The incarceration of an inmate directly affects an average of nine other people - and the effect is usually negative.
70% of children with an arrested parent have seen the arrest take place, 30% of those same children saw the arrest by gunpoint.
Only one addict/alcoholic in ten who needs help, gets help. Of the one in ten who do, only one succeeds in staying clean and sober. this means only one person in one hundred look forward to a full and free life.
This is unacceptable to Dawn and me. The Lord called us into full-time, faith-funded criminal justice system ministry in 1994. We have been going-all out ever since.
After almost ten years living on the road with our two kids, a dog, and a hamster named Doctor Phil (he had the bald thing going), ministering in prisons, jails, youth detention centers, churches, residential re-entry programs, and bank parking lots. We returned to Southern Indiana, bought a home without wheels, and started Christian Formation Ministries.
The Lord has blessed us with dedicated community chaplains, mentors, and other volunteers who minister life and hope to inmates and their families, beginning while they are still serving time, and continuing for as long as it takes after they are released.
We are a family that ministers to other families.
Do you believe in miracles?
We do, and we see them - all the time. Adults finally breaking free after years trapped in a vicious cycle of addiction, crime, and incarceration - their family members, especially parents, getting real help, and discovering hope again - their children being loved into healing and wholeness. Whole families, released from the wounds of the past, and beginning to enjoy healthy relationships with God and one another.
Most people in prison or jail return within three years of their release. Most addicts and alcoholics relapse. Too many children follow their parents into the same deadly lifestyles. That's the status quo. This has to stop. We are working to stop it.
Most of the people in our programs succeed. We are grateful to the Lord, our chaplains, mentors, volunteers, and those who support our work financially that this is so.
Would you like to be a part of it? Come and hang out with us - the Living God is at work.
Your Brother and Sister in Christ, Richard & Dawn Johnson