On this very special day we prayerfully hope that soon we will be in Heaven with HIM. What must he be thinking, looking down at what Christmas means to so many? His very name is often replaced with �X-mas.� We decorate a tree - HE died on one. It has so many gifts under it. He wants only one - us. Many go into debt or may enter into deep depression. Too many of us are all alone even though HE is always there. WE sing �Joy To The World� but there is so much sorrow. Most of you know I did not believe in Jesus until I met Yvonne. She and a lot of prayer led me to Christ. Way back then we had ingathering. Groups went out caroling. Houses were not lit up with lights but full of love. I don�t remember getting more than one gift - often made by hand. Often it is the only day some go to church. Jesus loves us still this we know, the Bible tells us so. Jesus - the light of the world - is the purpose in everything we do. The gift HE needs is us. He is the light of the world. This world we live in really needs that light today.

Never having been a member of a church I had to find something to do. I tried every job the church had to offer, even youth leader. I had never been a youth. I was studying the Bible and taking notes. I wrote the words �GOD - GO DO.� �Jesus - just US.� In a FLASH Someone Cares Prison Ministry was born. I taught the Bible as I learned it. I quit a great paying job to be a volunteer at Soledad Prison. $1.00 a year for each of us. Both Yvonne and I became full time unpaid chaplains. Thank you Jesus. We put All Faiths in our ministry and Jesus blessed us. That was forty years ago. I am going to be 85 Yvonne 78. He truly is the reason for the season. When a Merry Christmas is past we will look forward to many Happy New Years.

I wish we could share all the stories we could tell. The cold dark dampness of prison, the men and women begging forgiveness and a second or third chance. Let�s share a few.

Don Hawking, a very bad person, raised bad, was bad, kidnapped a wealthy women. He tied her up and then tied her to a tree next to a river. Then he left her to arrange for ransom. She got loose from the tree and while still bound she rolled into the river and died. Don deserved the penalty he got. He connected with our Ministry and things happened. He started a Bible study on Death Row. He got a change of diet and taught men to read and write, eighteen of the men there joined our Pen Friend Program. All accepted Christ and we could share the praise staff gave them.

The inmate writes a letter and fills out a detailed form (on our web page left side). We send both to you. You write or e-mail letter, send it to us and we mail it to the inmate. The only address they have is ours. We would like to match 1,000 inmates next year. This is a great group Ministry. This program is exploding and we need Pen Friends!

We are a non profit ministry and all donations are tax deductible, The ministry pays for all operating cost, postage, newsletter and equipment. Medical expenses not covered by insurance. The newsletter and postage takes a bunch. When we used to preach and teach three times a month it was easier to raise funds but age has slowed down our traveling. It is a joy each month to know we are still in the black we have never had a month in the red.

We need a bunch of Pen Friends as we plan to get 1,000 inmates involved next year. You may write to your Pen Friends when they are released as you do now - through us.

We ask each of you reading this to visit our web site, www.someonecares.org. You will see a picture of a radio. Click on the radio and you can hear a whole lot of radio shown we have done over this last year. Each show is about twelve minutes long. Please send that info to your address book.

We would like to see 1,000 inmates join the Pen Friend Program. We would like to see a Dress Out Program in every prison. We would like to have again everywhere a one-to-one visitations. The most importand part of prison ministry is one-to-one. All of you doing Bible studies but can not have one-to-one with your group could get that one-to-one through our ministry. That means churchs working together. This is a big effort and with the proper funding, we can provide CDs on each program. Away from religion, many inmates can not read or write. Remedial reading can be another step to Christ. Pray for a large donation that can make all this possible.