In the spring of 2007 as our executive director, Nancy Hynes was praying and asking God for direction in how she could serve Him, she clearly heard Him say, "Prison Ministry". Her reaction to the Lord was, "how you can ask that? I have no expertise or anything special to offer in that area." In fact, she has in hindsight been pretty well prepared, since it means mostly she must rely on Him. Over the next weeks and months, He continued to speak not just directly to Nancy but to others of influence in her life. They would prophecy over her at prayers meetings and after having a meeting with her spiritual advisors, her mentor and her pastor and he said, "I can (see? help?) you in that role," it all started to make to make sense.

After a while, she accepted the call, but still challenged God. "If you want me to do it you have to give me creative ideas and get me started, you give me a name for this ministry. Please God, you wanted this started give me a framework with meat," and He did.

He gave her the name and the logo, so clearly that she sat within days with a graphic designer and the logo took shape. He spoke clearly in teaching times and in her reading of the word, "this will not be an ordinary prison ministry, we will learn from others but we will not worry about what is already out there. We will go beyond what you can imagine." He said, "There will be a spirit of excellence in all areas." It wasn't long before he was giving ideas beyond her wildest imagination, she was able to make connections to other existing mentoring organizations and by the Fall of 2008 a board was formed and Pathways to Freedom became a legal entity. In 2009 Nancy started visiting CNSCF in Dartmouth, NS with a local volunteer chaplain, and started meeting other prison ministry leaders and volunteers. In March 2010, we gained charitable status. As time went on she started making connections with the inmates and was visiting the youth facility through her local church. Continuing to press in to what God wanted without running ahead, was very challenging.

God is so good and so faithful in May 2010 we received our first inmate application for a mentor friend. Our first inmate match was made in July 2010.

WOW what a journey and God is certainly the mountain moving, door opening, and miracle working God of yesterday, today and tomorrow. We continue to pray for God to have entrance into men and women's lives while they are incarcerated and for our volunteers to continue to trust in Him as they work with their friends.

That is how we became "Pathways to Freedom Ministries (PTFM) founded to act as a bridge between Christian volunteers, the church and inmates incarcerated in local corrections facilities and prisons. This ministry has been modeled after other mentoring ministries in Canada and the US. In some cases these ministries have been in existence for 40+ years. We pray that we will be around that long and make the difference we know they have. We exist to provide guidance, training and support to the mentors, the inmates, chaplains and their families.