ARTreach 180

ARTreach 180 is our first aftercare and prevention effort which was launched in January 2010. This arts-based afterschool program targets first-time offenders on probation or recently released from RYDC. The pilot program currently is housed at Patrick Henry High School in Stockbridge, the county’s alternative school. Creative arts and group sessions offer kids an expressive outlet for their emotions, help them gain mastery in visual and performing arts, and create a sense of belonging with peers and positive adult mentors.

Celebrate Today!

A monthly birthday celebration in the local RYDCs demonstrates to kids that they are special and treasured and that life is something to celebrate, especially new life in Jesus Christ. We currently do a birthday party every month in six Atlanta area facilities. We are told by staff that kids look forward to the party and frequently ask, “When are the birthday people coming?”

Common Ground

Our arts program gives kids in YDC a chance to creatively express their faith and values as well as discover and use their talents. Using visual art, dance, music, and drama, our teachers have six to eight weeks to develop relationships with kids and prepare them for a culminating program when they perform for other residents, staff, parents and special guests. Following the performance, the students and their guests are given a reception.

Crosswalk Houston

In addition to leading several times every week in juvenile facilities in the Houston area, Bill Ward also teaches lyric-writing and guitar lessons to juvenile offenders. The lyric-writing class has two main objectives:

1. To help youth express foundations to their "I believe " statements.
2. To find an outlet for presenting positive strong messages using fewer words

The guitar lessons allow the youth to focus on a skill instead of just "doing time.” This program also provides an incentive for the facility to encourage good behavior. A focus of the guitar lessons for the Youth Offenders Program is that they will have a skill they can take with them as they are transferred into the adult population.

Summer Tours

Greg and Vinchelle tune up for this year's tour

The annual summer tours are at the root of Crosswalk Ministries. Begun in 1995, the summer tours utilize mission teams comprised of young adult performers who desire to use their gifts to share the hope of the gospel with incarcerated juveniles in secure facilities all over the country. We have played in facilities in 47 states and Canada to approximately 35,000 young people, many of whom still write to us years later.

2011 Summer Tour—"Elevate"

Crosswalk Tour #1 June 24–July 11
18 days. 5,100 miles. 29 concerts. 14 states.

2010 Summer Tour—"War Zone"

It became clear a few days into the rehearsal week that this would be no ordinary Crosswalk tour. None of us really understood the magnitude of the theme God had given me months before, and Jesse even prayed one day at the end of rehearsal for God to show us what this whole "War Zone" theme was all about. Before we left, Bill told the group that the bar had been raised in terms of performance, and he felt God was saying it was going to be intense. At that time we had no idea just how intense it would get, but as we became more entrenched in the battles ahead, God revealed an unequivocal message:

There is a war going on for the lives of these kids, and war is always intense!

To be the soldiers we are called to be, there must first be an intense commitment to the mission. Our team this year traveled 8,534 miles, played 37 concerts in 25 days, slept on the floor over half of those nights, and often only snacked in the vans until finally getting to eat dinner at 9 or 10 p.m. But I never heard one single complaint from any of them, even when we didn't have showers for three days! Why? They understood the mission—to introduce 2,200+ kids to the Author of Hope.

As Jesus ministered to weak and marginalized people, we see time and time again that He was motivated by intense love. The gospels leave no doubt: "He had compassion on them..." To be His ambassadors, we are called to demonstrate that same love. Many of the kids we met this summer, even briefly, recognized that we were there because of love. A young lady in Custer, South Dakota, told us, "Now I know I'm really worth fighting for. You made us believe that people really care," and a youth in Amarillo, Texas, raised his hand and said, “I didn’t think there was hope, but now I know there is.”

From the first day on the road it was clear that there were intense battles raging. As we closed the first concert in Pinson, Alabama, and Bill introduced "Worth Fighting For" (written by a young lady in a facility in Texas), one of the girls in the audience was visibly shaken. She was still crying as staff got them ready to leave, and as I visited with her briefly, she shared that her parents had chosen drugs instead of her and she had no one to help her believe she is "worth fighting for." A 17-year-old in Custer, South Dakota, wants to be a good father to his 7-month-old daughter but needs a plan for his life and someone to help him "make it on the outside." A kid in Nampa, Idaho, told me he is "tired of making Mom cry," and a young man in Great Falls, Montana, cuts himself to cope with the confusion resulting from his mom's sudden change from Wicca to Christianity. A 14-year-old in Burns, Oregon, who is still mad at God for his grandfather's death, physically cringed every time "God" or "Jesus" was spoken during the concert, but he chose to stay in spite of the fact that staff gave him the option to leave. Every day we encountered kids with these intense battles in their lives. They need the resurrection power available to them through Jesus Christ in order to fight another day.

For 16 years Crosswalk has toured every summer to plant seeds of hope in very dark places. This year more than ever God allowed us to see Him give the increase as the intense power of the gospel message spoke freedom to captive hearts. In Calgary, Alberta, a Christian correctional officer came running back into the gym after the concert to tell me that another staff person, a non-believer, was in the hallway crying. Rethinking her anti-God position, she simply told her through her tears, "That guy [Bill] made so much sense." A young man in Seattle, Washington, encountered God's power in such a way that afterwards he renounced his gang and exchanged his satanic "bible" for the Holy Bible in spite of explicit threats from other gang members who witnessed his brokenness. Yes, war is intense, but God's power will prevail. The ultimate victory will be His!