Desiring God Blog : Posts by Carol Steinbach

Like many people, I am in a very busy season of life right now. At work I’m swamped. The National Conference, the Philippian Fellowship, our prison ministry, and our mailings are keeping me hopping. I’m hopelessly behind on email. There are reports to run and recommendations to make, volunteers to serve, and dozens of other things I can’t even remember at the moment.

In the midst of all this, God has been kind in bringing two things to my attention.

The first was several weeks ago, when we received word that one of our military chaplains overseas was killed in a roadside bombing.

The second was more recently, when we received a sweet note from the sister of a woman who has been part of…

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1) Pray!

Ask God to bring the volunteers and the resources needed so we can serve the inmates who contact us.

2) Volunteer

Every inmate who contacts Desiring God is sent an application for Mount Zion Bible Institute. Mt. Zion offers non-credit Bible correspondence courses and is currently looking for additional graders for their correspondence students' lessons. Most of their students are inmates. The main qualifications are spiritual maturity in the Lord, over 35 years old, and living in North America.

3) Spread the Word

If you know people who are in prison, have them write to us and request a free Piper book. Our address is:

Desiring God
P.O. Box 2901
Minneapolis, MN 55402…

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This update was sent to our Philippian Fellowship last Friday.

This week we received a letter from a man who is serving a 50 year sentence for armed robbery, kidnapping, and sexual assault. Before that he did time for sexual assault and robbery, and before that, robbery and possession of a stolen vehicle. He is 41 years old.

Here is an excerpt from his letter, transcribed exactly as he wrote it. While he may not be good at grammar and spelling, you can clearly see his heart through the words. I was moved to tears and wanted to share part of his letter with you this week.

First of all I want to thank Executive Director, for having a soft heart to our Father God cause …

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As Pastor John wrote on Friday, there are real people in our prisons who need to hear the gospel and to be encouraged in their faith.  Desiring God seeks to serve them and the chaplains in those prisons through our volunteer-led inmate ministry:

Individual Inmates

Every inmate who writes to us for the first time receives a welcome packet that includes a letter describing our ministry, a copy of our evangelistic booklet, For Your Joy, a copy of The Dangerous Duty of Delight, and an application for free correspondence courses through Mount Zion Bible Institute. We also send them one other Piper book under our whatever-you-can-afford policy. (If an inmate does not request a specific boo…

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Thank you to all who contributed to the African Pastor CD Project! The project is now complete and we are wiring $6,000 to Conversation Ministries in Springs, South Africa. They will use the money to purchase a CD duplicator for producing CDs from their church and Desiring God. These will be sent without charge to local African pastors, missionaries laboring in Africa, and to individuals who may have no exposure to sound, evangelical preaching. May God use these CDs to spread a passion for his supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ in southern Africa.

Back in March we announced that we had the opportunity to send 30,000 copies of Don’t Waste Your Life to an Army reception center in Georgia. Since then, we have sent nearly 53,000 copies of the book, study guide, and leader's kit to the military. We've sent another 5,400 copies into jails and schools. Books have gone all over the US, as well as to Japan, South Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. All of the costs for the books and shipping are covered by donors who give specifically to the "Don't Waste Your Life" sponsorship effort.

It is very exciting to watch how God has quietly been moving in the hearts of people to give toward the DWYL sponsorship program. At this moment, having sent all thos…

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From a recent email:

I'm the Executive Officer of a company stationed in Afghanistan. We are currently engaging with the enemy daily in some form or another. But I am writing to you as a Christian first and a soldier second. We have no chaplain, but one of my platoon leaders has stepped up and has been leading a weekly service.

We're hurting on resources. We need Christ-centered resources that turn us towards the Word and teach us of the joy that Christ longs for us to have in Him. I have been changed by Piper's books, including my favorite, Don't Waste Your Life, and long for others to have the opportunity to benefit in the same way.

Would you please consider sending some

…

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God has opened a door for us to send one case of Don’t Waste Your Life books and study guides to each of the 60 prisons in Florida. We just received this note from a chaplain in the Florida Department of Corrections:

Thank you so much and God bless your ministry. The men and women in our prisons will enjoy the books and study and many will be encouraged. I want to pray over the books before they are distributed and ask for souls for eternity. Thank you, thank you.

We’re able to do things like this because of the generosity of our supporters. Gifts given to “The DWYL Sponsorship Program” are used solely to distribute DWYL books to others who cannot afford them.

To those of you who have donated so we could give out free books, here's what your gifts have accomplished so far this year:

1,000 books to Christian organizations at Virginia Tech.
500 books to schools and prisons across the country.
39,300 books to US military bases in nine states, Japan  and Iraq

We would love to reach 100,000 people in 2007.  Thanks to our many supporters, we’re well on our way.

A few days ago, we asked anyone interested in giving away books in the armed forces to contact us. A few hours later I received an email from the chaplain at an Air Force base in Nebraska. We agreed to send him 200 copies of Don't Waste Your Life to distribute at the base. Here's his distribution plan:

The first way the books will distributed is through our Single Airmen’s Ministry. This ministry is called Tuesday Night Together (TNT) and they study God’s word and fellowship together in the Lord. Most of the airmen who attend are young and many are asking questions and seeking for the Truth. This book will help them understand the Truth is through Jesus Christ. The second wa…

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