Healing Begins at the Core

Speaking to inmates at a correctional facility in Ohio, Mark Fahringer, director of the 49-9 Project, challenges participants to ask themselves, “Who am I?” He writes down their answers on a dry-erase board: “a felon,” “an addict,” “a father,” “a grandpa,” “a divorced husband,” and so on.

“All these answers are not who you are,” explains Mark. “They are roles you play. Who you are inside is your core self. Your core self is good. It cannot be destroyed, and it makes all of us equal.”

When we can see our own core self, he continues, we can see the core self in others. Seeing the core keeps us from angrily judging, being triggered, or making assumptions about others based on appearances.

“Getting down to the core self is like peeling away at an onion: as you get there, the tears usually follow,” says Mark.

Mark started the 49-9 Project after his ex-wife, Rahna, survived being held hostage at gunpoint for 30 hours by her boyfriend Terrence, a former felon. Though Terrence had been on a positive path after his release from prison, he became angry and violent after being unable to find work and maintain a stable living.

“If I could do something so that a single person won’t have to live through what my family went through, the work will be worth it,” says Mark. He created a 92-page manual for anyone leaving jail to help them find useful resources such as local food pantries, assistance with voter registration, and more. The manuals were distributed at prisons in Grafton and LaGrange, Ohio. After seeing how well they were received, Mark pitched ideas to The Salvation Army Service Extension in Lorain County, Ohio, of which he was a member, to help the program grow. They were able to secure a grant that allowed them to create 2,000 resource manuals and distribute them to 26 area prisons.

“We burned out a printer making so many copies,” remembers Mark.

The 49-9 Project Prison Ministry program now operates under The Salvation Army Northeast Ohio Division. It’s grown to include important services for inmates ready to reenter society, such as educational classes, case management, job search assistance, and more. The name derives from Isaiah 49:9 (NLT): “I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out in freedom,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come into the light.’ They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures and on hills that were previously bare.”

“Reading that was a God moment for me,” says Mark. “I understood the part of going into freedom, but what about going from darkness to light, and those greener pastures that once seemed bare?”

Reentry simulations are one way that the program helps inmates prepare for the first four weeks of life outside of prison. A participant is given an identity, such as a man with no driver’s license or birth certifi­cate who needs to survive on $120 a week. There are 16 different tables that represent probation, court, ID offices, or other services that they will need to visit to move forward with their lives. The simu­lation is meant to give inmates an idea of what challenges they’ll face. Whenever Mark visits a prison, employees and inmates alike ask him about the next simulation and how they can be involved.

“I had a probation officer volunteer to do the simulation,” says Mark. “He said it was the first time he had walked in the shoes of the people he was trying to help.”

The power of a ministry like the 49-9 Project is to show that all are worthy of love, support, and a chance at rehabilitation. And it can back that up with real resources and assistance. There are help and support groups that will walk with those on the path to redemption, and there are people who will look for and find the true core self in themselves and in others.

“We are all created in the image of God,” says Mark. “If someone says to me that they think they’re no good, what they’re really telling me is that the Lord is no good. Well, I’m not buying that. So that’s our starting point to go forward.”