P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

Paper Sunshine -- Part 5

LONNIE: Have you ever thought of dressing up like a street person and going to church? Just to find out what kind of reaction you’d get? Well, stay tuned and learn what happened when our special guests, today, did just that. Then they stood up to preach!

CONNIE: Hello everyone, this is Connie Jeffery! That’s sounds like a fascinating story! You got my attention! But of course when Don and Yvonne McClure join us on the program they have amazing stories to share! It’s all about ministry and making ourselves available to those who really need a Christian witness. Talk about great New Year’s resolutions, why not resolve a little time each week for those that are in need and in prison? The simplest way to get started is to visit Someone Cares is on the web at www.someonecares.org. This is a great opportunity for anyone who has paper, pen and a postage stamp! Don and Yvonne have created a safe system for those on the outside to correspond with prisoners, many of whom never get any mail. You’ve been hearing about their Paper Sunshine program all this week, and now is the time to decide to get personally involved. Now, let’s join Lonnie as he visits with the McClure’s.

LONNIE: Don and Yvonne…Welcome back from Someone Cares!

DON & YVONNE: Thank you!

LONNIE: You spent time in prison, Don, but now God has put you back in prison to minister and reach out.

DON: As we’ve talked all week, it’s so much fun to…I have a ball being Christian. I had no fun living in a world of crime, but I do still get disappointed and discouraged at times. Awhile back, a friend of mine invited us to speak at his church. Nobody knew us in this area…So, I said okay but I’m going to have to cut a deal with you. Let Yvonne and I come as bums and I won’t dress up, I won’t shave. I got a pack of cigarettes and put them in my pocket, and we dressed down and came.

YVONNE: I dressed down, but I also put on all the jewelry I could find. You name it, I looked crazy!

DON: We walked in and people started moving away…The greeters didn’t greet us…

YVONNE: We didn’t even get a bulletin!

DON: We sat down and everyone moved. After a period of time, the pastor got up and said I like to introduce our guest speaker, and I went up and Yvonne went up to the organ, and I preached a sermon.

LONNIE: The church must have been in shock!

DON: Oh, they were! I had a doctor one time, give me a one thousand dollar check, and when you’re a faith ministry, a thousand dollar check helps! Later, he heard me speak about an inmate, and of his conversion…He had done a crime in this doctor’s town, and he said, don’t invite those type of people to our church and I gave him his check back. Then later that night he heard me again, but guess what? The guy I was talking about was there too! He gave his testimony…and that night, the thousand dollar check became a ten thousand dollar check!

LONNIE: Wow! Praise the Lord!

DON: …Because God had changed him. He changed me, Lonnie, I was terrible! I deserved to be dead, but Jesus not only took me in, we get credit for what He does through us. It makes no sense!

LONNIE: You know, a lot of people who write in to your pen friend program…Really the change begins in their own hearts. At first they may start off thinking they are going to help someone behind prison bars, but really the biggest blessing comes to themselves, right?

YVONNE: That’s right! When people start writing, they often will send us a letter, thanking us so much for receiving a blessing.

DON: A pastor heard us a couple of years ago…He heard us angrily! He had a flat tire, and he opened his trunk and his spare was flat as well. So he had to call a tow truck, so he got back in his car and turned the radio on and as he listened, he caught the tail end of our last interview. As I was talking about the ignorance of pastors, on the worldly things, that they just don’t get in a school, so he was attentive! He listened to the rest of the show, got his tire fixed, listened to the rest of the week of our programs. He got on the phone and told me that he had discouraged his church of prison ministry, and I said, well that’s kind of a shame and you should re-read Matthew 25, or what about in Hebrews where its says to remember the prisoner as if you are chained there with him. Not only did this pastor start writing, he got his entire church involved with a totally risk free ministry.

LONNIE: And it has probably revolutionized and reborn that whole congregation!

DON: Too many of us have blinders on.

LONNIE: Talk to us about going into death row in Eddyville, Kentucky?

DON: This is an experience…Let me brag about my wife a little! Yvonne has gone everywhere that I go. She goes on the yards of prisons, she has been through 3 riots with me and we were at Eddyville, at death row. Here goes double trouble again…They don’t let volunteers into death row. The chaplain was gone, I was gone, and Yvonne was there. She told a guard that she wanted to go in there, and the guard didn’t do a thing but open the door. So she got into Death Row!

YVONNE: Well, I got in there and I didn’t really know quite what to do, so I just sat down and at a table, and naturally they are cemented to the floor so they can’t be moved. I sat there and thought well, now that I’m in here what am I going to do. Well, one of the inmates asked to come over and speak with me, and he got permission from the officer to come speak with me. So, he came over and we talked! I asked him if he had family, he said yes…I’m close with my sister, but she’s too poor to come and visit and he told me that that he was kind of isolated there…I had a wonderful day, as one by one the different death row inmates came and talked with me.

LONNIE: So you were ministering there at that table on death row?

DON: Well, gets even better! Then I got involved and we got a regular ministry going there and Yvonne says, you know, it’s almost Christmas. Let’s do something special! She wanted to throw a Christmas party on death row…So Yvonne goes to the warden and says, you’ve got 37 inmates on death row, how about having a Christmas party and inviting as many of their families as we can? The warden said, No! Then Yvonne says, you know, I don’t really want to talk to my boss about you, but the Lord would really like this done! We had a death row Christmas party, on the row! They let the family members come…

YVONNE: The sister came…

DON: The local churches of all denominations made pizzas and cookies and cakes. We sang and we prayed and everybody took part.

LONNIE: This was like a communion service!

DON: There was a guy there that was really horrible and no one had talked to this guy in five years! Guards didn’t, other inmates, or anyone…He stayed in his cell until about the last 20 minutes, when he heard us singing Christmas carols, the guard let him out…

YVONNE: Well he like to sing…

DON: …and he had a beautiful voice. So, those of you who are listening…If you’ve got a small bathroom, go in there with a match. Close the door and turn off the lights and light that match. A letter from you can light up a cell just like that and again it’s all risk free. Getting these inmates enrolled in Bible studies costs you money, but you don’t charge the inmates. Folks, if you don’t want to support Someone Cares, please support the Voice of Prophecy Discover Bible School.

LONNIE: Don and Yvonne McClure, thank you so much for joining us…From Someone Cares Prison Ministry!

DON & YVONNE: Thank you!!!

CONNIE: What an amazing way to touch lives! A Christmas party on death row! Remember that writing to a prisoner is a perfectly safe process. Everything is sent through Someone Cares! Please join them in their outreach and help this ministry going with your faithful support!

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