I am pleased to announce that a new book has been written about my life. Free Anywhere Prison Outreach has rewritten my story and made it much better! They have added content and interview people in my life past and present. it is now available at
http://www.freeanywhereprisonoutreach.org/. They are currently raising money to place this new book into prisons, jails and drug treatment centers a crossed the country.
http://www.freeanywhereprisonoutreach.org/. They are currently raising money to place this new book into prisons, jails and drug treatment centers a crossed the country.
“Free Anywhere Prison Outreach” is a nonprofit, charitable corporation, organized for the express purpose of providing, to jails and prisons, books that are written specifically for inmates. These books are designed to not be overtly religious, but rather to be the kind of books inmates are likely to read.
Plots are exciting and fast moving, and when the gospel appears, usually well into the story, it is presented to a character in the book, not the reader. The reader is “hearing the gospel,” although no one is actually preaching at them. Out of a book of say 350 pages of action and intrigue, although there are subtle hints at Christianity here and there, only two or three pages focus directly on the Gospel. When the truth is presented, however, it is powerful and unequivocal.
Salvation through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is presented clearly and unapologetically. The character in the book usually resists and makes the kinds of objections many people make. He or she then gets the answers they need and responds by giving his or her heart and life to the Lord. After that, the action and drama continues, but with that character no longer being the same person. This is a unique and powerful approach to sharing the gospel.
In our first book, “Escape from Jonestown,” which spins off the true story of the 1978 Jim Jones “Kool-Aid massacre” in Jonestown, Guyana, a corrupt Guyanese soldier, a man who has been a bad guy throughout most of the story, hears the gospel from a missionary woman he had been holding captive in the jungle for some time. The Holy Spirit powerfully convicts him, but he objects that he has been too bad a man and done far too many terrible things to ever be forgiven. The widowed missionary lady responds by telling him the story of David, Uriah, and Bathsheba and explains how God forgave David of adultery and of having one of his faithful soldiers murdered to cover up his sin. The presentation of the gospel is compelling, and perfect one someone locked up behind bars. The change that occurs in the “bad guy,” who heard the gospel and believed, causes a major, even heroic turn in the plot.
Another of our books, “Hell on Church Street,” is the true story of a boy raised in a home where he suffered horrible, even unspeakable abuse. As he grew, he was taught by his dad to be a career criminal. The kid grows up to be a burglar and safe-cracker and commit a wide assortment of other crimes. He eventually ends up behind bars, several times over, usually after intense run-ins with heavily armed police officers. This powerful story is one with which many inmates can easily relate. Little Chuckie had every strike against him, spent years in jails and prisons, and was addicted to drugs. Eventually, he finds the Lord in a way that is so powerful that it will bring tears to the eyes of even hardened criminals. Inmates will realize that if this guy can make it and see his life turned completely around by faith in Jesus Christ, the same can happen for them.
Convicts and Books
Here’s the thing about convicts and books. On the inside, inmates have little to do to pass the time, day after day, but read. They often spend a large part of each day reading. However, inmates rarely choose religious books. They are drawn more toward action stories, westerns, and fast moving adventures. They like stories they can relate to. That’s the beauty of the strategy the Lord has given us for reaching the millions of people locked up in jails and prisons across this country.
Here’s the thing about the books we publish and distribute: It is reasonable to assume that every copy we place in a jail or prison will be read at least a hundred times by a hundred different inmates, with every one of those inmates hearing the gospel in a powerful way that could literally change his or her eternal destiny.
Permit me to share something from my personal experience. I went through the manuscript of “Hell on Church Street” at least five times, doing pre-publication edits. Still, when I came to the part where, on one dark, stormy night, Chuck meets the Lord by a pier in Hoquiam, Washington, tears welled up in my eyes. After following him through all of those years of suffering abuse and then living a life of crime, and being in and out of prison, when I can to his encounter with the Lord, I still got tears in my eyes – every single time. I couldn’t help it. It’s not fiction. It’s not contrived. It’s just the raw truth of one hopelessly lost man meeting Jesus and walking away forever changed. It reminds me of Paul meeting our Lord on the road to Damascus and being knocked off his horse and blinded by the glory of the risen Christ. It’s powerful!
We simply must get this book into every prison and jail in the country. We also hope to see it in school libraries, and in every drug rehab center and juvenile facility. It’s potential to reach souls for Christ is immeasurable. And if you know someone living on the wrong side of the law, or headed in that direction, or maybe someone hooked on drugs or overcome with hopelessness and despair, this is a book they should read. And trust me, if you know someone who is addicted to drugs, it’s just a matter of time before they will find themselves heavily involved in criminal activity.
How you can help
There are links on this webpage to PayPal, which can be used to donate securely using a debit or credit card. If you prefer to send a check, please make it to: Free Anywhere Prison Outreach, 17787 Monarch Way, Nampa, ID 83687. If you provide your mailing address, we will mail you a receipt at the end of the year.
In the larger cities and counties, the cost of reaching one jail with 50 to 75 books (the numbers they usually request once we get the book approved for placement) runs in the neighborhood of $125 to $375 per facility, including the cost of shipping. The cost of reaching a statewide prison system runs around $500 to $1,000, depending on the size of the state. So as not to confuse, you should know that prisons do not go through as many books as county jails, due primarily to the fact that inmate turnover in prisons is much less.
Sponsoring an entire book
For those interested, here are some larger budget items. It costs around $12,000 to $15,000 to have an entire book professionally written by a Christian author. The process takes around six months per book. If a donor covers the cost of having a book written, if they wish, on the dedication page we will dedicate the book to them or to the person they choose. We are currently looking for funding for a shoot ‘em up western during the Apache uprisings in the mid to late 1800s, and also an African jungle story that takes place against the backdrop of Idi Amin’s reign of terror in Uganda in the early 1980s. Both stories will contain a powerful presentation of the gospel against the backdrop of lots of action and suspense.
The cost of putting a completed manuscript into book form, copyrighting it, and creating a cover is around $2,000. After that, our first goal is to raise another $6,500 to purchase a pallet of approximately1,500 books to distribute to jails and prisons in all the western states. As funds come in, we will spread distribution state by state eastward.
For those who have a specific facility in mind, if a donor gives enough money to cover a county jail or a state prison system, that person can designate the jail or prison system of their choice and we will ensure that the facility they name is covered.
The need and opportunity is immense
The world is full of people who have been abused, neglected, or have otherwise made bad choices that have resulted in them being in a desperate place in life. Our stories will reach down to where they are, and point them to the one Person who alone can give them hope and newness of life. For that reason, let us pray that we will be able to raise the money needed to place our unique books in the hands of as many people as possible, so they can become free indeed – “free anywhere” the truth finds them.
