Annual Report Insert FY17 by Michael Bell

FY2017

ERIC COCKREAM

THERESA SHARPE

LIVES TRANSFORMED

ROBBIE ROBINSON

LIVES TRANSFORMED By 2026, Prison Fellowship plans to establish 172 Prison Fellowship Academies, including at least one for men and one for women in every state in the nation. By the end of our fiscal year, there were 76 Academies in 26 states, and each one guides men and women through a long-term, biblically based process of transformation. Each Academy is more than just a program. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an opportunityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for our supporters, staff, and volunteers to invest in work with an eternal impact, and for men and women to choose a different future, not only for themselves, but for their families and their communities.

While much work remains between us and the attainment of the 40 to Fifty vision, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to take this chance to share with you the success we are already seeing every day. We pray you are encouraged by the snapshots of redemption and restoration in these pages. The stories of Eric, Theresa, and Robbie represent thousands of others whose lives have been transformed by Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grace and through your generosity.

ERIC COCKREAM

Back then, he was very rebellious ... Now, he’s mature, soft-spoken. He listens. He cares.

After his father’s suicide and his mother’s disastrous remarriage, young Eric Cockream seemed destined for destruction. A person who liked to live on the edge, he gave in to the allure of ecstasy. One compromise followed another, and he was finally arrested on a kidnapping charge. He received a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, leaving behind a wife and two small children. “My life was wrecked,” he remembers, adding that he had “no spiritual connection.” All that changed six days into his stay at the county jail, when he relinquished his life to Christ. Over the next decade and a half, Eric toured the Michigan corrections system—learning to follow Christ in six different prisons. He took culinary classes, worked in food service, tutored other prisoners, and volunteered in the chaplain’s office. One day as he was leaving his cell, he noticed a large group of men gathering around a bulletin board. On the board, information had been posted about an Academy run by Prison Fellowship at Muskegon

Correctional Facility. Instantly, Eric knew he had to apply. In 2014, after being accepted, Eric was transferred to the program. It was just what he needed. Eric explains that after so long in prison, he had become an expert at just “doing time.” The Academy gave him an opportunity to be part of a positive community and prepare for the challenges ahead of him. The 16 months he spent at Muskegon helped him work through negative concepts of manhood that he had received when he was young. It gave him strategies for handing conflict, and it served as a launching pad for leaving an institutionalized mentality behind. He was released in 2015. Nick Wagenmaker, a pastor at the church

that hired Eric as a janitor after his release, noticed how well-prepared he was to be in the community. “He didn’t really seem institutionalized, didn’t have an antisocial aspect,” says Nick. “He had a calm presence about him. A lot of guys coming out are fidgety.” Since then, Eric was hired to manage a Subway restaurant on the other side of the state, moving closer to his dream of opening his own culinary business some day. And he has spent a lot of time with his now-grown children, even walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding in June 2017. Even his ex-wife Lynda has noticed the change in Eric. “Back then, he was very rebellious,” she says. “Now, he’s mature, soft-spoken. He listens. He cares.”

Eric with leaders of the church that gave him his first job

THERESA SHARPE

I thought I was going to use drugs until the day I died. To have sustained clean time … is completely mindboggling. It’s all because of Jesus.

Growing up, Theresa never knew stability. Her grandparents, who raised her, perpetuated the cycle of abuse that they experienced growing up. She fell into a friend group that introduced her to crystal meth at 14, and the downward spiral began. Theresa was 18 and unfazed when she went to prison for the first time, a seven-month stint. She spent the next 10 years on the outside shackled to drug use and abusive relationships. During that time, she had three sons. She would lose them to child protective services. After that, “I really went off the deep end,” Theresa says. She turned herself in for some previous charges and served another 10 months, believing prison might be her only hope for ever getting clean. It wasn’t until her third time behind bars that she finally surrendered. Sitting in Arizona’s Estrella Jail, awaiting sentencing, Theresa felt defeated. That’s when a woman named Maggie invited her to church.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” recalls Theresa. “I got down on my knees when they made the altar call, and I cried my eyes out. I said, ‘Jesus, please, come into my life. Please.’ I had nothing left.” Theresa began reading the New Testament. In prison, she heard about the Prison Fellowship Academy and enrolled. She continued to delve into Scripture, and little by little, she says new thoughts and behaviors “started becoming very real in my life, and I know that it was absolutely, 100 percent, because God was changing my heart, and changing my mind, and changing my way of thinking … What stuck out to me the most was where God says that you’re a ‘new creation.’” “It took being in a situation where I was set down, for me to be able to hear God,” Theresa adds. “I would have never been able to dig into the Bible like I was able to, or to learn about Jesus and the promises and what it meant for me, if I had not attended the Academy.” Prison Fellowship volunteers Terry and Denise Dillard were there for Theresa every step of the way, patiently answering questions and guiding her through what it means to change from the inside out. “They were absolutely amazing,” says Theresa. Released in April 2015, Theresa resides in Southern California and still keeps in touch with her mentors today. Married, employed, and active in her church, she thanks God for her second chance at life, love, and motherhood. “I thought I was going to use drugs until the day I died,” says Theresa. “To have sustained clean time—I have four and a half years right now—that is completely mind-boggling. It’s all because of Jesus.”

Theresa with her husband, Christopher, and her youngest child

ROBBIE ROBINSON

Being a part of the Academy is huge if you are willing and wanting a new life and to be different than who you used to be.

Robbie Robinson came from a low-income, dysfunctional family in Iowa. Unable to find love and acceptance at home, he turned to drugs and a gang for solace and belonging. He had his first run-in with the law at 14 for gangrelated activities. His first stint in prison was one year. After that, he was charged with 72 years, which he pled down to 20 years with 36 months mandatory. He ended up only serving about five years. At that point, Robbie realized something needed to change. He applied and was accepted to the Prison Fellowship Academy. “It was . . . a brand-new journey for me. Something different from what I knew from the life I lived that led me to prison,” he says. At the Academy, he began to wrestle with his sense of self. “I lacked the identity of who I was because of how I grew up and the things I had been through,” he explains. “But as I began the Prison Fellowship Academy, I began to realize that that wasn’t who I was. I began to find myself and learn what my identity was and I began to care about becoming reformed.”

While reading the Bible, he discovered 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” “Being a part of the Academy is huge if you are willing and wanting a new life and to be different than who you used to be,” says Robbie. “It is a great opportunity for you to surrender who you are and develop this new character in your life.” From the volunteers and staff counselors, Robbie discovered love—true love. He also spent time dealing with the things that had brought him down before, like anger, substance abuse, and an inability to handle conflict peacefully. And when he was finally released from prison after serving five years, things were different than his previous release. Though, as a two-time felon, he had many obstacles to face, he was ready. He says, “I developed the character and mindset to be a changed person, so when I got out of prison I was able to walk right out and apply those skills in my life.” Robbie went on to co-found and now directs Discover Hope 5:17, a nonprofit in Newton, Iowa, that provides addiction recovery support. He is married and has four children, with one on the way. He also serves as a coordinator for the Angel Tree program at his church.