New Castle native Gary Mitchell was in a very different place just five or six years ago, serving an 18 month prison term in a State Penitentiary.
"I began doing ministry work and ministry studies. I found the experience of being in prison is a very lonely, very trying period," says Mitchell. So when he got out, Mitchell kept giving back. He started "Rebuilding of Life Ministry", sending birthday cards and letters of inspiration to other Lawrence County inmates. "We're now inside Lawrence County Jail doing Bible studies. I now work with the food banks here in town...," says Mitchell.
"Through his own example of life change, he's showing other men that there is another way," adds Minister Samuel Boyd of Union Baptist Church.
For the past four years, Mitchell has set up a tent and sold Pennsylvania-legal fireworks through a company called TNT, using all the proceeds, a few thousand dollars a year, to pay for stationary, Bibles, postage and transportation he needs to keep rebuilding lives.
"I think it's really nice for the church so they can have some new things, and then they're also helping the community by letting the people buy fireworks so they can have a good time," says Amy Friend of Union Township, picking up some fireworks with her family.
Mitchell also finds time to volunteer at Saint Vitus Food Bank and give back to the New Castle community in so many ways. So this Independence Day, the word "freedom" takes on a whole new meaning for him. Mitchell says, "I found the independence and a freedom from the addiction that I once suffered, from the trials I once went through, from those things that depressed me and held me down. Through the Lord, I've found it."
