Newsletter
January 17, 2011
Dear Friends and
Supporters:
I would like to express
my gratitude for your financial and prayer support in 2010, to you as
individuals and also to the two churches that have been sending us monthly
financial support—Victory Church and Fuente de Salvación Church, both
located in Garner, NC.
Much has happened since
our last newsletter. One exciting invitation I received is to teach the
re-entry program at Raleigh Correctional Center for Women. I will begin in
the fall of this year teaching a 25-week course that prepares female
inmates to rejoin their families and communities outside of prison.
I am now attending
Fuente de Salvación Church, a bilingual church where I am working with
Pastor Diego (also a BPWM board member) and Clara Correa to reach the
Hispanic community. We are seeking four women from two churches to
minister in the prison with me. We will assist them in obtaining their
blue cards (required for prison entry), and I will teach them the rules of
working with the prisoners successfully. This group of women will be
operating under the umbrella of Beyond Prison Walls Ministry.
I ministered on Radio
Luz 1490AM, an Hispanic Christian station, for eight months in 2010 and
was recently contacted to resume the one-hour radio program on Fridays at
10 a.m. This program reaches inmates as well as the entire Hispanic
community, and the feedback last year was tremendous. People are
listening, asking questions and growing in their knowledge of the Lord.
Thank God for this outreach opportunity to spread the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
While in Florida for the holidays, I was able to introduce the ministry to
people there as well. Two Florida women joined our list of financial
supporters. All finances that come in for BPWM are used for good—we are
fertile ground and good stewards of the money that comes to us. We
continue to move forward in the ministry while we trust God for the
facility to use as transitional housing for newly-released inmates. God
does not lie. What He has promised, He will accomplish. We want BPWM to be
in a position to obtain the house when God opens that door of opportunity.
He has a plan for us, and we are trusting in His perfect timing.
Thank you to all you volunteers for jobs well done! I look forward to
working with each of you again this year. We are seeking additional
volunteers as well as financial support. But no matter how you help us in
the natural, we also seek your prayers for this ministry’s continued
success. We believe God has touched and changed many lives through the
ministry of BPWM and will continue to do so in 2011.
Love in Christ,
Pura Crespo
Director
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August 14, 2010
Dear Friends, Supporters and Volunteers:
Thank you for your prayers and support of this
ministry. We are believing for and working toward our transitional home
for women newly-released from prison. While we are waiting on God for the
finances and other needed resources, I continue to minister to female
inmates within the local prison system and also to the Hispanic community
in general. God has opened doors of opportunity for me to minister in
exciting new ways, one as the co-host of the weekly radio program—Presos
en Libertad (Prisoners in Liberty)—Friday at 10:00 a.m. on Radio Luz
(1490AM).
Debi Threewitts, a board member currently
serving also as secretary of the corporation, created a wonderful brochure
with matching ministry cards and letterhead that we will have printed and
begin using soon. She did a beautiful job with these projects. Without her
knowledge and expertise in the field of communication, it would be
difficult for us to provide the public with ministry information and
ongoing updates. I am grateful to God and Debi for her work and
faithfulness to BPWM.
We need volunteers with a passion for this type
of ministry, most specifically volunteers with knowledge and/or experience
as a treasurer or a secretary of a non-profit corporation. Currently, two
of our board members serve in these capacities and will continue to do so
until we find the appropriate people to take over these duties. We also
need a “net-worker” with computer skills and experience in networking and
fundraising. And we need someone with knowledge and experience in grant
writing. If interested in any of these volunteer positions, please call
the BPWM office at 919-772-4881 (M-F/8:30am-4:30pm) or my cell at
919-349-8061.
Pray for us as we continue to work together
toward all that God has planned for Beyond Prison Walls Ministry! May the
peace and joy of our Lord rest upon you today and always.
Love in Christ,
Pura Crespo
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January 9, 2010
Dear Friends, Supporters and Volunteers:
A new year has begun, and each of us at BPWM desires that you grow in the Lord and be blessed in every area of your life.
Last year was an exciting one for BPWM:
- We produced information packets and distributed them to churches, organizations and potential supporters.
- We worked with the prison system and developed our application form and qualification process for soon-to-be-released inmates interested in participating in our program.
- We added business advisors to our team of board members, corporate officers and spiritual advisors.
- We began receiving monthly financial support from Victory Fellowship Church in Garner, NC.
In order to begin the residential aspect of our ministry, we continue to trust God for the funds to obtain a transitional home. If you would like to sow into BPWM, please send your tax-deductible donation to Beyond Prison Walls Ministry, P.O. Box 994, Garner, NC, 27529.
May the grace and favor of our Lord be upon you now and throughout this New Year!
Love in Christ,
Pura Crespo
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September 2009
Greetings from Beyond
Prison Walls Ministry! A lot is happening now, and we are very excited. We
began our search this week for the house to be used as a transitional home
for women newly-released from prison. We have our applications ready
for future residents and will be supplying the North Carolina Correctional
Institute for Women (NCCIW) with application packets for their use in
referring inmates to our ministry.
Staff members at the
NCCIW programs department have been asking about our housing
status because they have several inmates scheduled to be released within
the next four months. Please join us at BPWM in praying for the house
and finances to help them. We are believing for a 2500 square foot
home with four bedrooms and a minimum of two baths and office space.
I would like to take this
opportunity to thank Debi Threewitts for her work and dedication to our
ministry in the areas of communications and document preparation. Thanks
also to Alan and Ann Marie Smith for the monthly financial reports and
minutes of our meetings, to Pastor Diego Correa and his church for
their monthly support and to Edna Correa for developing and maintaining
our Web site.
God bless!
Pura
Jeremiah 29:11-14
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April 28, 2009
To our supporters and friends (old and new):
Thank you for your support, encouragement and prayers! Currently I correspond with 15 inmates and speak to groups by invitation. We are moving forward in the ministry with exciting ideas, including the development of information packets and applications to be given to interested female inmates up to 90 days prior to their release from prison. As part of our overall pre-qualification process, each interested inmate will complete an application and be interviewed personally to determine if she is a good fit for our program and how we can best meet her needs. These same information packets will be used initially to inform local prisons of our program and explain exactly what services we will be offering.
Through BPWM participants will receive information concerning a variety of community resources to help them achieve goals in the work force, in education and in health-related issues. Newly-released inmates have many practical needs as well as spiritual so we will give them access to our fully-stocked clothing closet, and we will make exercise equipment available to them for the duration of their time in our program.
It is exciting to see God working--getting these women refocused, helping them become more confident and teaching them to trust in Him for their future success. This is the foundation of our ministry, and this is the example we are setting ourselves by trusting God for the success of BPWM. Thank you for being part of what we know will be a wonderful testimony for God's glory!
Pura
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January 2009
Dear Friends and Supporters,
We at BPWM have entered the New Year with inspired ideas and dreams intact. Each of you has played an important role in the beginning stages of this ministry, and we want to thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and gifts of time and money.
In 2008 I had the opportunities to minister at the following churches: Fuente de Salvación in Garner, NC, and Iglesia Cristiana Obreros de Paz, and Iglesia El Rebaño, both in Orlando, FL. I was a guest speaker at Women's Aglow in Raleigh, and a speaker and volunteer at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women (NCCIW), and the Raleigh Correctional Center for Women (RCCW) IN THE JOB Start Program I volunteered for sixteen weeks to mentor young women in the program. It was an honor to be a guest speaker for this program. I also volunteered with the Prison Fellowship Ministry in Fuquay Varina, NC, working with participants as part of their orientation. We are praying and believing for our facility to house and minister to these women soon to be released from prison. There are many exciting parts in this development process, one being my meeting with other people that have the same heart and interest for the prison ministry, Amen. Thank you for your continued support.
Love in Christ,
Pura Crespo
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September, 2008
Greetings my Brothers/Sisters
Trusting that you are doing well, enjoying the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ. This month of September we celebrate our eight month of Beyond Prison Walls Ministry. I believe that God is working quickly on our behalf. Our ministry is believing for the house that we need to service the women that will be soon released from prison. My heart is filled with gratitude of what God is already doing. In the month of August, I traveled to Orlando, Florida to introduce our ministry to a couple of churches. May I say that God was glorified, and the response was very good. We have one of those churches supporting our ministry, praise God. As we wait on the house, we are preparing all of our packages that will be given to the incarcerated women sixty days prior to their release date.
Love in Christ,
Pura Crespo
