P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

LONNIE: From grandmas to grade school kids, friends across America are taking to heart Jesus’ words. I was in prison and you visited me. Just a pen and paper is all it takes. Don and Yvonne McClure will share how just a little Paper Sunshine can go along way.

CONNIE: We feel so blessed to have you with us today. Hi everyone I’m Connie Jeffery, and we have certainly enjoyed having Don and Yvonne McClure with us here us this week.

LONNIE: : Don and Yvonne welcome back!

DON: Thanks Lonnie! It’s been a blast to be here all week.

LONNIE: Yvonne, the wardens inside the prison have named you double trouble, but God has used you in some marvelous ways. Now, some of our listeners would like to fulfill God’s duty, by writing to these prisoners, how can these people get into prisons and write to prisoners, while at the same time keep their identity safe.

YVONNE: Well, I had an old lady come up to me, and she told me that she would like to get involved, but was a little scared to do so. She had really bad arthritis and she said that she couldn’t write long letters. I told her to just send a postcard with a picture on it, and that would be fine. I told her, they won’t know where you live, and it will be perfectly safe. You use our PO Box, and pen name of you like. After that we’ll send it on. She did this for months and got no return. Well, the person that she had been trying to contact had been in the hole. She wrote on the postcard, God loves you and so do I, and that is all this man ever saw or read for the whole year. When he got out of lockdown, and got put back on the mainline, as we call it in prison, he wrote a 12 page letter and he shared…that postcard meant so much to him. So, I would encourage you to write a prisoner, it makes a major difference.

LONNIE: SO you have hundreds and hundreds of prisoners who want people to write to them?

YVONNE: Yes!

LONNIE: What has been the result? What has happened in the lives of some of these people?

DON: I’ll tell you a story. I got a letter once that said Don and Yvonne, you’re not going to remember me, but I wrote for pen friend for all of the wrong reasons. And you had the audacity to match with a eight grade class on the east coast and a grandmother on the west coast, that was not what I was looking for. I wanted someone to give me money, but, they sent me my first ever Christmas, and birthday cards, and they sent me stuff that helped understand and love Jesus. He said, today the government sent me my death warrant, but don’t cry, because thanks to an eight grade class and an old grandmother, the next thing I see will be Jesus. He was executed 2 days later. So here is a man that…folks, I don’t defend crime, crime is crime. I went to prison and I deserved it. Jesus cares for everyone, our job isn’t freedom, but Jesus wants us to lead people to Christ.

LONNIE: You had mentioned yesterday about the recidivism rate, and compared that to your ministry, talk a little more about that.

DON: We followed 500 prisoners that all had pen friends and bible lessons, out of these who are all out and free now, only 7 have re-offended. Now, 410 of them have joined a church.

LONNIE: Wow! Now contrast that to the states program. How many of them end up back in prison?

DON: 8 out of 10. Crime doesn’t pay, and prison doesn’t work.

LONNIE: So what you are saying is only Jesus works.

DON: Amen! I can tell you a story about a terrible man, committed terrible crimes, he got thrown in the hole. In the hole, he found a part of the Bible, and he read a little bit, but when the rats came out of the sewers at night and began to nibble on him, he said, lord, I don’t believe you, but if you’re real, get me out of the hole. Three days later he got out of the hole. He went back to selling dope and sex, and a lot of other things in prison. Bu t he started to think to himself. I wonder if God could get me out of Prison. He was serving 2 life sentences, and he started to read and learn more about God. He really got converted, and he wrote a book called, Where Flies Don’t Land, today he has a ranch in California, called His Place. He is free; he had a double life sentence that was commuted because he had changed so much.

LONNIE: Yvonne, one more quick story.

YVONNE: A women who went on a vacation sent a postcard from Sweden to an inmate, and that inmate was absolutely excited about getting a postcard form Sweden.

LONNIE: Thanks guy’s for being here this week. It was special.

CONNIE: Just in case you missed the information for Don and Yvonne’s ministry, you can call them at: 260-492-7770, or you can write to the McClure’s at, PO Box 15338, Ft Wayne, IN 46885. The website is at someonecares.org.