I Am Truly Home

Brian | Graduated January 2022

Broken home…foster care…addiction…incarcerated parents…manifested into my own addictions and lengthy incarcerations.

Considering the demographic of the audience New Freedom serves, I’m confident that they can identify with at least some of that stuff. Drugs and alcohol have devastated our lives, hurt everyone we’ve ever loved, and inevitably we found ourselves locked in an 8×10 cell, reflecting on these painful realities. I was handed my first New Freedom Project newsletter sometime around the holidays last year. I was up to my ears in self-loathing and engaged in every manner of self-destructive behavior possible.

The holidays were a particularly tumultuous time of the year for me. We all miss our family and loved ones a bit more around the holidays. I was sharing that “wish we were home” dialogue back and forth with my buddy. We were both short timing, confiding in one another in our relief that would come the next year. We imagined we would be celebrating with family, surrounded by loved ones, and be more appreciative of this time of year. That was our last Christmas on the wrong side of the razor wire.

During our morning conversation, we contemplated where I would be physically going on the day I was to be released.

My friend showed me a New Freedom Project newsletter and a handwritten letter from a mentor. In the newsletter was a picture and a testimonial article of a close friend of mine. I was stunned my friend had been released from prison a couple of years prior, and I had wondered what became of him. This guy was a gangster in prison and now he has a powerful testimony. He talked about working to become a pillar of the community, dedicating his life to God, and helping men and women reenter society successfully to break the cycle of incarceration and addiction.

“I read it and asked my friend ‘Who is this person? How often do you receive letters like this?’ I had never seen any program like this before. I told him, ‘The woman who wrote this letter actually cares about you dude. She whole heartedly gives a crap about you as a human being.’ I was all in right there. I wanted in.”

Next, I read the handwritten letter, written by a woman named Denise McDonald, a mentor with New Freedom Project, known as GCHH at that time.

Reading her letter she wrote to my friend, I again was moved emotionally, as the things she was saying were words of genuine compassion, encouragement, and God’s love. It was apparent in her heart, through her writing. I read it and asked my friend “who is this person?”, How often do you receive letters like this”? I had never seen any program like this before. I told him, “The woman who wrote this letter actually cares about you dude. She whole heartedly gives a crap about you as a human being.” I was all in right there. I wanted in.

I needed change in my life, and I knew that this mentorship program was the real deal.

God was at work through whoever was behind all of this. I said a prayer that night and wrote a letter asking New Freedom Project for a mentor and help. I got a handwritten letter about 3 weeks later, an application, and I could already feel the love. For the next 9-10 months, Denise and I exchanged letters. She sent me short but in-depth lessons designed for me. She is my family now, as are everyone apart of this life altering community here at New Freedom. I am truly HOME.

The whole process goes full circle and it’s an honor to have a part in touching other people’s lives in the prison system. I’ve now personally met all the mentors behind the letters sent inside each day and every one of the people of whom author those letters, do so with a full heart and selfless drive. Their sole motive is service to those they mentor. Today I love myself. I can see the value inside of me that God has always known was there and that Denise my mentor spent nine months helping me to see. You too have value inside and you too are worthy of love.