A greeting from our Executive Director

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself a bit.

I grew up in Columbus, went to Ohio State, and then on to seminary. After seminary I worked for 6 years with delinquent youth, two of those years with youth gangs. In an effort to get the attention of youth at risk we would take tours of the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in a program called "Think Straight" (Not the "scared straight" program, this was about thinking, not scaring!) I made over 100 visits.   

Then my family and I moved to Brazil, which we would call home for most of the next 18 years. For six years we lived and worked in the Amazon region of Brazil. My wife, a nurse would do clinics, vaccination campaigns, dental clinics, village health worker training. I worked to train Brazilian pastors, equipping them to care for their "flocks". We have been in some very remote regions of the rain forest. It was a great experience for our family.

There is a saying in this beautiful region of the world. "No one knows everything about the Amazon, but everyone has the right to know more". I love this and I have adopted it. Now today, working with men and women who have been incarcerated and are returning to society, I often think "No one knows everything about reentry, but everyone has the right to know more". Or "No one knows everything about change (real, deep, personal change) but everyone needs to know more". 

After the Amazon years we moved to southern Brazil. Everything was different, very "first world". We also have had the opportunity to visit many other cultures from the jungles of Suriname to cities like Paris and London. Russia, Indonesia, The Philippines. We spent a memorable month in Cameroon in West Africa. I have had the chance to observe and enjoy fellowship with people from many cultures. 

I have come away from those travels with the profound conviction that all men and women face the same questions of who are we? Why are we here? We all face pains and joys in life. We all face choices, some good, some bad. We all try to figure out how to make life work, or else are drawn to pain relief when life doesn't work. 

Men and women who have made choices that have resulted in unforeseen sorrows for themselves and others are made of the same stuff as anyone else. Truly anyone of us could have walked those paths. Our challenge, our opportunity now is to reach out a hand to other human beings and give them a hand up. 

My journey has now brought me here to Opening Doors. I am grateful to be here.

Thanks for visiting us,

James Himsworth