Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Help for a prison ministry



I published a Christian Fiction novel several years ago with David C. Cook entitled “Mysterious Ways.” After the book released I started getting letters and emails from convicts who identified with the main character and said something along the lines of, “I thought I was too far gone for God to pay any attention to me and I know this is just a story, but I thought if this character in this book could turn his life around, maybe there is hope for me.”

Later I started hearing from people wanting the book because they heard “it could get someone talking about faith who wouldn’t listen to anyone about it before.” I tell them I have never made that claim but I’ve had a number of people tell me that. I’ve asked them to get back to me after the person read the book and have gotten some very heart-warming responses.

I was amazed at these reactions and realized immediately it was not something I had put in the book, I just wrote a little story, it had to be something God was doing with it. Not only that, but to this day I have no idea how the books even got into prisons. It was not something either I or the publisher had tried to do.

The story came to the attention of Life Sentence Publications, a publisher that specializes in getting books into prisons. They are interested in getting it into more prisons to see if it will continue its work. But it requires donations to accomplish this. It takes $50 to get a package of books into a prison. I will not benefit financially from the project at all.

If you would be willing to have a thumbprint on a ministry reaching out to people who are incarcerated, you can make a donation to help by going to http://www.shop.lifesentencepublishing.com/Prison-Book-Project-Prsnbk-MW.htm  The donation site suggest a price for a full package but if you click on the donate button you can choose any amount you wish.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’ve never tried to solicit help like this before but would very much like to see this effort succeed.

6 comments:

Sadie and Sophie said...

What a wonderful idea! LOVED the book and know it will reach many searching hearts. Well done!

Deborah Dee Harper said...

Terry, what a special project! I made a small donation. God's blessings on your book and its purpose :-)

Blessings,
Deb

Terry Burns said...

I know any further success in prisons is up to the Lord. I also know He works through His people so if the donations come in to do the project I'll know why, and if not then I'll realize He has already done what He intended the book to do and I'll quit wondering whether it had a larger role to play and I dropped the ball. Or maybe He is the one that engineered that publisher contact? Thanks to those who have donated.

Lena Nelson Dooley said...

I've posted about this blog post on my Facebook Page, my Facebook profile, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google+.

Terry Burns said...

Thank you, Lena, this is awkward for me but I do feel strongly about giving this a try.

Terry Burns said...

The publisher has switched and is handling the donations through http://www.gofundme.com/ch2eog - response so far has been minimal so we will see whether the project makes or not