In the spring of 2007 as our founder Nancy Hynes was praying and asking God for direction in how she could serve Him, she clearly heard Him say, “Prison Ministry”. Her reaction to the Lord was, “how you can ask that? I have no expertise or anything special to offer in that area.” In fact, she has in hindsight been pretty well prepared, since it means mostly she must rely on Him. Over the next weeks and months, He continued to speak not just directly to Nancy but to others of influence in her life. They would prophecy over her at prayer meetings and after meeting with her spiritual advisors and her mentor, she became convinced it truly was a word from the Lord. Finally she met with her pastor and he said, “I can see you in that role,” it all started to make to make sense.

She accepted the call, but still challenged God. “If you want me to do it you have to give me creative ideas and get me started”; give me a name for this ministry, you wanted this started give me a framework with the foundations

In 2008 the ministry came together, God is so good, it happened like this:

 

• He gave her the name and the logo, so clearly that she sat within days with a graphic designer and the logo took shape
• He spoke clearly in teaching times and in her reading of the word, “this will not be an ordinary prison ministry, we will learn from others but we will not worry about what is already out there.
• It wasn’t long before he was giving ideas beyond her wildest imagination, she was able to make connections to other existing mentoring organizations
• In  2008 a board was formed and Pathways to Freedom became a legal entity;
• Nancy began visiting CNSCF in Dartmouth, NS with a local volunteer chaplain,
• Connections started being made with our future clients the inmates
• God is so good and so faithful in May 2010 we received our first inmate application for a mentor friend. Our first inmate match was made in July 2010.
• 2010 was the year the we gained charitable status

Through it all God continued to impress upon us that we as a ministry will go beyond what you can imagine. He said, “There will be a spirit of excellence in all areas from the leadership and board to the volunteers.”

WOW what a journey and God is certainly the mountain moving, door opening, and miracle working God of yesterday, today and tomorrow. We continue to pray for God to have entrance into men and women’s lives while they are incarcerated and for our volunteers to continue to trust in Him as they work with their friends.