Hector Escobar and Dan Strickland conducted Living Free training for two churches in Lima, Peru, March 12-17. At least 500 persons from several churches attended, and these churches plan to begin Living Free groups. This was the first complete training with the new Living Free Spanish version, and the materials were a hit.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of Agustino serves an economically challenged area of the city and is full of warm-hearted believers who have a desire to reach their neighbors who don't know Christ. Hector and Dan were blessed by the love and generosity of Pastor Vasquez and his congregation.

The Casa del Padre church is in a more affluent area of town, and Pastor Guillermo Aguayo has a great passion to equip churches in South America with ministry tools to strengthen families. He, his wife, and congregation see the great need for Living Free, and they expect to begin groups and spread the work to many Latin American countries.

The FIT (Florida Integrity Training) Program is a ministry that works with inmates all over the state of Florida. The program has six units of study featuring several of the Living Free curricula including Insight, Free to Grow, Anger: Our Master or Our Servant and Handling Loss and Grief. This month they are highlighting the program at the Sarasota County Jail:

SARASOTA COUNTY JAIL TO CELEBRATE ITS FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIT PROGRAM

We are pleased to feature the Sarasota County Jail as this month’s exemplary program. We’re excited for many reasons. This is an example of how many people of different Christian churches can work together for a common goal and enjoy it. It has become the largest of our institutional programs and produced more recorded graduates than any other facility. In the period April 4, 2008-March 3, 2009, a total of 264 individuals have graduated from one of our six units. 122 of them were female and 142 were male. All six of our units have been offered and graduates produced. The leadership and facilitators funnel jail participants into our community-based program, “Recently Released” in a seamless way, helping ensure that transition will be smooth and effective. After all, that is what we are all about – a transition program.

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