A Gift for Prisoners: One-Time Donation
Many prisoners are hungry for God and word is spreading in prisons that they can contact this ministry for deeply discounted courses. You can help us provide materials to these prisoners by your generous gift. Our ministry sends books into correctional facilities below our cost, making no profit at all. You can make a one-time gift, or pledge $20 or more a month and “adopt a prisoner” as s/he works through book after book, maturing in the Lord.
Donations Transform Prisoners' Lives
One Former Prisoner's Story - Bobby Twine, Jr.
The Lord spoke to me and said, “It is time for you to become mentally knowledgeable in My Word. You need to seek and find a school of ministry that will reward you with a degree. I have given you the anointing to minister. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because I have anointed you. Use this time of incarceration to learn and retain a complete knowledge of My Word.”
I spoke to my family during a visit at Bland Correctional Center. I told my mother that the Lord desires for me to have a degree in ministry. There is a work for me to do when I’m released and I need to be prepared for it. My sister began an online search for seminary degrees via correspondence. The Lord revealed “Christian Leadership University”. It is by an act of God that I am enrolled. Under normal circumstances this would never have occurred. The Lord spoke to me in a vision. I responded and acted on that vision. I am now a student with the aspiration of receiving a doctoral degree in Divinity because I had a dialogue with God!
It is a miracle of God how He put me, a former crack addict, on the backside of the wilderness to detox and surrender my life to Him. I marvel at His wisdom, knowing that it would take the conviction of the possession of crack cocaine and a ten year sentence in the state penitentiary to transform my life.
I began receiving Bible studies from Communion with God Ministries, at three years into my prison sentence. The studies filled me with an illumination of the Word of God that I had never experienced before. The more I learned the more I wanted to learn until being in His presence was the only excitement for me.
I was overwhelmed with the change within me. The things I used to do were not interesting to me anymore. The people I used to know were not the kind of people that I wanted to associate with anymore. The places I used to go I didn't want to go there anymore. People thought I was weird! All I wanted to do was study and watch the Christian network.
Two years later, I was ordained to preach the Word of God, in prison. The Lively Stones Ministries named me as the Associate pastor of the weekly Sunday evening service where I had the opportunity to preach, baptize, and lead other inmates to Christ. I was the Associate pastor there for three years before I was released. My father and mother and my sister greeted me, with several other prison ministries, on the other side of the gate. In her hand was my Associate Degree in Biblical Studies that I had just received from CLU. GOD CAN DO ANYTHING BUT FAIL!
From Prison to Preacher
By the grace of God I passed the ordained minister’s examination for the Church of God and I am now licensed in the COG denomination. I thank you personally for all the teaching and courses from CLU that played a major part in this appointment coming to pass. It is because of the extensive academic courses that you were so diligent to see that I received that helped me, without a doubt, to pass with an overall score of 85.
I am very busy in the ministry beyond my greatest expectation and I am well pleased with the way God is using me today. I am on the Board of Directors with Lively Stones Ministries and The Forgotten Peoples Ministries, Inc., I have a ministry in song & preaching at Richfield Nursing Home twice monthly, I teach Sunday School at Central Baptist Church of Roanoke, VA, I minister in song with Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship Int’l, I am a member of 2 churches, Central Baptist Church and Cliffview COG and I am active in both churches.
I am very thankful for my Associate Degree in Biblical Studies. Thank you for trusting and believing in me during my time in the wilderness. CLU has made a lasting impact on my life and I give God all the glory for allowing us to cross paths. Praise is what I do and I live to honor and glorify Him. Thank you for being a part of what God has ordained for me.
Out of Prison and into Ministry!
David Rocha is a CLU graduate who was saved while in prison and spent 2.5 years studying with CLU. He is now out of prison and is a licensed minister with a website which shares his powerful testimony. Praise God for this wonderful victory! Read David’s story!
Christian Leadership University offers courses to incarcerated individuals at prices far below our cost. As you can see, this mission is bearing much fruit!
If you would like to be a part of what God is doing in prisons across the country, please prayerfully consider sowing into this important ministry. You can even “adopt-a-prisoner” by giving monthly and correspond with them by mail if you want, encouraging them in their walk with the Lord.
We have also been privileged to sign certificates of completion for more than 25 prisoners in Windhoek Central Prison in Windhoek, Namibia who have each just completed two CLU courses under the teaching of MacDonald Kambonde, a CLU student and a prison inmate. We are thrilled that these courses are so reproducible in all parts of the world and in every situation. Thank you, MacDonald, for taking the voice of God within prison walls!
By Learning to Hear the Lord Through Communion With God, God Unshackled Me
By a CLU prisoner student
(Photo and name purposely withheld)
In September, I was told to get ready to be transferred to the county jail. Usually, I would have been terrified, but this time I wasn’t because I heard Jesus and saw a vision. In prison, there is no place to run, cry, or even think, so when the attorney spoke to me and told me I’d be going to court, for a moment I was very discouraged; but then God’s word began to flood my heart and comfort me. His peace came over me.
That night to further comfort me, God gave me a dream. In the dream, I was looking up to heaven and saw thick clouds rolling very fast. Then I saw a pure, blue sky with the sun shining brightly. Through this, God showed me that the storm was passing over and the clouds were the dust of God’s feet. I was excited for I knew God’s hand was in all this.
When I was taken to the jail, I saw men and women who had just been placed there. They were still in real clothes and crying because they wanted out. Seeing them brought back memories of when I first came to jail five years earlier. I was just like them, crying and wanting to get out. Now, I was able to sit there calmly and wanting nothing—totally content with Jesus!
Later, I saw some of the girls with whom I had served time a couple of years ago. While serving together, they had hurt me deeply, but now we were able to talk. I told them about Jesus, prayer, and all He can do for us. Then I was moved to another cell. Since I was alone, I had time to meditate on Scripture, pray, and sing.
Later, my attorney came and told me I could wear whatever clothes I wanted to during court, which was a miracle in itself because I usually had to go in prison clothes. He asked me what I’d like to wear. I replied, “A long dress and flat, black, shiny shoes!” He then calculated my size and left. How I praised the Lord that I was going to be able to wear nice clothes to court rather than my prison outfit!
When it was time to go to court, I was shackled with a chain wrapped around my waist and cuffs linked in the chain, which keeps my hands very close to my waist. Another chain was placed between my legs with cuffs around my ankles preventing me from taking regular steps. In this manner, I was led down some stairs to another room.
There I was uncuffed and allowed to try on four different dresses. I felt like a princess at Christmas time! After choosing a dress and putting on some nice black, shiny shoes, the guard again cuffed me, while apologizing for having to do so. I told him it was all right. He took me to a cell waiting room. I felt so good about being dressed up and praised the Lord again.
After being there for a while, the guard stepped in and said, “I am going to unshackle you. You look like a nice person who won’t do anything stupid. Don’t talk to anyone. Sit where you are told and come straight to me when you are dismissed.” I replied, “Okay.” As I sat there, I continued to talk to Father about feeling so good without being shackled and thanked Him.
The Holy Spirit began conversing with me, “Let your yes be yes and no no.” “What if they ask me a question that I can’t answer a straight yes or no?” “Answer it, but in your heart you must be able to say yes it's true or no it’s not.” Then the door opened and the guard led me to the courtroom. Again the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “Do not swear at all.”
The judge came in and I couldn’t help but smile. Everybody else looked nervous, but I was very calm. Inside I was constantly talking to Jesus. The judge told me to raise my right hand and asked if I would swear to the truth. I replied, “No, Sir, I don’t swear, but I will tell you the truth.” He looked at me strangely, then asked, “Do you confirm?” I immediately tuned to the Holy Spirit, and He said, “Say yes.”
An attorney began asking me questions. As I answered with the Spirit’s prompting, I could see the “punch” was taken away from the D.A. Then it was the D.A’s turn to question me. He could hardly talk for stumbling over his words. I was about to answer one of his questions when the Spirit prompted me to not answer. I was amazed at how clearly I could hear the Spirit. I believe the D.A. saw an angel because he was lost for questions and actually began to speak on my behalf. He was the same D.A. who had sentenced me.
After a few more questions from the D.A., I was dismissed and taken back to the jail. I had to take off my nice clothes and dress in jail clothes again, but I danced, sang, and danced! “Jesus, You took the shackles off me.” As He comforted me again, I saw Him draw a heart in the sand and told me how much He loved me.
The next day, I was to be taken back to prison, but the transport officer forgot to pick me up, so I was rebooked and put back in jail. The girls, to whom I had witnessed upon arriving, said, “We hope you aren’t mad about staying a little longer because we prayed, like you taught us, so you could stay with us longer and teach us some more about God. Now we know that prayer really works!”
Even though I still have 13 months to go, I just want to thank CLU for being so kind by sending the books for Communion With God to study. I can now hear God’s voice! I can see visions and receive dreams with the interpretations! I now know how to look to Jesus instead of my problems, and God is using my life as a witness for Him!"
Testimonies from CLU Adjunct Professors Working with Prisoners
I love the fact the inmates who are willing to do the work also achieve very high grades. I am continually amazed at their love for Jesus and the journaling they send makes me want to go to the wilderness somewhere for a year or so myself. :-)
Dr. Joel N Trenkle D.Min.
Pastor, Dayspring Mission
[He] obviously put forth considerable thought, prayer and effort in these courses. This is an excellent example of the effect of CWG curricula upon the individual student, the effect of the Living Word of God upon the hungry heart. It was an honor to be so edified in reviewing his work.
Blessings to you, Dr. Mark and all of CWG Ministries!
Rev. Kim Akers
He has showed to be a serious, diligent, dedicated student with a total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, with a desire to learn from the Word, and to be used by the Lord for His honor and glory. The student has continued to grow spiritually.
I was blessed to read his final paper with the testimony, and how the Lord is continue to work through the Word of God in his life, saying that he is a man changed forever for the Lord. And that he is getting ready to serve the Lord with his capacities and calling. After grading all his work and the final test: his grade is 93% = A-.
I am looking forward to continue to work with him, and all the other students assigned.
Thank you, and may the Lord continue to bless you all.
George Pancescu
Add new comment