local man does good

One of the many people I was privileged to meet on the campaign trail...

Here's Dale Moss in the C-J with an article/interview with Rev. Richard Johnson who heads up "Christian Formation Ministries"...

Moss starts with an anecdote and then moves into Johnson's approach:

Johnson might not win this one, after all. He cannot promise to win them all, of course. What's important is that Johnson tries like no one else locally. He works with prisoners and ex-prisoners, urges and prays for them a life responsible and free. He asks that they exceed public assumptions and overcome personal demons. He cuts them no slack yet offers them care they seem to trust.

“I'm available as a father figure,” Johnson said. “I leave it up to them, to decide if they want that kind of relationship.”

Several dozen people now do, in county jails in Floyd and Clark and in two area state prisons. Ten to 15, no longer incarcerated, attend classes and get-togethers regularly at the Christian Formation center in New Albany.

The effort began in 2007. It picks up volunteers and donors, though never enough....Johnson, 57, moved to Southern Indiana from Maine in the early 1990s to manage a Christian radio station....

Christian Formation Ministries is at 220 Graybrook Lane. For more information or to help, call 945-0886.

May God bless Richard Johnson, his family, and the fruit of their labors.