Grace (seated in the middle) began mentoring with her late husband in 1997. Today, fourteen of her family members serve as Crossroads mentors alongside her, including all six of her children, two daughters-in-law, and six grandchildren. Back row: Jim (grandson), Bert...
Ministry’s middle years paired standardization and innovation Crossroads’ founder, Tom de Vries, brought a blend of charisma, empathy, and diligence that inspired people in jails and prisons to join his growing Bible study program. As enrollment grew, his...
Anne poses next to the car and recreational vehicle she and Bob towed throughout Australia more than twenty years ago as they visited prisons and churches to recruit students and mentors. An international expansion of Crossroads wasn’t on Tom de Vries’s mind in...
Four decades ago, Doris promised the Lord that she would do anything He asked of her. Two weeks later, after learning about Crossroads from a woman at her church, she became a mentor. In the early days, she recalled, “There were no answer keys; we worked through the...
Terry VerHage, a mentor since 1991, shares her Crossroads story with staff. Most of Terry VerHage’s students have been incarcerated long enough to reach our most advanced courses (Tier 3) and receive a dedicated one-on-one mentor with whom they can exchange...
From the beginning, Crossroads has depended on people from churches to care for incarcerated people by serving as volunteer mentors. For the past four decades, thousands have heeded the call. Among the more than three thousand mentors serving our students, one hundred...
