Breakaway Devotional Project for Incarcerated Youth

Breakaway Outreach is developing a new spiritual growth resource for youth in juvenile detention centers.  The goal is to publish a devotional resource that will help incarcerated kids begin a daily walk with God.  The devotions will be written by a diverse group of individuals ranging from Christian professionals, athletes, music artists, entrepreneurs, authors, youth pastors, and more.  We are seeking your participation in this project.

We are asking you to pray about writing and submitting 1-4 devotions that could be considered for publication in this book.

Each devotion should consist of:

A. A passage of scripture

B. Body: short story; illustration; personal testimony; poetry; current event, etc.

C. Application: 2-3 questions to challenge the youth to apply what’s been read

D. Further Reading (optional): addition Bible verses for further study

Devotions should be between 300-1000 words. Please see “Submission Guidelines” below.

We look forward to your submission(s) for this project.  We respect your insight and the wisdom that you can impart to incarcerated youth in dire need of faith guidance and spiritual empowerment.  We look forward to your participation and creative contributions in developing this new resource and thank you in advance for your investment of time and talent to this project to help give incarcerated teens new hope and a fresh start.

Your involvement will change lives and shape eternity ONE child at a time!

Please submit devotions along with your bio to: info@breakawayoutreach.com.

Submission Guidelines

A. Devotionals should stick to a specific point.

B. Any Bible quotations should be properly referenced; example: 1 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV).

C. Devotions should be between 300-1000 words.

D. Assume that the reader is not familiar with Bible stories as most of these kids are not.

E. Keep language simple, as the reading skills of many juvenile offenders is minimal.

F. Use illustrations that youth can relate to: current or historical events, cultural icons, sports figures, scenes from movies, quotes from pop/hip-hop culture, urban themes, your personal testimony, etc.

G. Consider some of the themes and issues that surround at-risk youth:

• “My existence is about survival not serving others”
• “There’s no sense in dreaming because I may not live to be 21”
• “The ‘good’ life can’t happen for me because of my disadvantages”
• “I can’t allow others to think I’m weak or ‘soft’ so I have to front”
• “I have to take others before they take me”
• “God will make a way for others but not for me – I’ll never get a break”
• “I need to be respected and that will only come with a ‘hard’ image”
• “I long to be famous because it’s the only way my life will count”
• “Females are merely objects of pleasure not worthy of respect”
• “I’ll never be good enough for God – my bad deeds far exceed my good”
• “I can’t trust anyone because everyone will eventually let me down”