An Answer to Prayer

Posted by Anders Skaar - Missions Director of CLI

The CLI Author Dinner is always covered with prayer.
We pray for all the details of this event - the hotel and staff, our dinner volunteers, the music team, the book signing, even the weather.
This year, both of our keynote speakers had to fly to Raleigh. John from Atlanta, and Bill from San Francisco. So many things can go wrong. Only a great God can bring them all together perfectly.
We praise God for his answer to all our prayers this year. Every detail was perfect. The music team was beyond professional. The Marriott did an outstanding job - as usual. Their service was impeccible and the service team disappeared right on schedule as the program began. All the CLI volunteers pitched in with their respective jobs with precision. The setup was beautiful.
Both our speakers told of their prison experiences and our supporters were spellbound. Kathleen gave a beautiful testimony of the history of CLI without notes. And, yes, the fundraiser was a financial success with lots of new donors.
I am reminded of the John Piper quote, "God is most glorified when we are most satisifed in Him".
We are indeed satisified and He is glorified indeed!

God Knows and Provides

Posted by Kathleen Skaar - Executive Director of CLI

John McMullan ended up in prison. It involved drugs, the number one reason for incarceration in the U.S. God knew John would become an inmate, but He also knew that He was going to provide what John really needed. He needed to focus on Jesus.

When John was released from prison, he sent us an email. He told us that as soon as he got off the bus he headed straight for church. That was about 1 ½ years ago and John is still at his church and still very active.

We met John face to face yesterday when he arrived from Georgia for our 7th Annual Author Dinner held last night, October 22, 2009. What a delight! He has bright, accepting eyes and a smile that says, “I love Jesus!”

He showed us the Study Bible that he had received from CLI and still uses to this day. It was encouraging to hear how God had used CLI to minister to him while incarcerated. John valued the letters that volunteers had written to him and the CLI Leadership Bible Study. He particularly liked the book, “And the Angels Were Silent” by Max Lucado.

John has a job in a hotel now and spends a lot of time with his church family. God is also using John to feed some of the hungry in his community in unique and interesting ways. For example, he has cards about his free food and when the Lord puts someone on his heart, like on the city bus, he tells them about it and gives them the card. He gets statements like, “How did you know?”

Of course God knows! He knows who needs a book, a Bible or a meal. What do you need today? Ask the God who knows and provides. Would you like to be a blessing to others? Ask the God who knows and provides. Most of all, ask God the Father for more of Jesus. He knows this is our greatest need and He has already provided!

The Bell Lap

Posted by Anders Skaar - Missions Director of CLI

Well, this week we have our annual fundraiser - a banquet event called the CLI Author-Dinner. This will be our 7th. In the past, we had well known Christian authors as the keynote speaker. People such as Gary Chapman, Elizabeth Elliot and Pat Robertson. But now, as CLI has evolved into a prison ministry, we like our speakers to have spent time in prison.


Last year's speaker, Lennie Spitale, was an outstanding motivator. So many of our supporters got excited about prison ministry.


This year's speaker, Bill Dallas, should be equally motivating. Both have an amazing story of how God turned their lemons into lemonaide.
If you live nearby, make an effort to attend. You will be blessed by this very special event.

Cling to Hope – Even When You Can’t See It

Bill Dallas has volunteered to speak at our Author Dinner fundraiser October 22, Thursday in Raleigh, NC. To purchase tickets online see the CLI website at www.cli-nc.org and help other inmates know Jesus, or call us at 919 212-8122 (Monday-Friday, 9AM-4PM) with your credit card information.

Posted by Kathleen Skaar - Executive Director of CLI

“During my initial days at San Quentin, two thoughts monopolized my mind, swirling around in my head twenty-four hours a day:

Thought number 1: It is not fair that I have to be in San Quentin.
Thought number 2: Nothing good can come out of this experience.

Before long, my hope for freedom, survival and a meaningful life after prison faded, and one day I found myself curled up in the fetal position on the prison yard ground, moaning and sobbing. My deepest desire was simply to die. Life had gotten the best of me and I was ready to roll over and give up.”

Bill Dallas describes his hopelessness and despair that gripped his soul when he first arrived at San Quentin. He says he was "just a pathetic, miserable, self –absorbed sack of flesh and bones." Now, perhaps you and I have not been in prison physically, but we know the hopelessness and self absorption that Bill is talking about. We have all been there at one time or another. In fact, being a Christian doesn’t guarantee that we won’t fall into that “self” trap again.

That is one reason we can enjoy and learn from Bill’s book, “Lessons from San Quentin.” Bill shares how the Christian “Lifers” helped pull him through his hopelessness. He says, “The Lifers possessed a strong hope for their own lives. They walked the yard with a self-confidence based on the hope they had of being and becoming people of worth and purpose, no matter what their circumstances.”

“Even though it was not clear to me at the time, prison was part of God’s best plan for me- a plan that would shape my character so that He could use me in the future for His purposes. How many of us experience strange or painful eras of life, confused as to why a holy, loving, and omnipotent God would allow one of His beloved children to undergo such difficulties? But if we truly believe that He loves us and that He is in control of our lives, and if we allow Him to have His way with us, we will emerge in a better place. Whether the burden we bear is a prison sentence, a debilitating disease, financial collapse, a dissolved marriage, or the death of a loved one, God has a plan to use that hardship for our good and the advancement of His Kingdom.”

Why Are So Many Young People in Prison?

Posted by Anders Skaar - Missions Director of CLI

We are often asked, "Why Are So Many Young People in Prison?" Our society seems to be getting worse every year - not better. Today we received a letter from the front lines - a prison chaplain. Let's see how he addresses this question.

"We are experiencing a cultural-generational shift in the prisons as many new offenders coming into the system are "unchurched". In the past, most offenders were taught Christian values by their grandparents-parents etc. Nowadays, the church going grandparents-parents" are becoming less and less in the inner city. With that said, we have a great opportunity in the prison system to "church" young men and invite them to know Jesus Christ. We believe Faith is vital for re-entry."

In 1960, zealots removed the Bible from our government schools. Public prayer, Christmas decorations and the cross have been constant targets ever since. As a nation, we have shot ourselves in the foot.

Fortunately, the Christian community and its missions are committed to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with all who will listen. In the prisons, many are finally ready to listen.

We praise God for never turning His back on us.

God’s Timing

Posted by Kathleen Skaar - Executive Director of CLI

For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. NIV Psalm 105:42

Back in June 2002 I felt God telling me that the CLI website, "can be designed to reveal My power, glory and attributes.” Now our website is excellent; it was created and donated by Frank Sambrick Communications in Raleigh. But it does not have continuing true stories about God that reveal His power, glory and characteristics.

Periodically, I would think about God’s words and wonder how we could implement them. On Tuesday, I happened to see the above words that I had written down and it dawned on me that God was fulfilling this promise. He is fulfilling it through our blog! His timing had come and He has accomplished it so perfectly that I hadn’t even recognized it!

In 2002, I would not have even known what a blog was all about. But in 2009, we started the CLI blog that you are reading right now! We are able to keep our readers posted on how God is working in our lives and in the inmates that we serve.

Sometimes God promises us something, but He wants us to wait patiently for its fulfillment. Abraham had a sevenfold promise (Genesis 12:2-3) and didn’t see it totally fulfilled in His lifetime. Today we have seen God’s promise to Abraham fulfilled through Christ Jesus our Lord and are mightily blessed!

I was getting ready to have this blog note posted when a couple drove in with a truckload of books and a check for $100. Conrad and Rebecca had a book drive at their church. Rebecca said she had been thinking about what kind of mission project that her church could do. She was struggling a little as to what kind of a project in which everyone could participate and also would not be costly. Then one day she opened the Biblical Recorder newspaper and saw an article about CLI. She said, “That’s it! That is what we are going to do!”

Then Rebecca said, “It’s all about God’s Timing.” Yes it is! We just need to keep our hearts and hands open. Then I thanked God for providing a perfectly timed ending. Amen.

“The Lord Forgave Me and Made me a New Man”

Posted by Martha Carpenter - Office Administrator at CLI

“In county jail, my first time trouble with the law of any kind and facing a life sentence, which I am now serving, I started reading the Left Behind series and they started or awakened a fire in me to know God. I asked a Christian friend for a Study Bible and she gave me a NIV Study Bible. Upon receiving the Bible I hit the floor in prayer and asked God that if He was real and what I read in the Left behind books was real, to please open my heart to Him thru His Word and show me the truth. I read the Bible cover to cover including all footnotes in 3-4 months and several times in that 3-4 months as I grew to know the Lord more and more deeply, I prayed, confessed my sins and dedicated myself to God.

In this time that I was studying God’s Word and being born again, I was going through my trial process. I could have gotten a lot less time if I would only have lied, because they had no evidence that I committed this crime of murder. My lawyer kept asking if I really did it, for everything pointed against what I insisted I’d done. But I stuck to my guns and told him that as a Christian I had to confess to God my sins and repent.

I could not confess to God and lie to man to save my skin.

Of course, all the inmates I was locked up with had lots of advice for me in my legal situation; lie now, get out early and then turn to God and do good work out there. Of course, I could not do this. I confessed before man and God, and I don’t regret it for an instant. The Lord forgave me and made me a new man, His child, Amen!

“Man”, they gave me a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Fair is fair. I took a life I pay with a life; justice served. I have no complaints.

The strange thing I find since being saved is that “man” gave me a life sentence (to them death), but God gave me Life, and I have never felt freer in all my life as I do right now with the Lord, and this is from behind bars; go figure.

The Lord He sustains me and gives me the strength to face each day with a smile and a ‘God bless you’ to all that know me and come in to contact with me.
Praise God, the Lord is good, Amen!

Boxes from Heaven

Posted by Anders Skaar - Missions Director at CLI

Part of being a non-profit is always looking for donated items instead of purchasing them. Shipping boxes had always been a big expense. It also took us a few years to settle in on just the right size - not too big and not too heavy.
Then we met Todd Lamar at Armstrong Relocation. After giving Todd "the tour" of our ministry, he said, "I think I can help you with the boxes"! Being in the moving business, Todd has all the right contacts.
Today, we received our second shipment of wondeful new boxes - 600 of them as you see in the photo. Last time we received this mountainous shipment, we wondered if we would ever use them up. But the books kept coming and our supporters kept donating for the shipping and soon we were left with the last few boxes.
We praise God for His faithfulness. Here at CLI, we are blessed indeed!

Blessed by Volunteers

Posted by Anders Skaar - Missions Director at CLI

Question: How do you run a ministry? Answer: With lots of volunteers.
Every week, CLI is blessed with our team of trained volunteers. They arrive on schedule, gather up their work, grab a desk, and faithfully answer inmate letters or review inmate Bible studies.
It is such a blessing to inmates to know that someone exists outside the prison walls who cares about them and encourages them.
Nita Snow is just such a volunteer. We salute all those who help bring the light of Jesus Christ into the darkness.

A Call for Prayer

Posted by Kathleen Skaar - Executive Director of CLI

When the doorbell rings at the CLI offices, we can usually count on book deliveries or volunteers. However, last Wednesday God brought us a man named Jesse. He had just moved into the neighborhood and said, “I need someone to pray for me.”

One of the reasons that we keep the office door locked is that CLI is located in a “crack neighborhood.” This is how the police described the neighborhood when we moved in last year. God has kept us safe and we have not had any problems in the 16 months that we have been here. However, using godly wisdom and prudence, we have taken some safety measures.

Was Jesse on drugs? He could have been. His eyes were bloodshot and his nose was running. He wouldn’t share his problems but only that he needed prayer. I asked him to sit in a chair while Martha and I laid hands on him and prayed. He cried. We cried. God had certainly brought him to us.

We talked about Jesus. He knew Jesus had died on the cross for his sins. We talked about full surrender. I said, “Jesse, you need to wave that white flag out to God and surrender all control.” Jesse was noncommittal.

Before he left we gave him a copy of the first lesson of our CLI Bible study (large print) with scripture. I asked him to mark anything that he didn’t understand and to come back one afternoon to talk about it. We also gave him a few days worth of food.

We praise God and thank Him for giving us a double opportunity to serve Him from our CLI offices. First, for the inmates in prison and second, for the people living near our offices. May you and I always use whatever God has given us to serve Him and the needs of others.

International - by God’s Grace!

Posted by Martha Carpenter - Office Administrator at CLI

Christian Library has a vision to some day reach all over the world with books and Bibles for prison inmates everywhere. By God’s grace, we will.

This week, however, by His grace, he brought an inmate to us! All the way from Zambia in Africa! Nevison Mudangwa is an inmate on Death Row in Zambia. His letter touched our hearts, not only because of his testimony and plea for a Christian reply. . . but because he was asking for a CLI Leadership Bible Study – our correspondence course!

How? How is it possible he heard about CLI? And the Bible Study?. . . All the way over there in prison – in Africa? Only by God’s grace and power.

He writes: “My main purpose of writing this letter to you is to help me Christian Leadership study Bible course as I am lonely in this solitude place. Please don’t ignore me due to my disadvantage status as a condemned prisoner as I am going through rough moments of tribulation.

My heart will rejoice when you reply in Christianity as a poor prisoner, coming from poor family and live in poor country. In my conclusion, may the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be upon you. You are always in my prayers. Anticipating to hear more from you. Yours, your brother in Christ, Nevison Mudangwa”.

We did indeed reply to him by Christ’s love. Three lessons of the Bible studies are already on their way to Zambia. We pray that Nevison will live long enough to complete them, and bring many of the prisoners around him on death row to Christ!

We are sending him the “seeds” to plant. By His grace, God will harvest them there.