P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

CONNIE: I was in prison, Jesus once said and you visited me. There is a unique Christian man that takes those words very much to heart. Don McClure invades America's toughest prisons, death row even to be a friend to those that live behind bars.

CONNIE: Hello everyone and welcome to a very exciting interview week here on the Voice of Prophecy. I am Connie Jeffrey. Lonnie is away from the office all this week but we are so glad to welcoming back a great friend of this broadcast. Don McClure, of the Someone Cares Prison Ministry. All this week instead of you calling us, we want you to call him instead and consider volunteering for his marvelous Pen Friend Program. It's completely safe, your identity is always protected and it's an incredible form of a personal ministry. Here is his new number in Indiana. 812.342-2932. That's 812.342.2932. I'll also have mail and Internet details at the close. But right now let's join producer David Smith and meet Don McClure.

DAVID: Thank you Connie. Well, Don McClure, here we are again. It's great to see you.

DON: It's a thrill you know every time we come back. But, we've got half a loaf here.

DAVID: That's right Yvonne isn't here.

DON: Now we're excited because you already know that your listeners start to listen but for the next five days the Holy Spirit's going to be present and things are just exciting when we come here.

DAVID: It really is, and Don when you come here, you take us into prison.

DON: Yes.

DAVID: That is so exciting. I was thinking this morning before you came, here I am sitting next to you and you are an ex-con.

DON: Yes.

DAVID: You are an ex-con you served time.

DON: Yes.

DAVID: You don't have handcuffs on at this very moment.

DON: Right.

DAVID: You are a big guy, and there is no guard here. I can't hit a buzzer here to get let out, and I'm not afraid.

DON: You shouldn't be.

DAVID: The Lord has worked a miracle in your life. You're an ex prisoner.

DON: Yeah, ex-drug addict, ex-alcoholic, ex-everything.

DAVID: I remember you once had a phrase AI used to run with Satan and how's that going?

DON: "Now I walk with Jesus."

DAVID: Yeah that's right. How did the lord actually move into your life? You were in prison and now you have a ministry in prison.

DON: When I got out and got into trying to find a direction in life the lord just caught me walking on that road to Damascus and said, "Don I need you." Well, in the church I'd never been a kid I grew up too quick and I was an adult at twelve.

DAVID: Yeah.

DON: On the streets at 13 and I didn't fit into the church. There was no spot for me.

DAVID: Right.

DON: I heard a volunteer who was a prison ministry volunteer speak at a luncheon one day and I said, "Lord thank you." I called the chaplain in Soledad and Yvonne and I were full-time unpaid chaplains for 13 years at Soledad.

DAVID: Now, let's go back a little bit Don and you served time, how many years did you actually serve?

DON: Three and a half years.

DAVID: You served three and a half years when was this? How many years ago?

DON: A long time ago, when Moby Dick was a guppy!

DAVID: Now Don, you were in desperate straight. You are a changed man today but that says you were on the edge of some very, very serious things.

DON: You know, I don't take credit for anything because it's the Jesus in me that gets everything going but people listening to this radio and by the way, as you listen to this radio or as you are driving down the highway get a pencil and paper because we are going to be here for five days and we're gonna rock and roll with Jesus.

DAVID: Yeah.

DON: Jesus is the rock and I want to be on the roll.

DAVID: Don, you once said, "That if Christ had not intervened."

DON: I'd be on somebody's death row.

DAVID: Probably on a death row or dead.

DON: More than likely.

DAVID: Where are you? You just moved.

DON: We moved to Columbus, Indiana which is thrilling because we didn't move, God moved us.

DAVID: Yeah, yeah.

DON: We came back to California for two years there was a great purpose in coming back to California, but God needed us elsewhere, and my wife says next time God needs us he had better call us directly.

DAVID: Yeah, there you go.

DON: But, we are in a gorgeous area. The prison system is wide open to us again.

DAVID: Sure.

DON: God gave me a talent with my background and I grew up an atheist too, and so I didn't really become a Christian until I was forty years old and when you're new you're on fire, and the fires never burned out. When I was baptized and I this is your first clue where I >m coming from if ever asked to do anything in the name of Jesus say I'll be happy to we're gonna be asking for the next five days to be doing something for Jesus.
DAVID: That's kind of a motto with you and Yvonne. You just kind of say if the Lords signature is on it we say, "Yes" if we possibly can. We are there for Jesus.

DON: Always.

DAVID: That is fabulous. Now don, you are a male ministry person letters postcards this defines you and Yvonne.

DON: Yeah, we have a huge letter writing ministry, which actually you guys started. Your bible school got me into trouble.

DAVID: Why is that now?

DON: Well, I came down here to see things about 15 years ago. And one of the people in the bible school said, "Hey Don we have a problem can you help us with it. We send off hundreds of bible studies to inmates but we don't get them back" and I said, "Well, we've got a letter writing ministry why don't we every time you match someone with a bible study we'll get a Christian to write to them and help them along with it postage things like that." This put us now effectively we are in every prison in the U.S. Unless it's just opened in the last couple of days we just had our 180,000 inmate complete Voice of Prophecy bible studies.

DAVID: 180,000 complete is the key.

DON: Complete is the key word.

DAVID: Yes, finished them. We have a lot of people on the outside that do lesson one and then lesson two and then they fizzle out.

DON: Yes, this is the typical.

DAVID: All the way through the whole thing now Don, why does mail ministry work? You've proven that you are riding the crest of this successful program. It works why does mail work so well in prison?

DON: Well, I can preach well.

DAVID: Yeah.

DON: But, that is just on a Saturday or Sunday I could teach well, but that's just one day. Letters are a one to one thing and if you think about it Jesus' entire ministry was one to one.

DAVID: Right.

DON: So the guy gets a relationship through mail, and it's exciting because one key thing through a letter a man, woman, boy or girl who is locked up can put on paper things that they need to get out of the inside. Our effective ministry is when Yvonne and I go into prison we spend little time in the chapel we're out in the yard or in the cell blocks and I want to take and divert this a little bit.

DAVID: Sure.

DON: The bible school has made Someone Cares Prison Ministry an international prison ministry the bible school is a self-supporting ministry like we are. The first thing I'd like those people that got their pens and paper is to write down send a buck to Voice of Prophecy for their bible school period.

DAVID: We're in favor of that!

DON: If you want to send a check to Someone Cares for the Bible School write Bible school on it. This is gonna be exciting because Dave, you and I are gonna talk later and then I'm going to talk to some of your administrative people one of the things that is bad about Discover bible study is it gets everybody into the bible and then they're excited where do they go from there?

DAVID: it comes to an end. The 26th lesson comes and where do we go from there?

DON: I want more.

DAVID: We do have a brand new bible prophecy course that just now available so that will be a wonderful one-two punch.

DON: That takes money.

DAVID: Yes it does it always does and that's a crying need. Now Don I appreciate what you are saying. Describe for us for just a moment how the person that writes the letters in conjunction with the bible course. Why is that such a necessary ingredient?

DON: The Pen Friend program we call it Paper Sunshine, because when you take a letter it brightens up a cell. Our program is so good that by the way, we've got children writing to child molesters leading them to Christ.

DAVID: In perfect safety.

DON: In perfect safety because all the mail goes through a blind post office box.

DAVID: Both ways.

DON: We never let the people give their address, no inmate writes to the people directly, through us and we read all the mail.

DAVID: You must be up late at night sometimes.

DON: We are.

DAVID: We want to go on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and hear all the details because this is something people can do. In our last few seconds today, Don, I've got to hear the story of Rocky. I know you're dying to tell it and I'm dying to hear it.

DON: Rocky is an exceptional man. He was in the county jail and he's a gang leader and drug seller a terrible person. He saw a guy outside his cell sweeping the hall and there was a part of a book and he said hey man, let me have that. I need something to read. And the guy gave it to him. It was a book called Desire of Ages and somehow our address was in it, so after he got through the Desire of Ages, he wrote to me and said Hey I want to find out about this Jesus. Well, Rocky's taken every course he could get his hands on. This is 12 years ago. He's out of prison, he's married and has two children. He is the head elder in the church he belongs to and he now goes back into prison with Jesus.

DAVID: He's a changed life. And you're a changed life.

DON: I am a changed life.

DAVID: Jesus does it.

DON: There are people sitting listening or will be listening who have kin, friends, better yet there are a lot of inmates listening to your program.

DAVID: Yes, I know that.

DON: And guys write.

DAVID: Yes. Don McClure, we are so glad to have you and we will visit all week long.

DON: Amen.

DAVID: Thanks.

www.someonecares.org