Over a Hundred Children of Incarcerated Parents Attend Sports Camp Hosted by Prison Fellowship and the Baltimore Ravens
The biggest prison ministry in the United States, Prison Fellowship, has joined up with the Baltimore Ravens and local churches to spread the gospel to the children of inmates.
On Saturday, the prison ministry hosted a free, all-day sports camp at the Ravens’ practice facility in Owings Mills, Maryland, often referred to by locals as “The Castle,” as part of its Angel Tree initiative for underprivileged children.
With the help of the Baltimore Ravens and Coca-Cola Consolidated, Prison Fellowship hosted a sports camp for at-risk youth on Saturday, one of perhaps two or three such camps held around the United States each month. Volunteers came from the local church.
Prison Fellowship CEO James Ackerman told The Christian Post, “The Angel Tree sports camps we’ve been conducting for approximately 11 years, but this is the first time we’ve done an Angel Tree sports camp with the Baltimore Ravens.”
The three to four hour program had eight different stations on the field, each devoted to a different facet of football’s many sub-disciplines. The stations varied in their concentration, with some devoted to passing and catching and others to blocking and tackling.
Ackerman said that because it is a football camp, the vast majority of the participants would be male middle schoolers and high schoolers. “But there are also a sizable percentage of women who openly express their sexuality.”
Since the active team had a game that weekend against the New England Patriots, the sports camp was attended by retired players and coaches instead.
After the physical activities, everyone had lunch and heard a gospel message.
“And in those conversations, we spoke about the Lord and making fresh starts with Jesus,” Ackerman said.
The kids returned to their stations after the discussion was done. Later in the day, the ladies spoke about their experiences as single mothers or wives whose husbands were incarcerated.
Ackerman told the children, “The entire aim is to give them hope, right? Hope that you may maybe one day play for the NFL themselves, hope that God has a purpose and plan for your life.”
That’s the whole point of the trip, that God has blessed you and has faith in you and everything that you’re doing.
Every kid who came got a bag stuffed with sports shoes, a football, and a Bible geared for their age group.
Ackerman said to The Christian Post, “So the kids, we want them to experience the ultimate hope that is going into a relationship with the Lord.” And, you know, they’re getting to practice on the same field as their idols that they watch on Sunday in the Ravens. “But also the hope of being able to come out to a location that, to be candid, they would never otherwise have access to.”
The Angel Tree Christmas program is only one way that Prison Fellowship, which was started by Chuck Colson in 1976, helps kids whose parents are in jail over the holidays. Inmates from all around the nation may sign up for the initiative, and the group will send holiday presents to their children.
The nonprofit organization Prison Fellowship launched its Opportunity Kids initiative in 2021, with funding from Walmart and Coca-Cola Consolidated. The Boys and Females Club of America and Black Girls Code, an organization that teaches adolescent girls to code, are just two of the organizations that the initiative hopes to collaborate with.
Ackerman claims that in order to eliminate the difference in sentences for crack and powder cocaine, Prison Fellowship is lobbying Senators to enact the Equal Act. The US Senate has approved the measure. Having passed the House of Representatives last year, it now must be approved by the Senate.
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