Jesus said
"The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath"
Mark 2 v 27
Paul Harrison - Director of Daylight Christian Prison Trust
What did they get for Christmas?
It was that time of year again. There was a faint whiff of hooch on the prison landing. The sweet smell of burning joss sticks could not disguise it, even if that was the intention. A lot of this illegal brew was probably seized before consumption, but some might have survived for a small Christmas celebration.
There’s not much else for residents of Her Majesty’s prisons to celebrate in the festive season. Another Christmas away from the family—if there is one. Some prisoners have lost all contact. No presents sent in, maybe not even a card.
For such men—and women—the gift of an attractively produced Day One diary can mean more than you or I can imagine. The beautiful colour photos on the cover and inside stand in stark contrast to the drab greys and browns of their daily surroundings, and remind them of the handiwork of an almighty Creator.
More importantly, the Scripture text at the head of each day tells them more plainly of this good, wise, loving and holy God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and what Christmas is really all about.
You may wonder whether five or six words of Scripture could have much impact. Well, we know they do. For instance, think about this.
‘Life is beautiful!’
When did someone last tell you that? Was he serving a life sentence for murder?
The cruel irony escaped this man’s notice; he meant it quite sincerely. We had just taken a service in a secure prison in the south east of England, and were chatting to the men afterwards.
Gabriel is thirty-three, a Romanian gypsy who found Christ through reading a Bible. Or rather, as he corrected himself, ‘You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.’
He had started reading the Bible initially in his despair at the very beginning of his life sentence, but struggled with the English language. In God’s good providence, one of his compatriots was deported, and offered him his Romanian Bible. Within a couple of weeks, Gabriel had put his trust in God and was devouring the Scriptures. He still is.
Taking out his Day One diary, he said, ‘You see these verses? Every day I read the verse and then turn up the reference in my Bible to read the whole passage. I’ve done this for nearly four years, and have sent the last three year’s diaries to my sister to keep for me. I try to get other prisoners to read the Bible. If they say it’s too hard, I tell them to read the Scripture in their Day One diary. It only takes twenty seconds; that’s not too much. But then they may get curious, and want to read more. The Holy Spirit can work in them. I thank God I came to prison. You see, I have a relationship with him. It’s not easy in prison. But life is beautiful.’
This is not the only opening for the gospel that the diaries afford. Because of the goodwill generated by the supply of diaries, we, as Prison Ministry Associates from Day One’s sister organisation Daylight Christian Prison Trust, have been welcomed to take services in prisons across the country, where we can more fully announce the glorious message of salvation through Jesus Christ. The chaplain in charge of the service will often introduce us by waving a copy of the diary and asking how many prisoners have had one. Inevitably many have, and there is a palpable sense of gratitude, if not sometimes outright applause. An appreciative audience becomes an attentive audience.
After the service, there is almost always an opportunity for one-to-one conversations with the men, such as the one summarised above. I say summarised, because it lasted a full thirty minutes. If only church congregations were as attentive, and had such fruitful conversations afterwards!
In these days of financial turmoil, we recognise that the supply of around 180,000 diaries to UK prisons each year does not come cheaply—in fact it costs about £40,000 per annum. In return on investment terms however, the results are incalculable…
We would like to close this piece by expressing our gratitude to Day One and its generous supporters for making all this possible.
Gabriel is grateful, too.
Daylight's website is www.daylightcpt.org