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It never ceases to amaze me how our God works to make things happen that are within His will! Last July we formed a new non-profit called Paid in Full California. It’s a ministry dedicated solely to the establishment of fully accredited Bible Seminaries inside prisons in California. Some of us had attempted to do this a few years ago but were summarily shut down with the absurdity of the concept. But now we see that all God was waiting for was to get just the right people in the California Department of Corrections, set in place. It’s truly remarkable not only how many of those upper-echelons have begun to work with us on this, but also how many seem actually enthused about the prospect!  The management staff at Mule Creek has been sincerely helpful guiding us through the minutia minefield inside the wire. This could only come at the hand of God!

We are currently on schedule to begin classes with SUM Seminary in late August! We found that the costs to do this were quite daunting, but He has already set us up with a couple of great donors so we’re financed up through our first 2 semesters, including hiring a fulltime Director/Facilitator to run things actually in the classrooms.

In terms of long-range goals, one of our Board members, living in Southern California, has begun inquiries into prison/school combinations down there. A couple of them showing preliminary interest are very big-name schools!

The thing that is crystal clear to all of us on the Board is that God is in charge and this Will get done, in His timing, not necessarily ours! I feel truly blessed to be a small part of this ministry.

We are currently working on our website for Paid in Full California. The new www address will be:

Paidinfullcalifornia.org

I can be reached at bob@paidinfullcallifornia.org or call me on 916-221-2110.

If any of you feel led to donate to this Prison Seminary planting ministry, please mail a check to:

Paid in Full California

25005 Blue ravine Rd suite 318. Folsom Ca. 95630

Or, with a credit card, call me. We have service with ‘Square’ to take cards over the phone.

The Bibles 4 Change classes, CAMP (Christian Anger Management Project) and WIR (Written in Red) are growing nicely as well. We now have 10 CAMP classrooms working in the Houston Texas area and 5 classrooms running WIR. We recently graduated our 2ndCAMP class on the C yard at Mule Creek, and are about to graduate our 5thclass in Folsom. God continues to fund us all we need to sustain this growth. 

We’ve begun laying out our plans for this year’s wildfire Bible donation program. We’ll probably need to make another trip to LA for more Bibles if this becomes another rough year, since we’re down to about 10 cases.

Once again, we thank you all for your support of our ministry over the years. As always, we still couldn’t do this without you! Please keep all of this in your prayers because we all know one thing for certain – Satan does not want us to launch this schooling inside his houses!  He knows this will run counter to his goals! Please help us thwart his efforts!

God Bless - Bob

 May 2023 - Newsletter

Sharon and I just got back from what we called a working vacation. We spent 3 days in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at Angola Prison as I described in my last newsletter. We spent 2 days before the event in the French Quarter in New Orleans. We spent 2 days after the event in Natchez Miss, and then drove down through the center of Mississippi, across the bridge over the Pontchartrain back to New Orleans. We had some really enjoyable vacation days just doing some Bucket-list things.

It was a wonderful time witnessing all of the work that Burl Cain’s organization is doing there, as well as in Mississippi. We were also able to plant the seeds of getting our Christian Anger Management course and our Written in Red curriculum started in both Louisiana and in Mississippi. A couple of years ago Mr. Cain left Angola to become the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, but his home is still in Louisiana, so he’s still active there.

Angola has had a beautiful Seminary complex built right in the middle of the prison, attached to their historic main chapel. It is a very impressive operation and they are in the process of graduating a full class every year now thanks to the added capacity this affords.

This trip has re-ignited my interest in working on getting a Seminary in a prison here in California. As some of you may know, when I first heard about Brother Cain’s successes in Louisiana several years ago, I worked some on getting the concept going in California but I met with very tepid interest in the CDCR who, at the time labeled it as nearly impossible, so I backed away from it. But now, my friend Randy Haskins with New Beginnings in Placerville and I have begun to tag-team the process here. We’ve been encouraged, not only by Burl Cain’s organization, but also because we believe the climate for the possibility of this in California is changing. The CDCR has announced, and begun funding, a complete ‘change-of-mission’ for San Quintin prison here in the North to what they call a ‘Rehabilitation Facility’. We believe this aligns itself to what we are trying to do here.  

All of this is really exciting to me! In fact, Mr. Cain’s ministry ‘Prison Seminary Foundation’ is having their annual conference in Memphis, Tn. at the end of this month and Randy and I are set to attend (5/31 – 6/2).

So – a lot of water has to go under the bridge, but it’s exciting to be a part of this process – more to come!

There are new developments in Texas as well. The first is that both of our courses are receiving great reviews from both the facilitators and the inmates. This is very exciting to us, especially since we can’t be there in person to watch over how they are conducted. God has really blessed us with this endeavor.

And second, Brother Anderson’s ministry (Epiphany Life Change) has now taken over the rest of Texas. He has begun making contact with all of the prison Chaplains to his north explaining their mission and scope of their work. He said they’ve specifically listed CAMP and WIR as a part of their curriculum so we need to be prepared for a big increase in demand for our courses. God has always told us that he will provide what we need, when we need it, so we will trust in that!

For the record, it’s important that all of you, our donors, understand that our philosophy remains the same regarding spending B4C funds – it’s always weighed against how many Bibles it costs us to do something and these trips are no different. Since we have not yet made this Seminary in Prisons a formal part of our ministry, we only paid for our rental car for the New Orleans trip. Our flights, hotel rooms and meals we covered ourselves. The Memphis trip is the same – we’re not spending B4C money on any of it.

If any of you want more information on Burl Cains foundation – look up “Prison Seminary Foundation”. You’ll be guided to other websites from there. And as always, for more information on our ministry – Bibles4change.org

Thank you and God bless you all for your continued and ever-faithful support.

Bob