“Reaching Beyond The Fence is a Christian Correspondence Ministry serving as the voice and hands of Jesus. Our goal and mission are to share God’s love with those who are incarcerated through simple letters of encouragement and spiritual guidance, with acceptance through the friendships we build with them.”
Until you have been there, you don’t know how much a simple letter can mean to an individual. Most of these individuals feel abandoned and alone as their families and so-called friends have turned their backs on them because of their mistakes in life. As children of God, it is our job to show these individuals that God loves them and accepts them in spite of their past, as Christians we do too. No, we do not have to love what they did. Although we should love them for who they are, a child and creation of God. I say this because I’ve been there, as I spent 15 years in that dark, cruel, lonely place. Thanks to a Christian pen-pal, I received 113 letters of fellowship over 12½ of my 15 years. It was those letters that encouraged me through some very difficult times and showed me what God’s love is all about. Like God, she accepted me for who I was and not for what I had done in my past or what I was convicted of. The ministry that connected us, has disbanded their pen-pal program leaving a huge void to be filled. Yet, our friendship and fellowship continued as a brother & sister in Christ, even to this day and has expanded to her family as well. God has since laid upon my heart to give back to those I left behind on the inside, not only ones I knew in Virginia, although all those incarcerated throughout the United States and even the world if God leads, for He will increase and reveal the need and His will. Just like Nehemiah, who went back to Jerusalem to help rebuild the walls that was tore down, burnt, and destroyed. But he could not do it alone. These Prisons are my Jerusalem, and the walls that need rebuilt are the lives of those still in there. Although, like Nehemiah, I cannot do it alone either. I need your help to show these individuals that someone still cares, God can and will forgive them. Together we can share God’s love as we help reshape lives and rebuild those walls one letter at a time.
In Christ Love,
Jim Weeks