Mark Broyles Research over the years has found that children with a parent in prison face an increased risk of becoming offenders themselves. A 2023 study by researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s College of Social Work and Criminal Justice indicated that those who have an incarcerated parent are five to six times more likely than others to have legal troubles of their own.  Santa Clarita resident and Valencia Hills Community Church pastor Mike Broyles was doing prison pastor work a couple years back — he didn’t want to say where — when he came across a prisoner whose son was also a prisoner in the same place. The father and son were not on speaking terms since the father had gone away to prison when his son was only 8 or 9 years old.  “It was a broken relationship,” Broyles said during a recent telephone interview. “The son was bitter and mad at his dad for abandoning him and going to prison. As the son grew up to be a man, he never had a relationship with his dad, or dad with his son.”  About 20 years after the father had gone away, the son got into trouble and found himself in the same prison. But even then, the two men didn’t communicate.  Unbeknownst to the other, both father and son signed up for what was called Malachi Men, which began as Malachi Dads, a prison ministry program that presents a biblical foundation for life, marriage and parenting.    “Most of these groups are groups of six or eight men in a smaller group,” Broyles said. “By the providence of God, these two were placed in the same small group together. You can’t hide with six or eight guys in a group. You can hide in prison, but you can’t when you’re that close.”  Broyles listened to this father’s story. The father told Broyles that, five years prior, he’d found religion and was trying to be a better person. He told Broyles that he also wanted to be a better father.   Broyles, who’d worked with inmates for over a dozen years in more than 70 prisons, said he could see beyond inmates’ crimes and could acknowledge the potential for what they could become if they chose to follow Christ. Broyles had seen inmates serve as instruments of restoration and forgiveness to their families. He saw that this father and son before him were no different.  The two men faced each other in a Bible study group called “Heart of a Father.”  “They’re talking about fatherhood,” Broyles said. “Dad and son began to relate to each other slowly. By week six, the son said he wanted to come to faith in Christ. They began to walk around the yard and exercise, ask forgiveness of each other, and bring healing and hope. Now they’re walking shoulder to shoulder as a father and son — not a broken father and son, but a healed father and son. That story goes on today.”  Pastor Mark Broyles of Valencia Hills Community Church shares the original image that would become the front cover of his book titled “Only God: Tansforming One Inmate and Family At a Time” on April 2, 2025. Katherine Quezada/The Signal Broyles, 76, was born in Pasadena and raised in the El Monte area. He’d grow to become a pastor and move around a bit before landing in the Santa Clarita Valley in 1988. It was pastor work at Grace Baptist Church in Santa Clarita that brought him and his family to the area.  In 2020, Broyles got the opportunity to be a pastor at Valencia Hills Community Church. Today, he’s shepherding pastor. His son, Dan, is care pastor there. But Broyles began work as a prison pastor around 2009 when he was at Grace Baptist.   A couple years prior, a group of men from the church had gone out to Louisiana Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, to work with inmates. That group came back and said they needed to do similar work in Los Angeles County.  “The funny part of it,” Broyles said, “is that I’m a pastor and I don’t know anything about prison stuff and prison ministry. So, they (the group of men from the church) went two years. By the second year, they said, ‘We’re not leaving until we begin this, and you take us seriously.’ I was kind of dragging my feet, to be honest. I had two wonderful volunteers, and they persuaded me to look into it.”  Getting into it was a long process, Broyles said. Just being approved to do the work took about a year and a half, and during that time, Broyles got to know L.A. County jail personnel quite well.   Once he and his group were good to go, one of the first things they did with the program was put on a carnival at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic for inmates and their families.   “It was a beautiful time of reuniting them and their kids,” Broyles said.   In the early stages of doing the program, he and others would meet with about 25 inmates. He said he quickly saw the fruits of their labor.  In one instance from his book, “Only God: Transforming One Inmate and Family at a Time,” Broyles and his team met with a group of inmates serving life sentences. These inmates were part of the Malachi Dads leadership team at the prison, leading other inmates in Bible study. Broyles wrote that he and his colleagues were overwhelmed by the attitudes of joy and contentment of these men who, he believed, had been transformed into true spiritual leaders to their fellow inmates.  Pastor Mark Broyles of Valencia Hills Community Church with his book titled “Only God: Tansforming One Inmate and Family At a Time” on April 2, 2025. Katherine Quezada/The Signal According to Broyles, the prison pastor program has been nothing short of a success. And it continues to be implemented in more and more states.  “In 2011, we were in five states in America — probably six or seven prisons,” Broyles said. “Now we’re in 40 states and about 300 prisons in 20 countries around the world.”  He added that it’s even led to the creation of what’s called Hannah’s Gift, which is a similar form of ministry, but for women who are incarcerated.  The results that these programs garner, Broyles said, is why he does pastor work in general, and that’s to restore a person’s relationship with God. Seeing inmates reestablish relationships with their kids, he said, is an added bonus.   Pastor Mike Broyles of Valencia Hills Community Church displays a photo from the past in his office capturing a moment when he worked with an incarcerated man and his daughter. April 2, 2025. Katherine Quezada/The Signal Broyles has been married to his wife, Debbie, for over 50 years. The couple has two sons, including Dan and his younger brother, Jonatan.  Broyles’ son, Dan Broyles, said he thinks what his dad is doing is remarkable.  “He’s such an advocate for seeking to reconcile these individuals in jail and in prison with their children,” Dan said. “He cares deeply for these people in prison. It’s not a job. It’s a calling for him. There are not a lot of people doing that. And it’s not like he minimizes the crimes that maybe these individuals did, but he still sees them as human first before prisoner.”  With his 77th birthday coming up this month, Broyles doesn’t seem interested in slowing down. His son said his dad doesn’t really believe in retirement.  “I think he’s going to do this type of thing until he literally can’t,” his son said. “He still works just as hard as anybody.”   Know any unsung heroes or people in the SCV with an interesting life story to tell? Email share@signalscv.com.  Valencia Hills Community Church pastor Mark Broyles on April 2, 2025. Katherine Quezada/The Signal The post Faces of the SCV: Prison pastor passes no judgement, strives for family reunions appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less