Prison Fellowship Academy
holds graduation ceremony
who completed the one-year
program for the Prison Fellowship
Academy in 2023
A celebration of 19 men who completed the one-year program for the Prison Fellowship Academy took place earlier this year.
Prison Fellowship Academy is a spiritually based self-help program that is spearheaded by Eric Nobles, the Academy’s Bay Area field director.
“This program is designed for the men to meet two days a week where they are completing courses to help them become responsible citizens, said Nobles.
Nobles said that the program focuses on issues like authentic manhood and responsible thinking. His goal is to equip these men with the ability to be the “men, the fathers, the sons, the husbands that they truly can be without a lot of the distractions so that they can prepare themselves for reentry.”
The graduation included a powerful speech from Chaplain Kenneth Reid, who was the keynote speaker of the event.
“The enemy [Satan]’s main objective is keep you off course with Him [God], to keep you away from a hundred-fold-level of intimacy with the Lord,” Reid said during his speech.
Michael D. Adams, a graduate and facilitator of the pro gram, was excited to be part of this event.
“What this program has done for me is allowed me to build fellowship with men in the same situation,” Adams said.
Adams said that the Academy has given him the opportunity to learn that they all have the same struggles and are all trying to get to the same place spiritually in order to assist each other.
The event also acknowledged some outside individuals who help facilitate funding for the program.
“It’s really great to meet a community that’s helped us without even knowing us,” Adams said.
Fellow graduate Tare Beltranchuc presented certificates of completion to the graduates.
“Thank you, everybody, for coming. I appreciate you all who contributed in putting this together,” Beltranchuc said. “But mainly I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The event concluded with pizza and cake, followed by a time of mingling, fellowship, and laughter.
Nobles summed it up best: “If you look at all the different races, creeds, colors, faiths even … and allow God to penetrate our hearts … to debate and have differences of opinion, but yet be unified.”
