Moving Forward
Over the years we have received several notes from those participating in the Lessons for Life Correspondence Course regarding how much they appreciate and are learning from them. The following is one such testimonial we recently received that I thought I’d share with you.
“Thank You!! I love this correspondence. It’s unique and memorable. These two factors make it effective. With the other correspondence courses that I’ve taken I need a lot of repetition in order for me to retain what I’m learning. But with this particular course it seems to stick. I don’t know if it’s because it’s so practical or some other reason, but it really resonates and I’m able to easily remember and apply what I’m learning. I appreciate you tremendously.”
Christopher
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I decided to include the above as an introduction to our introduction. As I’ve mentioned in some earlier newsletters, we are working on making all of the Lessons for Life Course available in video format. This will allow us to reach more students (inmates) and connect better with our current ones. In this day and time, for some reason there is more interest in a video than there is in reading. Although each student will still have the written material in front of them and will still be answering the questions and mailing them back to us, having each lesson presented in video form will give them a more personal connection with us as a ministry.
The following is the script I used for the Introduction to the Lessons for Life Course.
If you would like to review the actual video itself, you can go to prisontalk.org and click on “Resources”. At present, we are still editing the 24 lessons but will soon have the entire course available for anyone to download.
Hello, my name is Gary Skinner. Welcome to Lessons for Life.
This is the introduction to our 24 Lesson Course. The theme of this course and our ministry is: God has a plan and a purpose for your life. To emphasis this theme, I am going to read from the Bible, Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
In 1991, I didn’t believe this verse applied to me. I believed it may have been true for me years prior, but I felt like I had messed my life up so much that I had ruined my opportunity to follow God’s plan. I was wrong. Although I had made some serious mistakes, those
mistakes did not negate the truth that God still had a plan for me. I believe this is true for every person who is still breathing. No matter how old, or how many mistakes, or how severe the mistakes, God can still use you for His purposes; and in my mind there is no greater satisfaction in life than learning and following God’s plans.
As part of the introduction I feel it is important to lay a foundation for what you can expect from this course. Every lesson is based upon my own journey with God. In case you don’t know, I was incarcerated for almost 2 years back in 1991. You may have heard about my book, Plain Vanilla Wrapper. It is the story of my journey with God. In it I talk about the decisions I made early in life that led to my incarceration. I talk about my time in prison, and I talk about how God restored my life after my release. If you are currently in prison, I would like to make it available for you to receive a free copy. It gives good insight as to how the lessons in this course were developed. We will have some information at the end of this introduction to let you know how to receive your free copy as well as how to order one if you are not currently in prison.
Each lesson in this course has been a challenge for me to learn and apply, yet, God has been faithful to change me to the degree I’ve been willing to cooperate with Him.
The following are some of the benefits I hope you will gain by participating.
To develop a strong personal relationship with Jesus Christ
To develop an understanding of what God’s purposes are for your life
To develop a plan and strategy to accomplish those purposes
To establish positive habit patterns to help you be successful during incarceration
To prepare you for your eventual release back into society
As you participate I ask two things: first, that you be honest in answering the questions at the end of each lesson and second, that you be willing to apply the changes these lessons teach. My ability to instruct is only successful to the extent you are willing to be taught. Ultimately, it is up to you. But I believe if you are faithful to apply these lesson you will experience many of the same successes that I have, and most importantly your relationship with God will grow.
I’d like to close by speaking a blessing over you. This blessing comes straight out of the Bible from the book of Numbers Chapter 6, verses 24-26:
‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’
Please do not forget… No matter what the world says, or the others in prison, or even your own mind, you are not too old and it is not too late for you to discover and follow God’s plan for your life!