Contact: Jill Fisher, 630-540-4561, 847-533-7464 cell, JillF@Awana.org
Photo: An inmate and his daughters are reunited at last year's Returning Hearts Celebration at Angola.
STREAMWOOD, Ill., April 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- In a few weeks, Awana will expand its evangelism and discipleship program to seven prisons in the United States. For nearly five years, Awana has successfully partnered with Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, once deemed the most violent prison in America.
Awana Lifeline is a four-part initiative, the best known of which is the annual Returning Hearts Celebration, a day when hundreds of boys and girls, most of which haven't seen their inmate fathers at Angola in at least a year, are reunited with them to enjoy crafts, pony rides, inflatable games, sporting events and a meal together in a carnival atmosphere.
"Returning Hearts is an important step toward reconciliation between inmates and their children. Anyone who has witnessed the joy of this day and the way it bonds families will never forget it," said Lyndon Azcuna, director of cross-cultural ministries for Awana.
Azcuna cited statistics that indicate the child of an incarcerated parent is seven times more likely to go to prison someday than his peers. "The goal is to develop these men into dads who are passionate about breaking the cycle of crime in their families," he said.
Two of the prisons where Awana is expanding its work, Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, La., and Hunt Correctional Center in Saint Gabriel, La., will hold Returning Hearts Celebrations May 3 and May 31, respectively.
Avoyelles, a medium security prison, has about 1,550 male inmates. Hunt is a maximum security institution with about 2,100 male inmates. Volunteers are needed for both events to help with chaperoning, transportation, games, food service and other tasks. The Malachi Dads program is scheduled to begin in May at San Quentin Prison.
The other Awana Lifeline initiatives are Malachi Dads, which offers spiritual, parental, vocational and educational training for inmates; the Awana Lifeline Church Program, which provides churches in urban neighborhoods with training to start Awana programs for the children of inmates in their areas; and the year-round Lifeline Handbook Program, which enables fathers and their children to work through Awana Bible curriculum in tandem and helps create a long- distance parent/child bond.
"Word has spread about the success of Awana Lifeline at Angola and the lives that have been changed. As a result, we have been asked to bring this same message of hope and reconciliation to other prisons," Azcuna said.
Awana Lifeline began in 2003 when Warden Burl Cain of Louisiana State Penitentiary, the largest maximum-security prison in the U.S., invited Awana Co-Founder Art Rorheim and President/CEO Jack Eggar to speak to the prison's fellowship of Christian men. What Rorheim and Eggar found was surprising and inspiring: The inmates wanted to see an evangelism and discipleship program established for their children. Shortly thereafter, the Awana Lifeline program was born.
About 730 children and nearly 200 guardians participated in last year's Returning Hearts Celebration at Angola, where a distant fence, wires and guard towers, along with uniformed security scattered throughout the grounds, were the only reminders that the event was taking place at a maximum security prison.
Awana is an international ministry that partners with parents and churches to raise kids to know love and serve God. Each week, more than a million kids are involved in Awana through 12,000 churches in the U.S. and in more than 110 countries. Awana is the only organization with fully integrated evangelism and discipleship programs for children from ages 2 to18 that actively involve parents, church leaders and mentors. In January, Awana launched Project Joseph, a national campaign designed to raise awareness of the moral and spiritual crisis among youth and to help kids, parents and churches work together to develop strong spiritual champions for Jesus Christ. For more information about Awana Lifeline, visit www.awana.org/lifeline.
