Issues of Prayer

Hello friends,

As difficult as this has always been for me I need to write to you about a couple of needs that we have regarding The Keys are at the Cross Prison Ministries. Through the nearly ten years we have been operating it has been my way to pray and trust God, but try to limit talking about financial needs as much as possible. Recently I heard a missionary friend of mine talking about his struggle with the same issue and he said he was learning that in doing so he denied the Church the opportunity to be involved in what God was doing. It just so happens that we are at a serious crossroads in some areas of our ministry as well and I need to share.

We have always operated on a very limited budget, as far as our regular monthly giving is concerned, throughout our entire time in ministry. Over the years there were many things that we saw and desired to be involved in but just never had the finances to allow us to go down those roads. However, 5 ½ years ago we were offered the chance to become involved in a federal grant that was focusing on the issues ex-felons deal with when they have paid their dues to society and are returning to our communities. We jumped at the chance and have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of men and women involved in that predicament. While we focus on employment, housing, and transportation I have always said we consider our reentry office to be a conduit to help move an individual from the prison chapel to the local church.

This grant allowed me to rent office space and hire someone who focused strictly on reentry issues. Even then, the money was tight but we were blessed with very affordable rent and people willing to do the job for not much pay because of their passion to impact this group of people.

Well, that grant ended last March. We believe however that God does not want us to discontinue our reentry work. So thanks to certain blessings we have received we have been able to continue on these last six months, but all the while working in the “red” from a business way of looking at things. Each month we are spending more than we are receiving. We have considered slowing down what we are doing over the next few months and letting that part of our ministry wind down. However, as we pray and discuss this, we don’t believe that is what God wants us to do.

So, we are trusting God to provide our needs through the Body. So here they are simply.

  1. We need a vehicle. We need someone to give us a dependable vehicle that we can use to transport our clients from the halfway houses and the release center to our office, or we need people to give above and beyond the norm specifically toward our purchase of a used vehicle.
  2. Secondly, we need to significantly increase our monthly support. I am not expecting those who have faithfully supported us for years to all be able to dig deeper and cover this need, but praying that many who know about us and are not supporting us financially will begin to do so. $25, $50, or $100 a month. Whatever you can afford. Anything would be helpful.
  3. If your church is not involved in this type of outreach and I can talk to the Pastor about what we are doing I would welcome the chance.

Many of you can give through your local church that accepts giving to our ministry, if not you can give directly to The Keys. We are a nonprofit organization and will supply you with needed tax documentation.

I know, given our economic situation, this seems like a crazy time to be asking people to give. I can’t help it. We have the need and believe God wants us to continue. So, it’s with much humility that I ask you to partner with us.

Gene Purtle