When I left Oklahoma it was a sizzlin’ 105 degrees. When I landed at Seatac airport in Tacoma,

Washington it was about 70 degrees. Ahhhhh! I sighed as I breathed the cool air . My brother, Buddy, and his wife Glenda, were waiting with smiling faces as I stepped off the plane.

We went directly to Bud and Glenda’s place. They live on an island in the Puget Sound and we had to board a ferry to cross over to Whidbey Island. The big ferry has an upstairs deck so that you can park down below and go to the upper deck and watch the sea as you float across for 30 minutes. On the deck we watched some seals as they fished not far from the boat. It felt good to be alive as I reflected upon my plans.

The Bill Glass Weekend of Champions was doing 5 prisons in and around Olympia, WA and I was asked to be a platform guest speaker with them in some of the prisons.

It was also an opportunity to meet my new friend Mikki Douglas whom I met on the internet recently. Mikki had agreed to be a counselor in the prisons and since she was seeking the Lord’s will for her as a missionary I thought it would be good for her to check out the Bill Glass group. Mikki won the National Title one year for mountain bike racing and I thought this would be an excellent place for her to tell her testimony about how the Lord had delivered her from drugs and sin to a life of peace and rest.

It was Wednesday and I didn’t need to be at the head

quarters hotel in Olympia until late Thursday so I de-cided to come here to the Island until the weekend actually started. After that I planned to go back to the Island and stay with my brother for a much needed week of rest. No doctors, no schedules to keep, no worrying about my health. I cannot change anything and God knows my heart. I have asked Him to take care of things and I know he will when He is ready. Meanwhile I plan to leave it all right there where it belongs. In His capable loving hands.

On Thursday I went back to Olympia and on Friday I was sent with world champion kickboxer Johnny Spinks to a logging camp for corrections. Johnny warmed them up with a display of his skills and a testimony of his love for Jesus. After that I talked.

Then I met a man that recognized me from the "Free on the Inside" bible. He said that he had gotten saved while reading my story in there. He said he keeps the bible close by at all times and when he is down and out he reads my story and it gives him hope. I spoke to about 300 hardcore prisoners on Saturday. The correctional officers were being really tense about having so many gathered in one place. One officer asked me,"do you think you can handle a crowd this big?" I told him "yes!" and just smiled because I knew this was how God intended it to be. They listened very quietly as I told them the hope I had and how it developed into a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. Before I got finished I sensed the hunger. Some were holding up their hands because they had questions to ask. Too soon it ended and I found myself virtually surrounded and being pressed in by so many seeking a handshake or an autograph. Wow! I tell you the truth! I have not seen such a deep hunger for a changed life than these forgotten men exhibited.

Mikki had a good experience also. She was assigned to drive the special guests around to the prisons since she knew the area well. She got to meet several famous people and seemed to really enjoy herself. She told me she was going to do the Salem, Oregon Weekend that is scheduled for next month.

I spent a wonderful week with Buddy and Glenda back on Whidbey Island. One day Buddy and I drove through the mountains to Spokane,WA where I met Dick Shanks of Able Labels. I had never met Dick but have wanted to for years. For a long time Dick supplied me with, "Free on the Inside" bibles at no cost.

What a blessing to meet this wonderful saint. Dick operates a street ministry out of the city bus station in Spokane. Each day hundreds of commuters flow through there. Dick has a classroom where he does Christian counseling for 5 days a week. According to Dick the good part about the ministry is that he is dealing with all local people and therefore has many opportunities to do follow-up work. I also met Kevin one of Dick’s ministry partners. Kevin is a pastor who just happens to own a nice Harley Sportster. On his helmet these words are written, "Riding for Jesus!"

The next morning we had breakfast at a local restaurant. As we were leaving Kevin engaged a Vietnam veteran in a conversation about Jesus. We talked with the man for a while and prayed with him but he was not yet ready to turn from his sins. Buddy gave him a dollar and he went on his way. Afterward I told Buddy how much I admired guys like Kevin who have the courage to approach anyone with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is hard thankless work for the most part but it has wonderful rewards too.

God Bless each and every one of you, Don

After all the scheduling for different kinds of treatment each one has been cancelled. Each time the institute where it was scheduled has called back and cancelled out. The reason they give is always the same, no liver transplant patients are eligible.

I finally grew so frustrated that I decided to just get away for awhile so that I could have some time alone with God and my family so that I could just catch my breath and in so doing catch the breath of God.

I spent a week with my brother Bud and his wife Glenda on an Island in the Puget Sound off the coast from Seattle, Washington.

It was a good, good time of refreshing on a 150 foot bluff with an excellent view of the Sound in the back yard to tall pine trees in the front yard. A place where three healthy doe deer's like to dine on the small trees.

I now return with the comfort that my health is in God’s hands and could be in no better place. I will still go see the doctors and keep abreast of my condition, but I know that God has work for me to do and He will keep me and....

Thanks to Allen Arms’ generosity our mailbox school has a laptop computer. The computer is uniquely designed by Allen so that anyone can keep track of each student. It is programmed to keep track so that with the click of a mouse button we can find out how each student is progressing. It also makes it easy to track them when they move or are released. We are also sending out birthday cards to our students. For example, we send a small questionnaire in their lessons if we do not have the date of birth. Most of them comply with this request. We now have close to 700 students enrolled. If for some reason they are not sending in their lessons we will be able to trace that and after a reasonable amount of time we send a reminder to them. We have discovered that most of the time the lessons are simply getting lost in the mail. I was pleased to enroll about 30 students on my recent trip to Washington.

If there are churches out there that desire to start a prison ministry then we would love to come to your church and help you get going. The growth potential is endless. Therefore if you are interested in doing this we will be glad to help you set up a school in your church just so we can keep taking care of the tremendous hunger for God’s word in the prisons. Right now my church is paying the postage and material costs. This amounts to roughly about 1 $ for each lesson. It is an excellent way for a church to get a real outreach going for its own members. Getting a P.O. Box number for the school eliminates the possibility of having an unwanted guest calling upon you at the wrong time.

It is also a first class way to evaluate the sincerity of the student. If he or she is really getting into the meat of the word you can tell. It brings out the most helpable, best, cream of the crop type student for you to mentor. No serious prison ministry should be without a school.

Howard Hardegree the National Director for Justice Linc has stepped down. Howard has not resigned from Campus Crusade for Christ. He has said that he wants to pursue a career in writing. Howard took over the position of National Director for Justice Linc about 7 years ago. He did a wonderful job while he was in there and I have appreciated all the things that I learned under Howard’s leadership.

For sometime now I have felt that God was leading me in that direction. I feel that I am acting in obedience to the Holy Spirit by applying for that role. I have sent in a letter to Campus Crusade Acting Director, Bill Baumann, requesting that I be considered for the position of National Director. In my proposal I said that as Director I would like to start in Oklahoma and divide the state into about 4 equal sections. I would then recruit a full time senior staff to act as Coordinator over each section. They would be responsible for recruiting about 10 volunteers for each region. They would be asked to show the transferable concepts or other quality teaching material on a once a week or twice a month basis. They would also be asked to train the inmates in how to lead others to Christ using the 4 Spiritual Laws pamphlet. They would also be asked to do an evangelistic crusade in each prison once every 2 months.

I would also like to start a corresponce bible study school in several willing churches. If we can get a couple of churches in each region conducting a school then this will create a way to minister to the inmates family because inmates in the bible school invariably want to enroll their wives children and parents into the school. Many times these families will come to check out the church who is training their loved one.

We will train our own coordinators to prepare themselves to duplicate this type of ministry in other states so that when the time comes we can send them out to be State Directors as we move into other states with this plan.

We need to fine tune the whole process until we can write an operational manual on each phase. Especially for the churches that get involved. It would be wonderful if it caught on in America’s churches until it reached epidemic proportions.

See you next time.

Dear Mr. Holt,

I AM SO EXCITED! I have been studying the word of God for awhile now and then this weekend just sent me over the edge. I attended the Weekend of Champions at Jess Dunn Correctional Center where you talked, I did speak to you, but you talk to so many, you probably couldn’t possibly remember them all.

Anyway your story sounded almost a carbon copy to mine, less the years and crime. But I too have found the Lord and I also know the President Pro Tem of the Senate, (his name is Stratton Taylor) He just got through writing me a recommendation letter to the Parole Board. But you know the Parole Board now. Their kinda stingy with what and who they give parole to.

Anyway I was so moved by you, speaking about what Jesus Christ meant to you in your life I rededicated my life to the Lord.

I would like the chance to get out of my present situation. Yes you guessed it the parole was denied. They gave me 20 years with a wild 5 (consecutive sentence) for forgery (checks) and. using credit cards. But as I was saying, I am praying for the Lord to do with me for what He wants me to do, and if given the chance to be released I am going to work with the Ministry, Hopefully you would have a place where I could help in the "Wanted Alive Ministries." But that’s up to the Lord and you.

Anyway I just wanted to drop a letter to you and to let you know your words fell on "Alive" ears and I will include you and your ministry in my prayers.

I also am a pretty good commercial artist, so if there is anything my talents can do to help your faith ministry please write me or come on over and see me, "I’m always home" :).

Hello Don,

I had written you before from our County Jail House all in Lawton, OK. I had just read your life story and was moved at how God worked in your life. I’d recently turned my life over to Christ and was, and still am, hungry for input on how to become as Christlike as our Lord would have me be.

Upon leaving A&R (Assessment & reception Center.) we weren’t allowed to take any paperwork, clothing, not even our bible with us so I was unable until yesterday to write you and give you my new temporary address. As it happened I was talking to a fellow Christian and he mentioned he was taking a correspondence type bible study course via mail. When he mentioned OKC as the base source of the course, I knew automatically that it was you, so before he could tell me your name, Isaid, "DON HOLT" and told him about how I had come to hear of you and the wonderful work you are doing in Christ Jesus name.

I too want to be placed on your mailing list and participate in your bible study program.