Chaplain at Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre (CDTCC)
Here at the prison, each week we have a chapel service which is similar to what you’d experience in a church. We sing a song, recite the Apostles’ Creed, have a Bible reading, a sermon, a prayer and a closing song. Part of preparing for chapel is printing out small booklets
for the inmates to hold during the service.
At the end of the service, some of them take these booklets, and some just leave them lying around the prison like rubbish.
Recently, I spoke to an inmate who is not a Christian and is openly of another faith. He doesn’t attend the chapel services here, but we always have a really great connection. This inmate has lived most of his life taking drugs and doing crime. He had a child with his ex-partner, who had also fallen into heavy drug use. He told me he has reconnected with her and has been speaking to her on the phone. Her life completely changed when she met Jesus, and he is overjoyed that his son is now attending church with his mother. He is blown away that their entire lives have been transformed.
“It has to be Jesus. It has to be. When she met Jesus, everything changed.”
He described a phone call where she asked him if he had ever read the Bible. He fumbled to give an answer, but spotted a chapel booklet lying nearby and decided to simply read out the Bible passage printed inside. This was a great encouragement for her, and made her really
excited that he had the chance to also meet Jesus in prison. Their relationship is starting to grow again, and he is beginning the process of reuniting with his son after not seeing him for nearly a decade.
Amazed that Jesus can change lives so dramatically, he is genuinely intrigued and beginning to rethink where his own faith stands, even wondering what it might look like to go to church together when he is released.
This reminds me that every part of the ministry here in the prison is an opportunity to share and proclaim Christ. Even a discarded booklet, something closer to litter than treasure, can carry the Word of God into a phone call, into a relationship, and into a heart that’s beginning to open.
What might God already be using that you haven’t noticed yet?
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall
accomplish that which I purpose.” — Isaiah 55:11
The profound thing is that each time I got to this point of realising how it was all way beyond my pay grade — not that I didn’t have some skills important in all of these scenarios, but when I realised I very much needed supernatural help — over time all of those situations turned around way beyond my initial most optimistic moments.
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During our Online Prayer Event, Akos Balogh (Partnership and Engagement Manager) interviewed Jason about his role as Jericho Road’s Disability Advocate. We have made this interview into a blog for more to see.
