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The Christmas cards have also blessed many prison chaplains. It provides them with another opportunity for ministry among inmates. Chaplains pray over the cards and then hand them out among the inmates. Several chaplains told us that the day on which cards are handed out is a day of joy and celebration that inmates look forward to each year. One chaplain said the Christmas cards were always “the HIGHLIGHT of the whole year!”

Various churches write encouraging notes in the cards and then give the cards to a prison chaplain to distribute, especially to give to those inmates who never receive any mail. But most prison chaplains ask for two to four cards to give out to each inmate so they can send a card to their friends and family members.

Ministries who used the Christmas cards for their outreach:

•  Christian Library International mailed packs of 100 cards/envelopes to chaplains serving in about 40 US prisons (in various states)
•  Commission to Every Nation — Missionaries took nearly 1,000 cards for distribution in English speaking countries in Africa (Kenya, Niger, East Africa, Cameroon, Liberia, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, Madagascar, and South Africa)
• Food Banks — Washington County, Oregon & Charlotte, NC, and in Texas
• Over 20 ministries at US Digital Mission Outreach Center, Vancouver, WA

In 2016 Over 190,000 Cards distributed to inmates in 68 prisons and jails in 25 states:

Alaska (1 jail), California (13 prisons/jails), Colorado (1), Florida (2), Georgia (4), Illinois (3), Idaho (4), Iowa (1), Kansas (1), Michigan (3), Mississippi (3), Montana (2), North Carolina (3), North Dakota (1), New Hampshire (1), New Mexico (1), Nevada (2), New York (1), Pennsylvania (2), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (10), Tennessee (1), Texas (2), Virginia (2), Washington (3)