President’s Corner

Hello friends, I was recently participating in a Malachi Dads class on the Heart of a Father. The discussion focused on the comparison of Joseph’s response to Potiphar’s wife and David’s response to seeing Bathsheba.  I was impressed with the group of 20 inmate students who wanted to dig deeper into these verses and provide application of the learning to their own lives. The conversation went deep, and the comments were rich. As we neared the time of dismissal, I could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit in our group. We took a pause and talked about restoration

“For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.” - 1 Corinthians 3:9 Hello friends, If you were to walk into a prison, you would soon learn that there are incarcerated men and women from all kinds of faith backgrounds – or with no faith at all. Although our Lifeline curriculum is intentionally biblical, we do not require any prerequisites to take our classes. You may have in your class an atheist, agnostic, or even a seasoned Christian. To teach Malachi Dads or Hannah’s Gift, one does not need a teaching certificate or a doctorate in

Hello Friends, Summer typically is a time that we witness some slowdown. I am not sure if it is the heat or is due to facility vacation schedules, but the months of June through August generally give us a little breathing room before we take off again in September. Well, I don't know what typical is anymore, as we are rocking and rolling right thru June and into July. This is a great problem to have as our staff and partners know we will have plenty of time to rest in heaven. Our additional fundraising campaign was a great

Hello Friends, Some of the biggest joys I have in my role is when I see engagement between the local church and our ministry to the incarcerated. Recently, a friend of the ministry shared a Psalm from her Lenten readings. It was Psalm 140:13, "I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy." Our friend Carrie says, "I think this is a great tie to the challenges we're facing right now. But the psalmist declares that 'God helps those who cannot help themselves. If we would be more like God, should we

Friends, Just like the lawyer from Luke 10, I want to ask: Who is our neighbor? Merriam-Webster defines neighbor as “a person who lives near another.” Yet, it does not define the word nearby. Within five miles near me, there is a county jailhouse, and within 50 miles near me, there is a state prison. Are the men and women locked up in those places considered my neighbors? I ask this as last week, we ushered in the Lenten season with the celebration of Ash Wednesday. Billy Graham defines Lent: “As one of the oldest observations in Christendom, Lenten tradition

Friends, I was sitting with the CEO of a large manufacturing company. As a Christian businessman leading a very profitable company, I was hoping to engage him in taking a deeper look at our ministry with hopes that he or his company might become financial partners. Yet, instead of talking about ministry to the incarcerated, the conversation followed a similar path that I had with a multitude of Christian leaders; that is, trying to identify the answer on how Christians are supposed to reflect the work of Christ in their daily lives. In assessing his own life, this business executive

Friends,  During advent, I love the imagery Isaiah uses when prophesizing about the coming of the Savior: Immanuel. His picture speaks to a barren land where there was once a thriving forest. Yet out of the stump springs a new shoot from the root of Jesse. God kept His promises to restore His people. Only He could take a wasteland and spark renewal. This same symbolism can be applied to the ministry of Lifeline Global. God takes the criminals of society, the forgotten, the imprisoned, presumed to be “barren” in their ability to contribute, and uses these men and

Friends, I give praise and thanksgiving to Christ for the opportunity to have redemption through His sacrifice! For the first time in the history of Lifeline Global Ministries, we hosted a Returning Hearts Celebration (RHC) in the state of Mississippi at Parchman Prison, and due to the wonderful planning and support of volunteers from around the country, I would call the event a success. Enough so that we are already talking about the learning lessons from RHC to help in plannings next year’s event. Two people who were critical to making RHC happen were Pastor Phil Zalinski and his wife,

Friends, It never fails. At the closing of Project Mañana International’s Returning Hearts Celebration in the Dominican Republic, a little boy of probably five or six was having a hard time saying goodbye. It was a complete turnaround from earlier when the same boy approached a man he hardly knew with apprehension. Yet after a couple of hours of companionship, sharing, and fun, this little guy quickly gained something he had never had in his life: love from his father. But as the day ended, this child was beside himself in tears. He couldn’t process how the immense feelings

Friends, My attention was caught recently by an intriguing title from a formerly-incarcerated author. "Paganism on Parole" by Awyn Dawn is the story of a deepening faith as the result of incarceration. Sadly, it is the story of a deepening faith in a version of Wiccan. The religious group that reached her behind the walls taught her about paganism and the mysticism of the occult. According to her, paganism was one of the fastest-growing religions in her facility. This was a wake-up call to me - and hopefully to the Christian church - about the missed opportunities of reaching

Friends, Well, I do not want to get ahead of ourselves and say that our schedule is the same as pre-Covid, but we are certainly excited about all the activity that is taking place. While many of our Program Partners remain on the sidelines for a variety of reasons, some partners are using this time to accelerate their local ministries, and our partners in Georgia, Florida, and Washington continue to add to the size and depth of the number of facilities and/or inmates that they serve. Likewise, our statewide programs continue to gain traction. In fact, we recently had

Friends, We make it no secret that our programs at Lifeline Global are intentionally Christian-based. Our Malachi Dads curriculum was developed around the verse of Malachi 4:6, and our Hannah’s Gift program is rooted in the Biblical story of Hannah. It is evident that God paints a clear picture in scripture of how a man and woman are supposed to be in the eyes of the Lord. Just as important is how they are called to be as parents of their children. Once in a while, though, it is important to provide context to our ministry that looks beyond