SA Unite in Christ: 10. Jail

10. JAILS:

Be part of God’s Army, even from prison!

The hard reality The reality in South Africa is this: if you enjoy your normal life, you do not want to end up in a South African prison. Modern day prison life is a constant fight for emotional, spiritual and physical survival. Due to the gang violence, South African prisons have a very bad reputation. Drugs and illegal substances are smuggled in and a lot of illegal trade happens in the prisons. Documentaries and movies have been made about these practices. We do not want to glorify the violence, gangs or gang names in this writing, but we would like to make the people and prison inmates of South Africa aware of the situation in our prisons in order to guide our ministry and prayer focus for the Kingdom of God. Nelson Mandela wrote that “no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails” and I tend to agree. Our prisons are over full with convictions of serious crimes such as murder, rape and armed robbery, to name but a few, and there is extreme gang violence in our prisons. Some prisoners leave the prison just to come back again as soon as possible to continue with the gangster prison life. This is their comfort zone and this is where they rule… and sadly mostly cause a lot of trauma to other people’s lives too. We should ask ourselves the question: Why is our prisons overcrowded with broken people? With violent people? With spiritual captive people? According to www.africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-‐the-‐state-‐of-‐south-‐africas-‐prisons/ our South African prisons are over full. From this research report in March 2016 it was deducted that 236 operational prisons in South Africa collectively holds 161,984 inmates, of which a quarter was not yet sentenced but still awaiting trial. Due to the high number of remand detainees (﴾people awaiting trial or extradition)﴿ the prisons are overcrowded with only 119,134 bed spaces, leaving us in March 2016 with 42,850 people not having bed space in our prisons. Just pause here and think about it,

SA Unite in Christ: 10. Jail

more than 40,000 people not having a bed to sleep in? Due to the overcrowding and lack of ventilation, prisoners are infected with Tuberculosis, and cases of Leptospirosis (﴾a diseases spread by rats)﴿ has been reported to cause the death of prison inmates. Between the years 2007 -‐ 2011 more than 200 inmates died due to unnatural causes such as suicide and assault, which may be due to torture or gang violence. Pause here and think about it, when a person is so downhearted and thinks so little about their lives that they want to commit suicide to end the hurt. I’m sharing these statistics in order for us to see the broader picture of the situation in our criminal justice system. Currently, there are human rights organizations involved in the fight for better prison environments. We are simply not prosecuting crime at the rate and pace and with the effectiveness we should be, this shows us that our legal system is not aligned to God’s Heavenly order. We do not have enough successful crime prevention or community skills projects and we do not have enough restorative justice programs where prison inmates go through a true forgiveness and restoration process with their victims.

The Light in he end of the very dark tunnel

Due to the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, and also dedicated prison ministries and bible distribution, many people do receive salvation while they are in prison. I would like to share a testimony to encourage all of us, in showing the influence one can have by being a pro-‐active child of God, regardless of your physical environment. There was a documentary aired on national television about this project too. Johan Marais was 25 when he was madly in love with a girl. After a bad heartbreak he wanted to commit suicide. He failed in his suicide attempt, and decided that he will kill the people at the rubbish dump, and while shooting at them then the police will come to shoot and kill him too. He took many weapons with him and started shooting at the people he could see scavenging on the rubbish dump. He killed two people, and wounded a third when he by some supernatural reason stopped shooting and went to hand himself over. While he was awaiting trail, he met Jesus and received salvation. He was baptized just before his life sentence was given. He was first sent to Brandvlei Correctional Services in the Cape, where he continued to study the Word of God and grew very strong in his relationship with God. While he was in this prison, he preached and testified and prayed and hundreds of people came to salvation. He started a project with all the fellow born again brothers, where they made clothes for the children in a local orphanage.

SA Unite in Christ: 10. Jail

They also planted vegetables on the prison grounds, and the wardens took it to the orphanage, and some vegetables was sold by the wardens on behalf of the prisoners, in order to send money to the orphanage. Johan has served almost 20 years and is currently in Malmesbury Correctional Services in the Cape where he is running bible studies and prayer groups and he is available for correspondence. This testimony is evidence that we can still be of service in God’s Kingdom even from jail!

To all the beautiful children of God who are currently in jail

We at SA Unite in Christ want to honour you for deciding to choose Jesus Christ as your Saviour and building a relationship with Him. We want to truly acknowledge that “Nothing is impossible for God”. We have heard of many awesome testimonies of how God turned around lives of those who are in jail. You do not need to be out on the streets to make a difference in the Kingdom of God. We read in 2 Corinthians 10:3-‐6 that for though we walk in the flesh that we do not fight according to the flesh, this is a spiritual battle. We want to encourage each one of you, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, to be part of the Body of Christ and God’s Army as we are in unity in the spirit. How beautiful that our spiritual unity can reach beyond prison walls! We would like to encourage you to lock shields with us, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, in defending our precious country from the onslaught of the enemy. You have such a vital part and role to play in this tremendous battle, and we need you to stand up and take up your authority and anointing in God’s Kingdom. You are the true example of a person who can be spiritually set free, healed and delivered while you are physically still in prison. This is the most amazing miracle of all time, for a sinner to meet their Saviour and to become a mighty warrior in God’s Kingdom too! We believe that the change will come in South Africa when the prisons are evangelised to such an extent, that every person who leave the prison is pastor or evangelist material, changed, redeemed and healed. These new healed and restored mighty warriors in the Army of God will be able to change communities, cities and this country. We can change from a violent crime invested and political turmoil country, to the most honourable God fearing nation in the world!

SA Unite in Christ: 10. Jail

We would like to encourage you to do some of the

following suggestions:

o Start a prayer network or bible study groups in your prison with fellow believers

to pray for South Africa and for the salvation of prison gangs 24/7. We read in James 5:16 that fervent prayer availeth MUCH!

o Form small groups who dedicatedly declare scripture over South Africa. You

need to have a good solid scripture foundation, so focus on spending a lot of time reading your Bible.

o Ensure that you portray the life of a righteous person lead by Holy Spirit for

other prisoners to see that you have truly changed your ways and live a life of repentance and sanctification, to live the righteous life that God intended for you to have, and to not leave prison to go back to a life of crime like a dog that returns to his own vomit. (﴾Proverbs 26:11)﴿

o Start a worship marathon in your prison.

o Evangelise other inmates and testify to them about the miracles of healing or

deliverance that Jesus Christ has been doing in your life.

o Enrol for UKUPHULA IKETANGA courses (﴾Breaking the chains from Lotsha Ministries)﴿ from your local prison chaplain in order to prepare yourself to be a mighty soldier in God’s Army!

o Please send feedback to us at SA Unite in Christ about any projects that you

have started in your prison after reading about this movement to call the Army of God for service in South Africa.

To Conclude

We would like to encourage you to take up position in the Army of God. Report for duty in the Heavenly Army and start defending our country. This is a very big spiritual battle that we are fighting, and we can only win if we successfully mobilise the Army of God to work together in unity. The choice is yours – make a difference. Join SA Unite in Christ and help to shape the future of South Africa and ultimately the world!