Providing Grace and Redemption through Christ

for Prisoners, Women in Recovery, and Military Veterans.

Hello Stacey,

We have arrived again to greet a new year. With curiosity, it is in our human nature, as explorers and wanderers, to reach out, to touch, and embrace the unexpected. Serving USA views new experiences as opportunities for growth, which can bring knowledge about ourselves and the world around us. In this coming year, we are all encouraged to be courageous, to remove fears of unknown outcomes and excuses to stay stationary.

May we be emboldened and elevated by the power which consistent prayer and leaning into the word of God will add to our lives. In looking into Luke, Chapter 11, we are reminded to be persistent in our seeking, our asking, “for everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Such boldness and confidence will be heard and can be manifested, and it simply begins with taking the initiative. We see this daily, lived out through our partners and their clients, who are seeking an education, starting a job, finding peace in their current living situation, and envisioning a career and the satisfaction an honest income can bring. An example is shared this month in the growing ministry of Epiphany Life Change, and the commitment Charles and Felicia Anderson have made to Christ and His people as they reach out to men and women who are incarcerated and coming out of incarceration.

This year we invite you to take the time to look, to ask, to become acquainted with our partners’ work, and to pray with us for floods of opportunity, good health, and an abundance of blessings for all. Find us online at www.servingusa.org, and please follow us on social media to receive words of encouragement and keep updated on upcoming events.

Serving USA sat with Pastor Charles Anderson, Founder and CEO of Epiphany Life Change, and Felicia Anderson, TUMI Houston Prison Site Coordinator, and Life Coach, to discuss how a leader’s own life experience as a prison inmate adds credibility to their mission and the impact TUMI has on its students.

“God is doing magnificent things with these men,” says Mr. Anderson.

“I had an individual who spent 56 years incarcerated. His driver’s license expired in 1966,” he shares. “He started without hope, and now he is helping transition other men through the process. He's holding down a job. Now he has his own apartment. He has become a productive part of society. There are numerous stories like that.”

Mr. Anderson credits the individual’s experience as an inmate to the success of other students.

“When you have sat where they’re sitting, then your voice resonates more with them,” he shares. “I don't know if I want to deal with a lawyer who has never been in a courtroom. I don’t want to deal with a doctor who has never been in an operating room.”

Read the full article here

Wayne was unexpectedly released from prison, where he was serving a life sentence, at the age of 68 years old.

When he returned to the community after 23 years of incarceration, he reached out to Testimony Ministries because he had nowhere to go and no support network, but he had great faith in God’s will for his life.

Testimony Ministries was able to connect him with Reentry housing and a local church where he successfully completed a Testimony Internship. Through his internship, they served Wayne with over $2,000 in stipends, life skills training, building a Christ-centered community, and ongoing peer mentorship. Wayne has been home for less than a year, but with these supports, he is actively serving with his church and has his very own apartment.

We praise God for Wayne’s Testimony of faith and perseverance. Through the many difficulties he has faced due to his incarceration and is still experiencing in his Reentry, he is a blessing to his community by demonstrating the redemptive power of the gospel!

Testimony Ministries provides internships for believers in Reentry, like Wayne, so they can have a fair opportunity to pursue God’s call and experience abundant life after incarceration.