USA (MNN) — Christmas is a lonely time for a lot of people, especially prison inmates. At a time when many people are thinking about family and friends, inmates try to forget. Where do they turn?
Biblica has something that can help them find the peace they need at Christmas.
Biblica CEO Doug Lockhart says they have a special Bible just for them, called "Free On the Inside."
"It's a full Bible with stories of redemption from other people who have spent time in prison for whatever reason. Everything we do is designed to connect with someone, wherever we are, and hopefully take them into God's Word."
Lockhart says these Bibles are great for people who have prison ministry. "If they're interfacing with inmates, they're able to highlight one of the stories, and maybe it becomes a conversation piece that very naturally takes them into God's Word."
What's the end goal? "That they end up in God's Word, they're lives are transformed and changed, and they accept Christ. That is certainly the end goal."
This Christmas you could have a profound impact not only on prison inmates, but jail and prison chaplains, too. "It's amazing: the number of county jail and state prisons where there are chaplains and they walk into a prison situation, and there just might not be any Bibles."
In the U.S., nearly 2 million adults and youth crowd prisons and jails. Every year, about 30% of them are released after serving an average of three to five years. About two-thirds of ex-convicts re-offend and return to jail within three years. But inmates who make decisions for Christ and then are released, research shows, are 50% less likely to end up in jail again.
This fiscal year, Biblica will help reach 123,000 men, women and young people incarcerated in American prisons and detention centers with the life-giving message of Christ's love and forgiveness.
A great gift this Christmas may be to donate a case of Bibles. For $84 you can purchase a case of 24 Bibles. Click here to order your case.
If you'd like to donate to the Prison Scripture Fund, click here.
