Vantage
point
Key
bearers are building the Kingdom
After finishing his meal, an inmate
in a state prison is dropping trash in a garbage can when a page of a discarded
magazine catches his eye. He fishes the magazine out and finds himself strangely
interested in the words.
Taking the magazine back to his
cell, he continues reading until near the end he finds a short section titled
“ABCs of Salvation.” Convinced of the truth of what he has read,
he follows the steps and becomes a believer in Jesus Christ.
Next he fills out the accompanying
coupon and sends it in. It says, “I recently made a decision to follow
Jesus Christ. Please send me a free booklet on the Christian life.”
He
receives the information and begins attending the prison’s
chapel services. He grows in the Lord and becomes a model prisoner.
This really happened. The magazine
was a Pentecostal Evangel that had
found its way into his prison through the Key Bearers program, a joint effort
of Light for the Lost and Today’s Pentecostal Evangel.
Since the start of the partnership
in 1996, nearly 4.1 million Evangels
have gone into prisons. Some 6,000 inmates have sent coupons to our office
and received follow-up material.
One inmate in solitary confinement
repeatedly refused the Evangels offered by an A/G chaplain. In a fit of anger, he finally
took one and threw it across his cell. That’s where it lay for several
days. Then one day he picked it up and read it.
When the chaplain next came around,
the man was ready to talk about Christ. Eventually, the chaplain led him in
the sinner’s prayer. As the inmate repeated the words of that prayer,
several voices joined in. Others in solitary had been listening to the chaplain’s
counsel about Christ, and now they too were praying the sinner’s prayer.
This is a white harvest field crying
out for our attention. Key Bearers is reaching some of the darkest places
in America and souls are being saved. Perhaps God is calling you to be a Key
Bearer. Every dollar you give will send four magazines to men and women behind
bars.
Pray about what you can give to
send this magazine into this ripe and needy harvest field.
Ken Horn
E-mail your comments to pe@ag.org.
