Tim Abbey
Chaplain at Kirkconnell Correctional Centre
A Story from Kirkconnell - Summer 2025
Sometimes, when I first meet a new inmate, maybe just talking casually in the yard, or they poke their head into the Chapel, or they turn up at a Chapel Service, it can be kind of bittersweet.
If they indicate they are Christian, how they used to go to Church, were keenly involved, sometimes even right up to their arrest, the joy in meeting another believer is rapidly overtaken with feelings of sorrow for them that things obviously haven’t gone too well.
Often, they are clearly broken and ashamed, some openly volunteering how they had drifted in the faith and therefore dropped out of Church, or they were just keeping up appearances. Either way, self medication led to crucial barriers being crossed and the inevitable.
Some of these are men who became Christians in gaol and were full of hope when they were released. So bittersweet.
And yet, one of the great privileges of being a Christian Chaplain is to encourage these men in the power of the Gospel, that all is not lost, that Jesus is still reaching out to touch them.
“…one of the great privileges of being a Christian Chaplain is to encourage these men in the power of the Gospel…”
At Chapel services lately, we have been reading Matthew’s Gospel in the lead up to Easter and reading how Jesus healed the leper in chapter 8.
These inmates feel untouchable like the leper. They have tasted the Lord and know He is good (Psalm 34:8). They know like the Roman Centurion in Matthew 8 that Jesus is Lord and can heal with just a word. But they wonder whether Jesus would be willing to heal them let alone touch them given their huge fall from grace.
How awesome that Jesus is “willing”, like he told the leper and showed his love and compassion by digging deeper than skin deep, showing acceptance and love in actually touching him when he clearly didn’t have to. It was such a powerful touch from our Lord to that leper, and so it is to these modern-day lepers, these fallen brothers-in-Christ in gaol.
It is so heartening to see broken believers put back together when they experience Jesus’ forgiving touch, the power of the gospel, when they become like Paul and are not “ashamed” anymore (Romans 1:16), taking Jesus at his word, that there is only one “unforgivable sin” (Mathew 12:31), which is to not accept what the Holy Spirit says, that the Gospel is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16), even these fallen men.
“It is so heartening to see broken believers put back together when they experience Jesus’ forgiving touch…”
Of course, this ultimately applies to us all even though we haven’t done any time in gaol. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, we were all “dead in (our) transgressions” till we received God’s “grace” and were made “alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1-10), which we’re also in the middle of looking at in Group Bible Discussions at Kirkconnell.
Gaol just makes this all more obvious.
