How Sharing Hope Ministry Began
2/28/2007

In the spring of 1999, a group of women from a local non-denominational church in Amarillo, Texas, prayed that God would provide a community outreach opportunity. Not long after lifting up this prayer, Debra, a young woman who was incarcerated in a local county jail wrote to the church asking for help. This broken woman acknowledged that she was an addict who needed help with her recovery and her relationship with Christ.


The prayerful volunteers sent Debra the Life Recovery Bible. As soon as Debra received her Bible and shared it with another woman in her cell, Sharing Hope Ministry was born. Later, Debra wrote, “Through Sharing Hope I found unconditional love, encouragement, spiritual guidance, and a family in Christ. I witnessed many lives being transformed by His Word during my two years in prison.”


Other women began requesting a free Life Recovery Bible of their own. Since that prayer and simple act of sharing God’s Word with fellow inmates, Sharing Hope Ministry, Inc. has grown into an independent 501(C)(3) non-profit that has the support of multiple churches of different Christian denominations. Sharing Hope Ministry, Inc. has provided services to over 169,000 hurting women.


Sharing Hope began as a Texas ministry that provided not only Bibles to meet the spiritual needs of the incarcerated women but additional free services including: a Bible Study program, a prayer group who prays regularly for the women, visitation and Bible studies with women in local county facilities, and an aftercare program called “Stepping Stones” for the women who are released and come to the Amarillo area. The aftercare program assists the women in transitioning into a healthy lifestyle free from crime and drugs.


In 2006, Sharing Hope Ministry, Inc. began sending Life Recovery Bibles to women in chemical dependency rehabilitation facilities and to incarcerated women throughout the nation. Currently Sharing Hope Ministry has provided services to incarcerated women in 41 states. Each month additional states are added to our area of service.