“Whatever good I may have done is because God saw fit to reach into the depths of Watergate and convert a broken sinner.”   Chuck Colson

 Chuck Colson was a Special Advisor to President Nixon at the time of the Watergate scandal. Nixon used him as a hatchet man in his attempts to evade blame for the break-in at the Democrat offices. He was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the scandal.  Before going there, he became a Christian. While in prison, he was challenged by one of the inmates not to forget them when he was released. Once out, he was led to form Prison Fellowship, with the goal of giving hope to prisoners. Over the years, the organisation has grown to be the largest prison ministry in the world. Chuck continued to be involved into his eighties when he died from complications of a stroke.

Various organisations in South Africa are involved in prison ministry. Hope Prison Ministry was started at Pollsmoor in the early nineties when Jenny Joshua, a Christian, visited her friend Jonathan Clayton who was in jail for fraud. The visit opened Jenny’s eyes to the great need for God’s work in the prison environment. Over time Jenny mobilized a team from Strandfontein Baptist Church to visit individual prisoners and give them hope and encouragement.  A short while after his release, Jonathan was allowed to join the team. Hope Prison Ministry is now the largest ministry of its kind in South Africa, with over 150 workers providing spiritual care, counselling, life skills and rehabilitative programmes to clients in nineteen correctional facilities throughout the Western Cape. In addition, their focus includes ministry to the correctional officers, the victims and their families.

Lord, we pray for the various prison ministries throughout South Africa and the world

• For the work of Hope Prison Ministry
• For the outreach and conversion of so many of the prisoners they have reached
• For the counselling of prisoners’ families
• For the counselling of victims and their families
• For counselling the correctional officers
• For the full rehabilitation of the prisoners back into society