In Depth:  Gerard Chrispin

‘What does a murderer look like?’ I have often been asked that question. My reply? ‘Look in a mirror!’

Many look like ‘ordinary Joe’ (or ‘Josephine’!), having committed just one crime. It might have arisen from an apparently ‘ordinary’ drunken punch-up, or jealousy about a wife’s relationship with his ‘friend’. You could have reacted similarly.

Gerard Chrispin of Daylight Christian Prison Trust and DayOne Prison Ministries tells of three recent prison surprises . . .

I was so embarrassed to greet the man as a prisoner only to find out he was the chaplain! (I am not telling anyone who that was!) I was dumfounded when the officer at Wakefield Prison thought I was a prisoner because I was wearing a blue and white striped shirt! And I cannot imagine how a particular inmate managed to write to me at my home address a few days after the meeting I had spoken at, when I only gave out the address of our organisation! These are just a few of the many surprises in prison that I instantly recall.

Gerard Chrispin reports on the launch of the new DAYLIGHT Christian Prison Trust, seeking to bring the gospel to those behind bars...

A helpful missionary vision emphasis in recent years is the concentration on the needs of people groups, in addition to focusing on geographical areas.

Hypocrisy is just as alive in the prisons as it is in the churches!

Usually, preaching the gospel in prison means that most of your hearers know they have 'messed up' their lives, and they know that you know they have. So there is often a more honest starting point of admission of sin than sometimes we see in our respectable churches.

We had spent a relaxed lunchtime and afternoon at our home with Arthur and Margaret (not their real names). Normally we went to see him, and spoke to Margaret later on the phone. We did stay with her once - not with him, of course - before speaking at the large prison near her home.

But Arthur was in another prison then. Would he be imprisoned again soon? His conviction had been quashed on appeal, as he had hoped for. (After all, he had foregone prison privileges rather than admit guilt for an alleged very serious crime.) Now he awaits another trial. The expected date has recently been put back for three months very soon before he was expecting it. How would you react to such uncertainty? If you are married, how would your spouse fare?

Sometimes we wonder! We see prison chapels full of men or women. Many have ruined lives - their own and that of others. Violent offenders, murderers, rapists, drug barons, burglars, child abusers, thieves and arsonists.

Sometimes over 100 at a time. Sometimes a handful. Why do they come? Why attend Sunday services? Why come to long Christian mid-week meetings?