- There are currently more than 2 million people in United States correctional facilities.
- The United States has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's incarcerated population.
- Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States because it is the fastest growing religion in US prisons.
Quite obviously, this means that Christians have a huge mission opportunity right on our proverbial doorstep. The Crossroads Bible Institute believes that every man in prison needs to know that someone cares about them, so it's their mission to connect Christians with prisoners. Here's how the program works:
- A person in jail hears about the institute. (CBI takes care of that.)
- The student (who is in prison) receives a lesson and mails it to the CBI.
- The CBI mails that lesson to the instructor (AKA you!).
- The instructor corrects the lesson and mails it back, along with an encouraging letter of discipleship.
- The instructor reports the score and evaluation to the CBI.
- When the student completes the course (which is several lessons) he/she receives a certificate of completion.
Sounds pretty great doesn't it? To me there are two statistics that make this organization even more attractive.
- Eighty percent of prisoners never receive any mail while they are incarcerated.
- Seventy-Five percent of people who were in prison will commit another crime upon their release. However, only 14% will commit another crime if they studied the Word of God during incarceration!
Dr. Schuringa told us of his first visit to a prison. He left with an overwhelming sense that if Jesus were around today he would be hanging around in prisons. I think he hit the nail on the head with that statement. I also think this is the kind of thing Jesus was talking about when he called us to store up treasures in heaven rather than on this earth.
If you want to get involved send an email to mail@crossroadbible.org.
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2 comments:
Sounds like a really wonderful ministry. Did Dr. Schuringa shed any light on why there are so many people incarcerated in the US?
Oh he definitely did. He noted two main reasons: first is the lack of a father-figure in the lives of many Americans and the second is the war on drugs. The vast majority of prisoners (I can't remember the number but it's something like 70 or 80%) are in prison under drug charges.
Dr. Schuringa's big issue was not really with why people end up in prison (obviously he doesn't want anyone to be in prison) but he is focused on whether or not people are actually being helped by being in jail. The system is completely broken. Jails are referred to as correctional facilities but they really don't serve any purpose besides forcing people to do "hard time."
These Bible studies go far beyond getting prisoners into the Bible because they are designed to stop the cycle of incarceration. Most of the men who Dr. Schuringa interacts with have absolutely no concept of an ideal (or even normal) family situation. Once they reach higher levels of the program they have a mentor who helps them gain a biblical view of relationships and personal responsibility.
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