Brad* didn’t come from a dysfunctional family. In fact, he describes his childhood as ‘amazing’. At the age of 20, he was engaged to his high school sweetheart and had big plans for the future.
But he connected with the wrong crowd and made some bad choices that saw him serve a 15-year prison sentence.
His fiancé promised to wait for him but it wasn’t long before she told him she’d met someone else. Brad felt completely lost. He had no purpose and no hope.
A few prisoners had become Christians in prison but Brad mocked them, thinking they used faith as a crutch to deal with their own pain.
One night, Brad walked past the cell of a Christian inmate who was reading a bible and he felt prompted to ask for one. The prisoner’s eyes lit up and without hesitation, he gave Brad a bible and recommended he start by reading the gospels.
Brad sat alone in his prison cell and started to read… and it all started to make sense.
The next day, Brad saw the same prisoner again and asked him what the next step was for his journey of faith, and he was guided through the sinner’s prayer.
The next morning, Brad looked out his cell window and noticed a beautiful garden outside. He’d walked past it a million times but now it was like he was seeing everything with brand new eyes – and he felt an amazing sense of peace.
That afternoon, as he lay down for a nap, he kept hearing ‘Corinthians 2:3’ over and over in his head. He’d never read it before and had no idea what it was about. He couldn’t sleep. The prompting was so urgent in his mind so he opened his bible to 1 Corinthians 2:3 and read: I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling (NIV).
At that moment Brad knew God was speaking to him directly. God wanted him to know that He had been with him the whole time: through his weakness, during his arrest and conviction, as he walked into prison. A comfort, peace and love came over Brad, safe in that knowledge.
Over the years, Brad developed a strong relationship with prison chaplains. They came in, not just as chaplains but with a genuine love and care for everyone. Brad said: “That’s why they are so respected within the prison community.”
Everyone in prison has been judged. To many prisoners, chaplains are the only people who speak to them without judgement. A lot of the prisoners see them as a refuge. Brad shudders to think where some of them would be without the support of the chaplains.
Today, Brad is a free man, in more ways than one. His prison sentence complete, Brad works as a boilermaker using skills he learnt while in prison, and he’s studying a mechanical engineering degree.
He’s heavily involved in his local church, and that’s where he met his new fiancé. They’re planning to start an internship with the church this year, after their wedding in February.
Prison can be like a revolving door for a lot of prisoners – returning over and over again because they don’t know how to break out of bad habits, or reintegrate into society in a positive way.
So, Brad has helped to develop a program to help former prisoners re-integrate, which is currently being piloted.
For Brad, it’s difficult to relate to the person he was over 15 years ago: completely lost, without purpose or hope. He has undergone a complete transformation, and God has been with him through it all.
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Awesome story! That’s why I pray for our Chaplains every day – they make a real difference serving Jesus this way. Blessings to you, Brad, in your marriage and ministries.
What an amazing story! Does Brad do outreach speaking to small groups? If he is travelling up Hervey Bay way we would love to have him come and speak to our street people at Street Works, our missional community to the homeless and those living rough.