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Bella-vista Prison’s door revolved 10 times for Edison, an angry young man who knew no other livelihood except stealing and killing. Orphaned as a child when his parents died, he was reared on the violent streets of downtown Medellín by sicarios-hit men.

Burglar turned pastor Juan Piedrahita served part of his own prison sentence with Edison in Bellavista. Piedrahita had been convicted of burglary, a skill he’d learned at age 14 and used for eight years until he was finally caught. At Bellavista, Piedrahita came to Christ through the powerful outreach of Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship.

He knew that without the gospel, Edison would soon be back in prison. But even with the gospel, his friend had no job skills to earn a legal living.

That’s how in 1996 Piedrahita conceived the idea for Amando a mi Prójimo-Loving My Neighbor-a post-release halfway house for offenders who have served their sentences. He knew they needed to be resocialized and learn a path of life different from the one that had led him to the prison. Piedrahita rented a house and began the program in 2000. In February the project moved to a larger facility near Bellavista. The new place can accommodate up to 100.

Colombians are so fed up with crime that pervades the country-especially Medellín, its most violent city-that few people want to help ex-offenders, not even their own families. But Piedrahita, who’s now an ordained Wesleyan pastor, knew that Jesus died for the vilest sinner. Christ had rescued him in a notorious prison, so that same power could reach others even worse than he had been. “The world turns its back on prisoners. Nobody believes in them, but we want to give them opportunity,” Piedrahita said.

Renewal at the Lord’s feet Residents don’t have to be Christian to be admitted to the halfway house. “The main requirement is that the person wants to get ahead in life,” Piedrahita said. But, he adds, “Most important is that we’re able to bring these people to the feet of the Lord. The vision that God has given us is to have a place that brings help to many people spiritually, personally, wholistically and to shape people to do well in society.”

That opportunity includes deepening their knowledge of God and walk with him. A typical day at Loving My Neighbor begins with a 6:45 a.m. worship service before the men either go to jobs outside the house or take part in occupational workshops there. Discipleship and group therapy is from 4:30 to 7 p.m., when more worship begins. Most of the men take turns praying in a night-long chain.

Sundays are family evangelistic days as the program aims to reconcile the men with the families they abused-or who abused them. It also seeks to bring family members to a relationship with Christ.

Seven of the house’s 16 residents are solid Christians, Piedrahita says; the others have made professions of faith but are still processing their decisions. A Wesleyan church leader helps disciple the men.

From crime to honest wages Daily training also includes equipping Loving My Neighbor’s residents with ways to support themselves: baking, painting, carpentry, gardening, raising rabbits, making soap, brooms, bleach, hammocks and jewelry, and other skills that can provide them with an honest wage. Residents with skills share them with others. The rehab process lasts from seven months to a year, depending on the person’s needs. Some come to Loving My Neighbor only on weekends and stay with their families and work during the week.

While other post-offender programs exist in Medellín, Piedrahita said, “Most of these foundations charge a lot of money for the rehabilitation of these young people,” Others, he said, have its residents raise money to fund their treatment by selling bread and cakes. Often, Piedrahita said, the residents who go out selling wind up back in drugs and crime. In contrast, Loving My Neighbor works with people of scarce resources who want to leave drugs and crime but have no healthy job skills to earn enough to pay for such rehab.

Fighting Christians’ fear and pessimism As a faith mission, Loving My Neighbor often doesn’t know where money for the men’s next meal will come from. But Piedrahita says God provides-often through secular sources and people who aren’t Christian. He is disheartened by many Christians’ attitude toward ex-offenders, even offenders who have committed their lives to Christ. One pastor, himself a former addict, told him not to waste his time on these men because they’ll never change. Piedrahita understands the roots of pessimism in Colombia, the hemisphere’s most violent country. Even Christians are fearful and feel helpless against pervasive, off-the-chart crime and find it difficult to hate the sin but love the sinner.

But Piedrahita has seen results. Edison’s life no longer revolves around the killing and stealing that made his life an endless circle between prison and the streets of Medellín. During his 15 months in Loving My Neighbor, Edison, now 33, learned how to make mops, brooms and other crafts to sell. He’s now living with his sister, who forgave him and whom he forgave. Unemployment is high in Colombia, and although he’s without work, his future and hope are enduring.

Then there’s Maicol, who served more than four years in Bellavista, where he came to Christ. His only family was an aunt who wouldn’t help him after his release, so he went back to the only livelihood he knew-thievery. To cope with his contradictory life as a Christian thief, he began taking drugs, which made his life worse than it was before. He did, however, return to Loving My Neighbor for a time before taking a job this February as a hotel maintenance man. He’s sober and out of trouble-for now. Piedrahita says while recidivism is practically universal among those who leave prison without Christ and without job skills, he estimates about 35 to 50 percent of post-offenders who graduate from Loving My Neighbor either return to drugs and crime, or die from street violence.

Jeannine Brabon, an OMS missionary who serves as Prison Fellowship director for the region of Colombia that includes Medellín, says that Loving My Neighbor fills a definite need as only one other Christian rehabilitation center serves the city. “Juan’s got a great ministry,” she said.

Freed for service At late afternoon group worship, the men clap, sing and even jump and dance as those who have been forgiven much. Among them is Omar, a 33-year-old hit man and drug addict who got saved in prison 12 years ago. Asked what he’d like to say to his brothers and sisters in Christ outside Colombia, he said, “Pray for us to be restored so we can be useful to the Lord. By the glory of God, I’m a free man in God’s service.”

That’s what pushes Piedrahita to keep going. “These young people leave here changed by the blood of Christ,” he said. “Many former sicarios are now church leaders. Through them, we’re reaching their families as well.”

Deann Alford is a freelance journalist and copy editor for World Pulse.