Over the past five years of research and sending thousands of copies of How to be a child of God into several hundred prisons, we have learned much of our effectiveness and what it will cost to complete the task for Prison Evangelism.
We have found that two-thirds of the men who are offered a copy of How to be a child of god will not accept it. This same group does not go to chapel meetings or accept any other type of Christian message, tract or book. The good news is one-third will and they are our target.
Here is how it works.
The average sized prison holds one thousand men or women. We send three hundred books to that unit and the chaplain distributes those three hundred books to the one-third of the offenders who will accept them. On average, we will receive a minimum of three letters from recipients of the book in that unit. Those letters generally attest to the effectiveness of How to be a Child of God by telling us how a life was change through Christ and the use of that book. A rebirth into Christ occurred! That person invariably wants more books, a bible or more information.
Statistically, we know that for every one who will write and testify of an event such as this, there are nine others who were effected but were not inclined to write or take other action over it. That notion would indicate ten percent or thirty of the original three hundred recipients had a life changing experience and trust in Jesus Christ. We really believe it is more because a prison is a closed environment and these books get passed around. It is said a book can be read a minimum of ten times by ten different people in a typical unit.
So what about the cost? When we are able to use our best economies of scale, we can print and distribute How to be a child of God for $.54 per copy. In this unit, the total cost would be $162 for the three hundred books. ($162 divided by the thirty saved souls equals $5.40).
Using the How to be a Child of God tool in a typical prison in the Prison Evangelism way, a soul can be saved for $5.40.
That’s a lot of spiritual bang for the buck!
David Howell
Prison Evangelism, Inc.
PO Box 571977
Houston, Texas 77257
713-623-0690
www.prisonevangelism.com