Generosity Yields More Generosity
Beginning in 2021 we began paying the return postage for our students, so that they could participate in our Bibles study courses at completely no cost! Though it was a small barrier for someone to pay for their own return postage, it was a barrier that kept many from enrolling in our program. As a result of this new effort more inmates have enrolled in our Bible studies.
How CLI Got Started in the Philippines
Launching CLI’s outreach in the Philippines has been nothing short of a divine “shove” from behind to move. Through a partnership with a missions agency, CLI made contact with a local Filipino pastor named Jonnel Suyat. Among his church, there was a former inmate who was burdened about reaching the men and women in the nearby jails.
First-time DUI Offender Finds God
Charity accepted Christ as He spoke to her through the Bible she was given while in jail. She was only in jail for a year and a half, but it was the lowest point in her life. However she says that she has “grown so much much in my faith during my time of incarceration…and I thank God for it.”
“Go Home and Tell Them How Much the Lord Has Done”
Mark 5:18-20 provides an example of how conversion leads to mission. After freeing a man from demonic oppression, Jesus began to leave the area by boat, but he was intercepted with a special request: “As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”
Authors Partner with CLI to Disciple Inmates
Books come in all shapes and sizes and so do book donors. Most of our books come from personal libraries or church-sponsored book drives. It is an exciting moment when we greet someone at the door with boxes in tote, or when we arrive in the morning to find that someone dropped off books overnight. Sometimes we learn about the way these books have already helped someone in their pastoral ministry, personal growth, or devotional life. We trust that God will continue to use these resources to spiritually build up the inmates who will read them next.
I Decided to Kill Myself
My name is Richard Joe Lee. I have been in and out of prison my whole life. About two months ago I came back to Van Buren County Jail. While I was in the holding cell, I decided to kill myself. I began braiding the towel I had torn up when a guard came by and told me about Jesus. I began to feel conviction. As I lay in an empty cell, I looked under the bed and there was a Bible turned to Romans 8:28.
Waiting For The Creaky, Squeaky Christian Book Cart
So much of prison life is about waiting. Every Wednesday morning, many of the 180 inmates housed on the eighth and ninth floors of Michigan’s Macomb County Prison are waiting for the cacophonous sounds of squeaky wheels in the distance. They signal the approaching book cart that will bring them new stories of lives once shackled like themselves, now freed by the power of Jesus.
The Wild Man of Chattanooga: Mickey Park’s Two-fisted Journey to Salvation
Using the vernacular of the street, Mickey takes the reader with him on his journeys as he drinks, tokes and fights his way across America, Canada, and Europe, looking for the next opportunity to get stoned. He always finds it and when he does, there are always consequences to pay.
Shining Christ’s Light on the Forces of Darkness
The spiritual forces of darkness are waging war inside our prisons. Their weapons are cunning, deceit, and hatred. They are unceasing in their quest to destroy the souls of men. Their deception comes in many forms, from the “protection” of prison gangs to the “escape” of illicit drugs to the “promise” of false religions.
How One Book Can Save A Life
“Living alone in this prison cell was really getting to me. Eleven days earlier I had been stabbed more than a dozen times by a fellow inmate, so they put me in here for my ‘protection.’ But who was going to protect me from the demons inside my head? I was despondent, frustrated, angry […]
