Our Mission
It is our mission and passion to mentor, educate, and guide incarcerated people and their families into full recovery and healthy re-entrance to society.
The Cause
The United States of America has the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world. There are approximately 2.3 million people incarcerated, which represents about 24.7% of the total incarcerated people in the world, whereas the US has only 4.25% of the world population. Every year, about 600,000 people get released from incarceration, but the statistics show that 67.8 % get arrested within 3 years after their release.
The percentage of those returning back to incarceration after being released is called recidivism. Three main reasons for high recidivism are a lack of a place to stay and a job to make a decent living, addiction problems, and a lack of mentors.
What’s behind the name of your organization?
The name of The LOCK Ministry was founded upon the concept of a pound lock.
A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships, and other watercraft between stretches of varied water levels on river and canal waterways.
The LOCK Ministry desires to act as a lock between the two levels of prison and society for the stream of people coming out of incarceration by providing mentorship, job training/opportunity, and addiction rehabilitation to support them through a smoother and lasting transition.
Lock (water navigation). (2023, August 13). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(water_navigation)
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The Change
Consequently, The LOCK Ministry has 3 stages of ministries. In our name, LOCK also stands for Love Of Christ’s Kingdom, Learn On Christ’s Kingdom, and Live Out Christ’s Kingdom.
It is our desire to walk alongside them until they become flourishing citizens of the United States and also of the Kingdom of God.
The Love Stage: Our goal is to help incarcerated people experience the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ, by continuing visitation and friendship through our prayers, encouragement, counseling, comfort, and provision through our P1 Project. Our ultimate goal is to break the pattern of recidivism by helping them become citizens of Christ’s Kingdom. As an inmate experiences the transformative love of God, he will be empowered to walk with us through the Learn and Live stages.
The Learn Stage: Our goal is to help returning prisoners become experts in God’s Word and also in secular jobs. We will provide them with discipleship training and vocational training - a Bible in one hand and a job training manual in the other through our Potter’s Hands Project. By this, they will be better equipped to assimilate into society smoothly and to go on and live fruitful lives.
The Live Stage: Our goal is to help returning prisoners find a place to live and work through the Potter’s House Project. We will operate dormitories to house returning prisoners until they find their own homes. We will also start and run businesses to train and employ returning prisoners. As they excel in a decent job, nourished by the Word of God, we hope to witness the birth of a true Kingdom citizen.
