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June 17,
2011
Dear
Friends and Supporters:
It is
time once again to bring you an update of our ministry. We had our
quarterly board meeting in May and discussed many new projects and ideas
for this year. A realtor is helping with our search for a home to be
used as transitional housing for the newly-released inmates we plan to
serve. In the meantime, we continue to build up our finances to cover
the expenses of running such a home.
I
recently recruited two women from Fuente de Salvación church as
volunteers to assist me in the prison when I minister there. Lorena and
Nancy are Godly women with a desire to serve in this type of ministry.
They have attended the required prison training at Raleigh Correctional
Center for Women (RCCW) and soon will receive their blue cards
authorizing them to serve in this capacity.
Thank
you for your continued support—whether through financial donations,
prayer or time. I love and appreciate each of you.
Love in
Christ,
Pura
Crespo
Director
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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 Crespo
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!
Love in Christ,
Pura
Crespo
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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
