Brandi never expected that accepting one invitation would change everything for her family.
Her children’s father is in prison.
A single mother of seven living in California, Brandi has 9-year-old twins, 10-year-old triplets, a 16-year-old niece, and an 18-year-old. She works hard and tries to ignore the comments about how many kids don’t have a father at home. Her children’s father is in prison.
But for six years, each of her children has received a Christmas present from their father, as Prison Fellowship Angel Trees in the US and elsewhere partner with local churches to make this possible. They each also received a Bible.
The children followed her to church.
A few years ago, Brandy’s children started coming home from school or daycare saying their friends had invited them to church. Brandi said her children kept stalking her to go to church, but she eventually gave in. Brandi said she thought it was just an excuse to hang out with friends.
She reluctantly agreed to go to one Wednesday night service. This decision opened a whole new life for Brandi and her children, living in a loving community.
Soon, the family was going to church every Wednesday and Sunday. Each time, they were reminded of the Gospel, and that message of hope was reinforced by a Christ-centered community.
Those Bibles and that loving community made all the difference.
The Bible and the many thoughtful gifts Brandi’s children received helped confirm their father’s love. Above all, they received the care and community of God’s family. Those Bibles and that loving community made all the difference.
Brandi and her children now attend church regularly. Brandy volunteers at the church nursery.
“Those Bibles…planted a seed in my kids. When their classmates started inviting them to church, they wanted to go,” she says.
Psalm 68:6 says, “God puts the lonely in the family.” And often God uses the church to bring lonely families into the community they need to live, thrive, and find God.
They discovered true belonging with God’s people.
Families with loved ones in prison are eager to be seen and supported. Brandi and the kids found more than just Sunday service. They discovered true belonging with God’s people. And it all started with some Christmas presents.
Regular church attendance is strongly correlated with increased happiness. A close network of churches often means deeper relationships, a clearer sense of purpose, greater satisfaction, and even higher levels of financial security.
God calls us to reach out to the lonely and the abandoned.
Brandi’s family is a powerful example of how impactful the body of Christ can be. We are not only called to open ourselves to life in the community; We are also called to extend that welcome to others. God calls us to reach out to the lonely and abandoned and to reflect the light of Jesus in a dark world.
When a church is a welcoming place, it truly reflects the heart of God.
What better time than Christmas to expand community offerings? Prison Fellowship Angel Tree partners with churches across the country to provide Christmas gifts to children on behalf of incarcerated parents. Those gifts represent, first, an open door to a relationship with an absentee parent and, second, a relationship with the local church that serves them and, by extension, a God who loves them.
At Christmas, people seek connection more than any other time of year.
At Christmas, people seek connection more than any other time of year. Gifts, invitations to church, and offers of friendship don’t cost much, but for the recipient they can be a lifeline, and for some, like Brandy, a path to a new life.
Betsy Wright is the Senior Director of Angel Tree at Prison Fellowship and a practitioner of trust-based relationship interventions. Prison Fellowship is the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit organization with churches serving currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families, and a leading advocate for justice and human dignity in and out of prison.
