a complete Bible study experience, Crossroads is creating a new starting curriculum with 19 lessons.

Pryor explains, “Everyone will do that [new curriculum]. After that though, if a person has less than six months remaining on their sentence, rather than lose them,…we’re going to create a re-entry track.

(Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

“That re-entry track will be lessons such as going home, community and the family, work and housing, staying sober, staying out, hitting the gate on day one — all of that from a biblical perspective with lessons that will help them use their faith as a way to transition out of prison and successfully back into the community.”

“Then if someone has more than 18 months remaining on their sentence after they complete that first 19 lessons, then we go to a more Crossroads in-depth curriculum — that will be things like God’s great story, the Sermon on the Mount, a renewed mind, theology of missions — and give those individuals who, unfortunately, are staying in prison longer a really strong deep-dive into God’s Word.”

The new curriculum won’t be available for some time, but you can always get involved now by becoming a mentor with Crossroads! Click here to learn more about Crossroads mentors.

“We really believe that this will serve our students well and help them to go home, stay home, and to not only stay out of trouble but live fruitful, successful lives after they get out of prison.”

Pray for men and women in prison to know the grace of Jesus Christ and be strengthened in their faith while serving time.

Header image 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.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Mission India’s Regan Miller says, “[Raxit] had a group of believers over to his house to celebrate his son’s birthday, and a group of anti-Christian extremists just barged in loudly and were aggressive and using inappropriate language and behavior. They were just about to start pelting people with stones, and they only stopped because they saw a security camera.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there.

“The police in the area actually favored the anti-Christian activists and filed a case against Raxit,” says Miller. “He’s had his church disrupted on Sundays before or just had people protest his services. But this is kind of a next-level event.”

Threats and targeting of Christians has grown more common in India over the last decade. Raxit’s story hits home for Mission India as they support local believers in ministry.

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) is coming up Sunday, November 5. It’s really a key time to focus prayer for our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters as they proclaim the Gospel in extremely difficult circumstances.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Leading up to IDOP, Mission India is releasing a week-long devotional prompting prayer and support for persecuted Indian believers like Raxit and his family. The first daily emailed devotional will go out on Monday, October 30.

Sign up for Mission India’s IDOP devotional here!

You can also download a free church resource packet to get your church involved with IDOP at Mission India.

Miller says, “It’ll be a great way to show people just what’s going on with persecution in India that might not make our headlines and might not be front-of-mind very often.

“But it’ll also be something that can help people grow in their own faith. The story that we’re sharing through this devotional is one where over and over, we’ve seen people be impacted personally and convicted by the Holy Spirit in how they can grow in their own faith too.”

Finally, please pray for Raxit and his family as they deal with the fallout of this incident with local anti-Christian extremists. Ask the Lord to infuse Raxit with wisdom and confidence as he represents Christ in his community. Pray for their protection and perseverance.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

Woldhuis grew up in a Christian home, but ran from God after high school. He says, “I went as far as getting a tattoo of a devil on my chest. But that’s how little I wanted to do with anything Christianity. I wasn’t worshipping the devil, I just didn’t want anything to do with Christians. It was that one decision that just directed so many of my steps from that point. Drug addiction started, I got divorced, [and] there was just a lot of the enemy working on me.”

Drug addiction finally caught up with Woldhuis, and he fell in and out of prison for the next five years.

Woldhuis says, “When I went to jail for the first time, my mom signed me up for this little Bible study because she wanted to keep me in the Word.”

Robert Woldhuis, Donor Relations Manager at Crossroads. (Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

It was a Bible study course with Crossroads. Prisoners correspond with Christian mentors via the mail-in Bible studies and letters. At first, Woldhuis says he was hesitant, but he filled out the Bible study anyway and mailed it back to Crossroads.

“I remember about a month later, I got this letter back,” Woldhuis says. “It was this mentor who reviewed my lesson who was just pouring love and encouragement and hope into my situation. They didn’t know me and that little piece of kindness just stuck with me through the years.”

Near the end of his last jail term, Woldhuis was committed to sobriety. However, three days before his release, his two oldest sons were killed in a car crash. The grief was overwhelming.

He says, “Nobody ever knows what kind of reaction you’re going to do when you’re faced with a traumatic life decision or when you get sucked into something and you just don’t know how to get out.”

Unfortunately, Woldhuis landed back in prison in 2010. However, his mother didn’t give up on him, and neither did God.

“Every time I got in trouble, my mom continually signed me up for the Crossroads program and made sure that I was in the Word.”

He also began thinking about how to honor the lives of his sons who died, and he knew he couldn’t do that by destroying his own life.

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

In prison, the Lord was pursuing his heart with comfort and grace through multiple believers acting as the hands and feet of Jesus. Woldhuis reflects, “As I progressed in those [Crossroads Bible] studies, I continually felt the love and encouragement and that hope from the mentors that served our ministry and really just took time out of their day to speak some encouragement into me.”

Eventually, Woldhuis gave his life to Jesus Christ in prison! He was baptized on February 8, 2011.

After he was released from prison in 2015, another Christian man knew how much Woldhuis hated the devil tattoo he got nearly a lifetime ago. This man paid for Woldhuis to cover it with a new tattoo design.

Robert Woldhuis’s new tattoo of a cross. (Photo courtesy of Robert Woldhuis)

Woldhuis chose the new tattoo image of a cross with the Roman numerals for the day of his baptism — a symbol of Christ’s ultimate victory in his life.

Another church member gave Woldhuis a janitorial job at a car dealership, and he also began running as an outlet. Eventually, he connected with another Crossroads staff member through the running community. One thing led to another, and he says, “That was God’s hand all over that, her reaching out to me and just saying, ‘Hey, we would love to talk to you a little bit more,’ and that conversation ended up snowballing into what is now my position today.”

As the donor relations manager at Crossroads, Woldhuis says, “I like to joke with people that I’m the Chief Thank-You Officer. Part of my job is reaching out to mentors and donors, people that supported me while I was in jail and in prison, and letting them know how much that support meant. It is such a pleasure to pick up the phone and talk to somebody that has been serving our ministry for 20 years and let them know what kind of an impact that made on my life.”

Every day, mentors with Crossroads have an impact on men and women in prison like Woldhuis desperately searching for comfort, encouragement, and hope in a Savior. But they need more mentors!

“These are Christian men and women who are requesting to do a Bible study behind bars. Would we hold back resources from people that are outside of prison that are requesting to do a Bible study? That really hit home for me.”

Click here to learn more about Bible study mentorship with Crossroads.

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Woldhuis says, “These are people that are hungry to learn. They’re not getting time off of their sentences for doing these Bible studies. There’s no extra little gold star on their paperwork or anything like that. This is literally how they’re choosing to use their time.”

Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.