USA (MNN) — "Project Angel
Tree" is serious about reaching at-risk kids with the Gospel. The program,
developed through the ministry of Prison Fellowship, connects believers with
inmate families so they can begin ministering to them at Christmas and
throughout the year.
At Christmastime, volunteers from
a local church purchase and deliver gifts to the children of inmates in their
parent's name. Each gift delivery also presents an opportunity to share the
love and hope of Christ with each family. Through Angel Tree, these children
feel a parent's love, despite their absence.
Crossroad Bible Institute's David
Schuringa says they'repartnering with Prison Fellowship and Angel Tree. Four
years ago, Prison Fellowship asked if they could include a CBI enrollment form
to give to the Angel Tree parents when
they signed up for the program.
This year, "We've been asked
to write a Bible study for the Angel Tree kids. That has been completed and we're
going to be testing that in January, a course that is directly targeting the
children of prisoners and that will be included in a packet when they get their
Christmas presents."
The CBI Bible correspondence curriculum
is a unique distance education program is designed to follow the inmates
wherever they are, (including after release), giving them long-term, in-depth
discipleship throughout their journey.
The adults were coming out of the
program with changed hearts and lives,
and it made sense to expand the program to the kids, too. The newly completed curriculum presents the Bible
in manga comic form, an artistic and storytelling style.
Schuringa says the program launch
also creates the need for instructors who can disciple the enrolled kids.
"The kids will be able to have a personalized response of someone out
there who is expressing Christ's love, encouraging them in their walk with God,
because so many of these kids are on their own."
