CRWM Helps Open Prison Ministry

Christian Reformed World Missions and the CRWM-supported Strategy of Transformation have helped Crossroad Bible Institute (CBI) of Grand Rapids, Mich., open a new satellite campus in Guatemala.

Crossroad Bible Institute is a nonprofit prison ministry with 40,000 students studying through satellite campuses on six continents. The program is provided at no cost to prisoners and their families.

Through their prior work with the new students, local pastors helping implement the program in Guatemala have established a strong foundation with which CBI can work.

The Strategy of Transformation has played a role in this. The ministry has been working with the poor, orphans and prisoners in the country for many years, and has made many contacts.

Strategy of Transformation is a ministry whose trainers work to empower, equip and mobilize grassroots leaders who serve those who have been wrongly labeled the least, last and the lost in marginalized and vulnerable communities.

CBI has also just opened a satellite campus in South Africa. Both of the new campuses will follow CBI’s long-held model, in which students are mentored by volunteer Instructors native to their countries.

Indigenous campus directors oversee their activity. With these indigenous leaders guiding them throughout the program, CBI students worldwide are able to complete the same curriculum.

CBI South Africa was initiated by contacts established through CBI’s membership with the World Reformed Fellowship, an international organization linking like-minded evangelicals.

The first students are incarcerated in a facility near Pretoria, South Africa’s executive capital. The campus director visits the students each week to present a message and distribute lessons. Backed by support from prison officials, the program will expand into additional facilities in 2012.

"Due to the positive support of the staff of correctional services, local churches and, most of all, the inmates, we see the Lord's blessing on our work," said Alwyn Bezuidenhout, CBI's South Africa director.

CBI has provided people in prison and their families with faith-based re-entry education and mentoring for 27 years. In the past decade, CBI has expanded across all six continents. Fifteen satellite campuses now operate internationally.

With several new openings pending for 2012, CBI’s international expansion promises to continue, giving hope to prisoners and unifying diverse cultures with the Gospel message.

"Incarcerated people across the globe have been ignored and underserved. CBI’s unique discipleship and mentoring program responds to God’s call to remember them, and we plan to continue extending this response worldwide," said H. David Schuringa, CBI president and CEO.