How people like Chris are finding help for released prisoners in Chicago.

You wouldn’t know it by looking at him. A good job. Articulate. Full of ambition. But inside Christopher was a trail of brokenness from childhood through his adult life. Eventually, that brokenness would lead to a few poor choices, the kind that leads to prison.

That’s when he found out who his real friends were.  Because just like his mother, or the father he never knew and his fiancé, they all evaporated after his sentencing.

The only thing that remained was a broken man trying desperately to hang onto the fading memories of things he once held so dear . . .

The people who left him,

The great job he had sacrificed . . .

… and the only proof he was ever truly loved, a box of old photos from his mother. The woman who dedicated her life to raising him on her own had committed suicide only a few years earlier. Her pictures were now locked in the back of his car, impounded somewhere in Indiana.

At that moment, life as Chris knew it became very dark.

In prison, days turned into years. But one night, a chaplain passed by Christopher’s cell. They chatted briefly, and he slid a bible through a small opening in Chris’ cell door. The one usually reserved for food.

 For I was In Prison and you came to me ~ Matt 25:36

“Read Roman’s 12; it’s the only medication you’ll ever need” the chaplain instructed. With nothing else to do, Chris opened that bible, and something seemed to resonate in his soul.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Roman’s 12-1

Week-after-week he devoured that old bible, looking forward to each visit from Chaplain Steve and hearing about Wayside Cross Ministries. Then one day Chris heard about an opportunity for early parole.

He had a decision to make, go back to Chicago, to the old neighborhood and serve out his parole or go to Wayside Cross. The choice was simple. “Wayside!”

So many obstacles seem to come against Chris to keep him from coming to Wayside. It was almost like some outside force didn’t want this new life for him. Still, he kept praying . . .

Eventually, all the obstacles fell away.

“I’ll never forget my last day in prison,” Chris recalls, “all the other inmates in my block cheered. They asked are you really going to that place? And I said, yeah man, I’m going to Wayside!”

Over the next eighteen months, God slowly began putting the pieces of Christopher’s broken life back together in Wayside’s Master’s Touch Ministry for men in recovery.

One day, between his studies, morning chapel and daily responsibilities at the ministry, Chris was asked to help make some deliveries for the thrift shop that supported Wayside. But the driver got turned around on the delivery and they ended up going in the wrong direction. Somehow, the street seemed familiar to Chris.

In his excitement, Chris asked the driver to pull over saying, “I use to work there!”

             “You use to work at that law office? “ the driver asked

       “Yeah, but that was B.C .   . . . before I knew Christ!”

                             “You gotta go in man!” the driver replied

Chris wondered if the Chief Counsel would even remember him, as he entered the building. But he just happened to be standing in the reception area.

He seemed just as surprised to see me, Chris recalls.

                “Christopher! Man, is that you?”

                             You look great! Where you staying?”

“Wayside Cross.” Chris replied,  “we were just making deliveries for the ministry when I saw your office and thought I’d stop in to say hi.”

The two men spoke for several minutes, but it seemed like hours. Finally, after they finished reminiscing, Chris smiled as he turned to leave when the Chief Council said, 

           “I thought you came in to ask for your old job back.”

                        “Since you brought it up,” Chris replied

The old lawyer laughed,  “It’s here waiting for you whenever you’re ready Chris!”

That was only a few months ago and so many things have happened since. “I got my old job back. A local church gave me a car to help me get to work, and Wayside has even allowed me to stay on as a long-term resident to help me save.  I’m even talking with my dad again. And the photos of my mom I thought were lost forever… I got those back too! But that’s not even the best part.”

“Now I have something I never had before, a great network of supporters. People who believe in me and welcomed me into their church, their families and their lives. I know none of it would be possible without the friends and supporters of Wayside Cross.  Today I can see how God carefully orchestrated every step to this new place in my life and it all happened when I finally found myself down by the Wayside!”

If you know someone in need of a safe place to recover and rebuild their lives call Wayside Cross Ministries’ Lifespring Center for Women or Master’s Touch for Men at (630) 892-4239.