With this issue of Methodist Message, we are launching a new column on the Prison Ministry. Recognising that this is an important aspect of social and transforming work, The Methodist Church in Singapore has been involved in ministering to prisoners and their families for many years. The writer of this new column, the Rev Chiu Ming Li, is currently serving as the Prison Chaplain. His involvement with prison ministry work began in 1992 when he started visiting Changi Prison weekly for Sunday worship services. In 2006, he was assigned by the Bishop’s Office to work full-time in the Prison Ministry. In his opening article, he writes briefly about his early Christian journey and his encounter with a former gang leader in prison.
I VIRTUALLY GREW UP IN CHURCH. My parents were second generation church leaders and involved in many of the church’s programmes. Consequently, much of my childhood was spent on the church premises.
My path towards adulthood was rather uncomplicated. Completing 12 years in Anglo-Chinese School (ACS), from primary school to junior college, I proceeded to serve national service, and then to law school. Growing up in church protected me from many unhealthy influences that beset my peers as my social life and friendships revolved around school and church.
In Search of the Omnipotent God
But while I was protected from associating with people at the fringe, neither church nor mission school could keep me from nagging questions about God’s relevance. In fact, it was largely my education in ACS that presented me with difficult questions about God’s role in the world.
I wanted to know if God-our-Provider could provide for people who lived in poverty, or whether God-the-Healer could really heal people who had no access to medical help. I wondered whether the apostle Paul was merely an aberration, or if God regularly transformed murderers into saints. Could those who sat in darkness really see a great light?
Glimpses of Light
I met Eric in prison. He was the black sheep of his family. He had always been regarded as delinquent, rebellious, and a good-for-nothing. When given a long jail sentence, his father vowed that he would no longer consider Eric his son, and would not be visiting him in prison. Behind his violent façade, Eric longed to be embraced by his father. His deepest pain was not his severe punishment, but the fact that his father rejected him.
One day, Eric confided that he had not been able to sleep for several months since receiving his sentence.
I told him that Jesus was by his side every moment, and suggested that he internalise this truth by imagining Jesus sitting by him whenever he lay down to sleep.
The following week, Eric was visibly excited. He related that when he lay down to sleep, instead of thinking of Jesus sitting next to him, he thought of Jesus picking up his blanket and tucking him in bed. As he thought of Jesus tucking him in bed, he felt warmth enveloping him and a very peaceful sensation overcame him. Deep emotions of love overwhelmed him. He felt like a little child being embraced by his doting father.
I began to see changes in Eric over the next few months. Eric was no longer the angry man I had known him to be. He also slept well at night. One day, he revealed that the leader of his gang wanted to “punish” Eric’s betrayer. The gang leader had asked Eric’s wife for his identity. Eric instructed his wife to convey his reply to his former leader: “It is no longer important for you to know who betrayed me. What is important is that you know Jesus who saved me and sacrificed his life for me.” That day, I had a glimpse of a powerful light shining through.
Keeping the Fire Burning
It is one thing to get a glimpse of light; it is another to walk daily in the light. Many prisoners have experienced the grace of God in amazing and utterly moving ways.
In prison, we never run out of stories of God’s visitations upon His people. But so often, we have seen persons miraculously delivered from strongholds and bondages, only to walk right back into them. Our biggest challenge is in helping them look not only for the visitations of God, but to yearn for His indwelling among them.
My quest continues: not only to know that the Light has shone on those who sit in darkness, but to witness that those who have seen the Great Light continue to walk in that Light.