Prison Ministry
Our first visit to an African prison took place in October 2006 in Kamuli. On a Sunday afternoon Janis and Laurie were whisked off by George and Angela Bufunvu, the church's prison ministry team, to the local prison. Nothing could have been further from our experience of English prisons! At the door we were admitted by a prison officer recognisable only by the fact that one of the church team introduced him as such! No one asked for ID or searched us! The next difference was that the prisoners were all sitting around in the compound. They were wearing a simple light uniform..
The church prison ministry team led the prisoners in some of their own songs. Then we introduced ourselves and sang some songs in English. Janis spoke to the men from God’s Word about ‘God’s Treasures’ and Laurie gave an updated version of his testimony of trusting Jesus at all times and in all things. He also shared more of 'God's treasures' instancing two outstanding examples of Christian prisoners known to us in the UK. After we had all ministered, one of the African team members gave a Gospel call and eighteen prisoners responded. We also gave out SOON (easy English) leaflets to all the inmates. We asked afterward "Does this level of response happened often" — and were told "No, we get one or two, but this is different. These men are now your (spiritual) children!"
Our second prison visit was in Masufu prison with Pastor Jimmy Wandera and the church prison ministry team. Again, very different to our English prisons. We arrived at the prison compound, the gate was opened and we drove straight in. Again, no ID, no search! The prisoners were in the compound having a meal provided by the church. When they had finished, we ministered to them in song, Janis gave a Gospel message and Theo and Laurie gave testimonies. Of the forty present thirty-two subsequently responded to the appeal given by our African colleagues..
We gave out SOON and UPESI (Swahili) leaflets. These men had no uniform - they wore whatever they possessed. Laurie noted one man barely decent in his rags. (He took along a pair of shorts the next day to give to him). We prayed for the men who were due in court for favourable verdicts, that the truth would prevail and that justice would be tempered with mercy. Some of these men were claiming innocence.
The Governor was present and stayed throughout the service. He was very sympathetic to the prisoners in his charge, understanding that with 80% unemployment in Uganda and a lack of skills training, crime was almost an inevitability. He was very keen that the Gospel should be preached there and obviously had a good rapport with the church team.
Further Visits
On our second visit some who had been in Court on the previous day swelled the number to fifty. Again we sang and ministered to them, and they received food paid for by us. Understandably there were no further commitments this day - most of them had made them on the previous day! But some of the church team had gone shopping after we had arrived and came back with supplies of soap, toilet paper and bananas.
We were impressed by the way in which the men sat in orderly 'crocodile' lines for the distribution of the three items in succession. One other thing left a lasting impression on us. After the men had all received their bananas there were some left over and a prisoner took one and walked to the perimeter fence and passed a banana through to one of the armed guards on the other side!
Before we left we prayed for a number of men with a variety of conditions; back pains, heart conditions, a wife pregnant with their first child, gambling addiction which impoverished a man and led him to waste his money and land him in prison. Then one of the church team quietly led Laurie to the living quarters to pray for a man with syphilis. We also prayed for the next batch of prisoners due to go to Court.
On our third and final prison visit, David, another of the church team who had asked Laurie to pray for one of the men with syphilis, was bold enough to ask him for money to treat the man. "How much does treatment cost?" he asked. "About £1.50 sterling" was the reply. So he gave him 20000 U.sh (about £6.00), enough to treat three men. Later Janis added more and this was sufficient to treat eight men with various conditions. We again ministered, Janis spoke and Laurie again gave a variation on his testimony emphasising the need for continually trusting after conversion. On this day a further twelve men made professions of faith.
We asked how the men who went to court had fared, and out of seven six were released (including the one claiming innocence and the one with a pregnant wife) and only one was convicted. Later that day David gave us a list of the names of the eight men who had been treated for a variety of conditions so that we could continue to pray for them. It amazed us how so much could be accomplished with such a small outlay.
Subsequently we had this report of the progress of these eight men:
"The eight prisoners were given a full dose of their required treatment, and all of them got well . Also all of them eventually got out of prison and 5 of them are now active in Church . Unfortunately the disease continued to infect other new inmates, with fifteen new cases of syphilis."
(We sent more funds to treat these men and to further help the orphans living with HIV in Masafu).
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