When Captain Bob Kolenda retired from the Overland Park, Kansas, Police Department after four decades of service, he sensed he wasn’t finished with having a positive impact on peoples’ lives. “When I retired, I knew that I was supposed to do something to serve. I mean that’s what God requires of us. We’re not supposed to retire and walk away from everything.”
Bob heard about the positive things Youth for Christ was doing. As a lifetime police officer, and a Christian, Bob was especially interested in YFC’s Juvenile Justice program. He approached “YFC Serving Kansas City” Executive Director Alex Mathew and asked what he could do to help. His heart for volunteering was this: “I considered doing adult prison ministry, but I thought, ‘If I, with God’s help, could make an impact and help reduce recidivism – repeating a crime – before they got into the adult system, it would give them a better chance at being successful.’”
After meeting with young people in a detention facility, YFC gives them prayer request cards. “I was surprised how responsive they were to that.” One prayer request in particular really got to Bob. “This one kind of broke my heart, because even though I’ve been in law enforcement, I didn’t realize the poor outlook some of these kids had on life. I mean to be 13 or 14 years-old, and your prayer request is to make it to 19 or 21 without being shot, just really touched me!”
In our complete podcast interview, Bob shares how he’s taking responsibility for mentoring a young man who’s serving time at a state facility. Bob has to drive an hour there, and an hour back home, but to Bob it’s worth it. He wants to be there when the teen gets out, “so he doesn’t get back in with the same environment he was before – and help him take some first strong steps toward developing a strong life for himself so he doesn’t end up back in the system.”
One thing that can help young offenders in the outside world who want to go straight and succeed. “Juvenile records in the state are sealed, so unless they’re applying for a government job or a job that requires a security clearance, they don’t have to disclose their juvenile record.”
Something Bob sees that needs to be addressed. “There’s a repetition of a cycle. A lot of these kids don’t know their dads, they’re teenagers becoming dads, and it just keeps repeating the cycle.” To help stop that cycle, one of the local chapters of YFC has “created an outreach called Parent Life so that once these kids are not in detention anymore, they can come to meetings with the person they had the baby with – hardly any of them are married – and get parenting skills, get help with diapers, get some coping mechanisms for helping raise a kid…because they’re kids themselves.”
Bob and those he serves alongside have found that a book by Christian artist Lecrae called “Unashamed” is helping point to truth. “A lot of them relate to him because Lecrae grew up without a dad and had a grandmother that prayed for him. And he went through a series of ups and downs – in and out of the system – before he got on the right track.”
When Bob and his team pray before going into a detention center to meet up with young people, “We just ask the Holy Spirit to go before us and open their hearts and to give us the right words to say. We’re trying to develop relationships with these kids so they know that there’s people out there that care for them.” And when sharing about Jesus and the promise of eternal life, Bob’s shares, “You do your best to answer the questions.”
Hear from Bob directly in our complete interview podcast:
