Purpose, Re-Entry and Mentorship

As someone who saw his own father transition from prison, I am uniquely equipped to understand the complexities of re-entry. I have seen firsthand where addiction can lead people. I understand the internal battle that wages within a conflicted soul. Yet, God is faithful, even in the valleys when all you see is darkness and uncertainty.

Recently, I had the honor of being a speaker within the South Dakota State Petitionary. I was grateful for the opportunity, yet again, to spend a whole day with my brothers behind the walls of prison. A couple of months ago, I spoke at the Faith Fellowship Weekend Conference. This time, I spoke at the Compassion Outreach Conference and concluded the day on a Q&A panel alongside the Mayor of Sioux Falls, Paul TenHaken, along with another politician and a couple other nonprofit leaders.

Even though speaking was a privilege, what energized me the most was not the speaking but the opportunity to be present with those behind bars. With all the prison restrictions, I jumped at the opportunity to spend a whole day with the inmates. I have a deep desire for them to know that we have a God who gives second chances, a God who came to us while we were still sinners.

I went into the prison with an idea of what I was going to say. Yet, after spending time with the inmates, I promptly threw what I was going to say out the window. And my main message became this: You were made by God on purpose for a purpose.

Regardless of the decisions we have made, each of us were fearfully and wonderfully made by God to love God and people in our unique way. There is no other you. There will never be another you. You are precious and destined for great things...if you allow God to work in your heart...if you put your trust in Him...if you use your gifts for the glory of God.

People in prison, even those who will spend the rest of their lives as inmates, can be used by God for His glory. They can live into their purpose boldly as they face the consequences of their decisions. We have a God who gives second, third, and fourth chances, a God who seeks the lost ones and welcomes back the prodigals with a warm embrace, a God who empowers us to live into our purpose of loving God and people in our unique ways.

Re-entering society from prison has its challenges. Finding employment and housing is an obvious challenge for those with felonies. Adjusting from a life of structure to a life of chaos and noise is also an obvious challenge. However, there are three challenges that lead people back to prison more than the others, reasons why the national recidivism rate for the first five years out of prison is 75%.

The first challenge is hopelessness. It is not the lack of job and housing that leads people back to prison; it is the hopelessness that lingers in the mind, the belief that things aren’t going to get better. This is a lie from the enemy for if you are child of God, He will work whatever you are going through for good (Romans 8:28).

The second challenge is a lack of healthy community. I’ve said it and will say it again: Bad company corrupts good character (1 Cor. 15:33)! A community of recovery will lead to recovery. However, a community of chaos will lead to chaos. Yet, sadly, chaos is the normal for some, and leaving the chaos is often scary because chaos is what they have always known.

The third challenge is not seeing oneself through the eyes of God as someone with innate value, low selfworth Those who don’t see value within themselves will eventually fall back into old habits. Believers must be reminded of their identity in Christ. To address the challenges of re-entry and the high recidivism rates, we started a Prison Transition Mentorship program, a program that empowers and motivates the recently released through on-going mentorship and discipleship.

Our new Prison Transition Mentorship program is a pilot program at Center of Hope in which we offer short-term employment to the recently released to help them lay down a foundation for re-entry grounded in Jesus Christ. While they work at Center of Hope, we will walk alongside them through mentorship in three areas: First, we will connect them to a spiritual mentor to meet on a continued basis to talk about Christ and what it means to walk with Him. Second, they will be connected to a financial mentor through The Community Outreach to discuss what effective stewardship looks like as a follower of Christ. Third, if addiction is a struggle for our mentee, they will meet an addiction counselor on a weekly basis to discuss Recovery and Faith.

Pastor Brian Narcomey, our Outreach Pastor, is a trained addiction counselor. This new program is built upon relationship. Our hope is that through the process of learning new skills in service while being mentored in these three areas, our mentees will have a solid foundation to stay out of prison and cling to Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives.

Our first mentee’s last day was September 6. He worked three months in our Bike Ministry when we desperately needed Bike Ministry help. We have seen a 30% increase in overall Center of Hope services since last year! As of 9/18/25, 1,022 bicycles have left our doors so far this year! We needed the help! He learned bicycle mechanics, worked alongside our guests teaching them bicycle repair, and became a member of the Center of Hope family. He then was transitioned into long-term employment in a field he longed to be in, yet had difficulties getting into due to his felonies. He found his time meeting with his mentors in the program to be very helpful. He seeks to continue to meet with his mentors in the days to come.

My hope is to duplicate his success in the lives of many others in the years to come. Our main hurdle currently is funding to support the program long-term. We can only hire a limited number of people in this program. Yet, we are grateful for the generous donors who made this program possible! However, with proper long -term funding, I can see this becoming a multi-agency second chance program, transitioning the imprisoned to longterm employment in a smooth, streamlined, and structured process of continued learning and mentorship.

Yet for now, Center of Hope will do our part one life at a time as we walk alongside the recently imprisoned to self-sufficiency and spiritual empowerment. Our second mentee started in this program on September 8 and our third on September 22.