For today's Ben's Pen, I decided not to write anything. Of course, I'm writing this part saying I'm not writing anything, but you get the idea.

I'm going to instead turn it over to Community Comics' art director and VP, Sherwin Schwartzrock. He's going to tell you about an important project Community Comics is involved in. Beyond that, it's a project that we all feel very passionate about.

So, here's Sherwin:

Many of you know of Crosswind Comics, but some of you do not.

Dan and Carrol Schwabauer created a comic a few years ago called "Amazing True Life Stories". Issue #1 had two stories in it, one of a Sgt. Strick who's honesty and bravery saved hundreds of American soldiers' lives in WWII. The other was about Bill Corum, a drug dealer/thug who gave his life to Christ and now ministers to prisoners.

18,000 copies have been sent to prison chaplains nationwide. Dan later followed up with a survey and found out that because of cellblock proximity, on average, over 10 inmates will read a single copy of his comic.

Over the last 2 years, Dan and Carrol have received well over 5,000 letters from inmates. Out of those letters, 1,000 have asked how they can be saved. Many conversations with various prison pastors have indicated many inmates went to the prison chaplain asking to be saved after reading the comic book. Dan even talked with one prison pastor who requested 500 more copies because he was running out. This same pastor (ministering in a Florida maximum security prison) noted he had 100 inmates coming to the Lord per week because of the comic book! At the time of the conversation, he had witnessed 1,000 conversions as the result of the Holy Spirit working through Dan and Carrol's efforts.

I'm not making this up. God has surely blessed this ministry. However, Dan and Carrol have not been able to publish issue #2 (with art from Gary Shipman) because of a lack of financial support. Dan told me many churches say to his face, "we don't care about criminals".

Community Comics is partnering with Crosswind Comics to publish their future books. With your help we hope to print 25,000 copies of issue #2 to give away to prison ministries nationally as well as sell copies online through CC distribution channels. To do this, we need to raise approximately $7,000 for the prison ministry alone.

If you feel moved to give a tax deductible donation, or know of anyone who would, please share this message with them. E-mail me at sherwin@communitycomics.com for information about where to send your donation for this important ministry.

Sherwin Schwartzrock, VP Community Comics Inc.