Dear Friends,
When heavy rains and mudslides devastated Sierra Leone in August, killing more than 1,000 people, most relief efforts ignored the people who are so often forgotten — prisoners.
But Lahai Kargbo, the young director of Crossroads Sierra Leone, was filled with a deep compassion for prisoners who lacked basic necessities after the flooding. Kargbo mobilized Crossroads volunteers from local churches to deliver food, water, sweaters, slippers and medication for Crossroads students and other boys and girls in two juvenile detention centers.
Kargbo and his team brought both the mercy and the message of Jesus to people who needed it the most. They fed the hungry and gave water to the thirsty — real, tangible expressions of God’s love. They did this while also sharing the hope-filled message of the Gospel.
Hearing the tragic stories from the Crossroads team in Sierra Leone was another reminder for me of the expansive and restorative work that you and I are a part of all around the globe. In addition to the tens of thousands of prisoners we serve in the United States, we are also significantly impacting the lives of thousands more prisoners in over 20 countries worldwide — some of them struggling to survive in the most deplorable conditions.
Thanks to your ongoing, generous support, I am confident Crossroads will continue to reach prisoners like these and many more with the love of Jesus in the coming months. This year, we will send our international director to more than a dozen countries to meet with dedicated local leaders, hear their stories of great personal sacrifice and offer them tools and resources, enabling them to better meet the spiritual needs of the people they serve. We will also forge strategic partnerships with new churches and other like-minded organizations in the United States and corners of the globe we haven’t yet explored.
I am inviting you to be a part of the exciting, Kingdom-expanding mission that lies ahead by making a generous year-end gift to Crossroads. When men and women like you pray faithfully and give sacrificially of the resources with which you have been entrusted, the Gospel goes forth to the ends of the earth, as Jesus intended (Acts 1:8).
In closing, your financial gift this year is a reminder to men and women in prison, like those suffering in Sierra Leone, that Jesus loves them and that they haven’t been forgotten. Will you join me in remembering those in prison as if you were there with them (Hebrews 13:3)?
With a heart full of gratitude,
Lisa Blystra
Executive Director
Crossroads Prison Ministries
P.S. As the year draws to a close, please consider making a generous donation that will propel us into 2018, a year in which we are committed to bringing the mercy and message of Jesus to prison cells all over the world.
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