Plead your case in the courtroom of heaven!

Find hope for your future in an encouraging post.

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There is hope for your family’s future!

Welcome

Hope for lives impacted by incarceration

Purpose

Fortifying lives impacted by incarceration

Support Groups

Regular meetings for support, training, and equipping.

Support Fortress of Hope

Sustenance for our fortress.

Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. (Zechariah 9:12 NIV)

What we offer

Support Groups

Regular meetings for support, training, and equipping.

Training

Provide spiritual training of biblical truths as a foundation with classes and mentoring. Also conduct life skills classes for preparing for the workforce, marriage, parenting, and handling of finances.

Encouragement

Hope for families and friends who have a loved one in the legal and penal systems.

Resources

Recommend teaching materials via books, videos, and podcasts for spiritual growth and self-improvement. Also provide information for places of refuge in a crisis situation, recovery homes, food and clothing pantries, low cost or pro bono legal counsel, and medical & dental care.

How we’re helping

“This ministry has helped me get through the incarceration of my son! The love and support of everyone is above all else. The love of Christ in this ministry is awesome! I urge anyone affected by incarceration to not miss out on this ministry.”

Elaine

Lubbock Chapter Member

“By attending the support group meetings, I’ve met other families who share similar struggles. I’ve learned various ways of saving money when putting money on the commissary account and the freedom of walking in forgiveness with others.”

E. W.

Lubbock Chapter Member

“After my son’s arrest and conviction, I experienced shock followed by depression. I felt so lost and all alone. Had there been a group like Fortress of Hope where I lived, perhaps it would not have taken me so long to come to terms of acceptance of our new reality.”

S. S.

Lubbock Chapter Member

Meet our team leaders

Eldon & Shonda Whitworth

Co-founders & Team Leaders

Eldon and Shonda Whitworth are the co-founders of Fortress of Hope Ministries. After their son landed in prison, they had no idea where to turn for help. That’s when the Lord called them to start Fortress of Hope Ministries. They have a passion to provide a safe place for families and friends who need to share their concerns unique to the prison family with others who relate. They walk with the families who find themselves on this unexpected journey providing comfort and encouragement. Click here to read more about Eldon and Shonda.

Nathan & Paula Young

Team Leaders

Nathan and Paula Young are team leaders who oversee the Kansas City, Missouri, area family members as well as lead monthly meetings online via Zoom. In 2013, Nathan was arrested in Florida and served seven years in a Florida prison leaving Paula scrambling to figure out how to provide for her household and her children. Though thankful for her local church, as a prison wife she felt she didn’t have a place to belong. Paula lost her social life during this season as going out with couples without her husband was awkward and as a married woman she didn’t fit in with the singles. Now that Nathan is home, their passion is to help married couples and other family members navigate through their unexpected prison family journey. Click here to read more about Nathan and Paula.

Resource for families and their incarcerated loved ones.

It is our desire to make resources available for families and their incarcerated loved ones. For spiritual growth, we encourage the family members and prisoners to read the same books, discuss them on the phone, write letters to one another about what they read, and to pray for one another.

Shonda Whitworth’s book, Appeal to the Courtroom of Heaven: Petitions for Prisoners and Prison Families is one of those books! Click the book image for more information.

The Lord is our FORTRESS and in Him we find hope.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2 NKJV)

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.” (Psalm 91:2)

“For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.” (Ps 59:16b ESV)