Have you ever felt like every experience you have had in your life was for a reason?
This is the way I felt as I spoke to 18 inmates in the youth section of Drakenstien prison in Capetown on a Sunny winter (our summer) afternoon. As we went around and introduced themselves the program leader had them say their name and also state their crime, sentence, and how long they had to complete their sentence. Their crimes included murder, rape and armed robbery. If I hadn’t been in prison and heard their crimes, I would have never suspected that these good looking young men between the ages of 18 and 25 had ever broken the law.
As I prayed about what God wanted me to share with these young men, I felt God prompting me to help them see the pain I felt as the victim of two violent crimes: The murder of my Father, and my being shot in a robbery. As I started to describe the sorrow I felt when my Father died, and the pain I went through when I was shot, I could see them reacting emotionally. Then I asked them if they had ever had the opportunity to ask forgiveness of those they had wronged by their crimes. Most of them said they had not. Then I described how God had given me the power to forgive the young man who had murdered my father, and the young man who had shot me even though I had never met them. I told them that because I had asked for my sins to be forgiven and God had forgiven me, I could then forgive those who had sinned against me. I urged them to ask God for forgiveness for their crimes, and also forgive those who had wronged them in their lives. Since 90% of these young men did not have a loving Father-figure in their lives growing up, it is likely that some of them had to deal with deep hurts from their past.
Through the Ambassadors in Sport ministry at Drakenstien, many of these young men have already trusted in Christ for their salvations, but they still have deep hurts, scars and habits that need to be dealt with. I told them how Christ had helped and was helping me deal with these issues and find deep healing. Later that day, a young man who had been involved in a kidnapping and murder thanked me for sharing.
After the short talk, we went out on a large field big enough for a soccer field and a rugby field. It was well equipped with two soccer goals and two rugby goals. It was an exciting day for the team because they distributed new Kappa uniforms to the team. They all looked great in the new uniforms and had an extra spring in their step as they practiced. The AIS SA staff had trained Jonas, one of the prison guards, as their coach. In the past year the prison warden has allowed the Hope Academy team to play in an adult league outside of the prison. Last year they won this league!
I worked with the goalie nick-named “Station”. I showed him how to catch and hold onto the ball securely, showed him and a friend some drills they could work on together, and also explained some simple geometry so he could understand angles better. He soaked up all that I showed him and even asked if I could work with him later in the week. Unfortunately, I had to tell him I was leaving the next day.
As we left the prison, we went by a statue of Nelson Mandela walking with his fist in the air. It turns out that on February 11, 1990, Mandela was released from Drakenstien after spending 27 years in various prisons and started a new life in politics, eventually becoming president in 1994.
My prayer is that each of the young men in the Hope Academy program will leave there with a bright future ahead of them because of their new relationship with Christ. Some are completing their High school education, and several are taking college-level courses.
There have already been several who have “graduated” from Hope Academy program at Drakenstien and most are doing well in their post-prison lives. As mentioned before, one of them is now the assistant coach of the Hope Academy in Soweto.
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