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Woman’s Ministry to Help “Forgotten” Women Warms Your Heart

February 22, 2022

God has blessed me with so many amazing friends. Women I feel privileged just to know!

I learned so much from Lee when I worked with Freedom Forever Ministry for a few years. You’re going to love her story about how God has inspired and enabled her, along with many volunteers, to minister to incarcerated women. Instead of editing her responses, I’m letting her tell you in her own words…

Q. What’s the history of your ministry?
A. FFM began in 2000 as an outreach for incarcerated women. Such a simple beginning has manifested itself into a multifaceted ministry serving females from all walks of life.

Q. Why has it remained your passion?
A. It is my calling. God called me to this platform and it remains 22 years later. I have a supernatural love for the unloved and forgotten woman who our society has shunned or given up on.   

Q. How many people are involved as volunteers and how many have you served? 
A. Over the years we have had as many as 50 volunteers helping in and out of the prisons.  Over the years we have estimated over 10,000 prisoners have been reached. 

Q. Can you describe what a typical week looks like for you?
A. Before Covid we would begin our week at McCracken Regional Jail serving 20-40 women.  We would then have a grief class at Ross Cash Center in Fredonia on Tuesday and then another grief class back at McCracken on Wednesday.  We also traveled to Pewee Valley, Correctional Institute for women once per month on Saturday to offer a service.  We would see 50-60 women there.  We also offered the grief class at that prison. 

Since Covid we have worked hard to keep in touch with the prisons and offer the grief class whenever we can.  We are now working on the building project and our Food Truck “The Coney  Express.” We have turned our attention to the at-risk woman because most of the prisoners we would normally see in prison have been released into their communities, and that trend is continuing.

FFM has purchased a lot and would like to build a facility to offer life skills classes that would help these ladies succeed as mothers and active members of our community.  To do this we must teach them simple skills they seem to have missed.  For instance, laundry, grocery shopping, simple meal prep.  Along with this we would offer emotional healing opportunities like painting, sewing, needlework, and more.  Our hope is that we will engage artists and others in our community to step in and begin these teaching series.

We would also like a store front in this building to sell items that are created–offering 50 percent of the proceeds to the artist and 50 back to the ministry.  Strangely enough, no other ministry in our area does this.

Q. What’s been your biggest surprise from the ministry?
A. Buying a food truck to mentor at-risk women.  We show them how to run a small business on a small scale.  It has been very popular and most recently we have used it to feed the victims and workers in the tornado disaster. (The F-4 tornado that destroyed parts of western Kentucky in December 2021.)

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?
A. No one is more surprised than me at how God has used me to be a voice for the female inmate and at-risk woman.  I’ve been able to spend years advocating for them in Frankfort as well. I’ve had opportunities to speak at international conferences regarding female inmates.  Plus, I have published articles in American Jail Association magazine and am in the  process of publishing a book about grief with respect to women, “Where the Healing Begins.”

It is my belief that if we can set these women on a course for emotional healing, they can return to their families.  Our vision is and remains Redeeming, Restoring and Returning women to their families and communities.

Here’s a video that tells you much more about Freedom Forever Ministries. If you’re interested in working with, donating to, or learning more about FFM, you can also go to their website.

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