Hope Beyond the Bars 1st Quarter Newsletter for 2021
(Abbreviated - full newsletter available in the link below)
Hope Beyond the Bars began this new year with a broader view of our ministry. We are putting a larger focus on fellowship and Bible study and to draw more and new interest in our ministry, we have invited our artists to submit any type of art they feel led to create and are able to mail or ship.
The Church Administrator’s office at Scottsville UMC will serve as a mini gallery to display all the Hope Beyond the Bars artwork available for our donors to choose from. We plan to travel with our gallery display to conferences and retreats to share our ministry and our artist’s work as soon as it is safe to do so.
Our Bible study program for inmates in the Virginia Department of Corrections was introduced in January and we have 12 men currently participating, 7 registered and 1 more expected to begin with our next study group.
Eighteen of the inmates currently in our program are scheduled for release at some point and this past week, we enrolled our first participant that will never again know life outside of prison walls. All of our participants, maybe especially the “lifers”, need to know God loves them, forgives them, and finds them worthy of redemption.
We have been very blessed to be the recipients of a $2,000 Foundation Grant from the Virginia UMC and a $2,500 Common Table Sustaining Grant from the Virginia UMC. With these funds, we have already exceeded our goal to have 15 men registered in our program by the end of 2021.
If you feel called to sponsor an inmate's Bible study, donate to receive artwork or get involved in any way, we welcome and encourage you to visit our website with the link below, call or email Staci in the church office.
To donate, checks may be made payable to Hope Beyond the Bars and mailed to PO Box 280 Scottsville, VA 24590 or credit/debit card payments made on-line at HopeBeyondtheBars.org. Please specify if your donation is specially for Bible study sponsorship.
