It’s always good to get positive feedback, we all like receiving it. Over the past few days I’ve been delivering some training to a group of chaplains and volunteers who go into nine of the thirteen prisons in Rwanda on a weekly basis. The training is a programme that I’ve pulled together over the past few years. It has slowly developed as a result of reflective conversations with various of the CRED Partners, lots of reading around relevant topics, and advice and input from some key friends and professionals in the UK. It is a work in progress, and it continues to be honed and refined. But it is fit for purpose and it has been a real joy and honour to share it with the folks this week.
The response to the training has been wonderful. Yes, it’s been personally gratifying to know that the materials have gone down well, and that the hard work of developing them has been worth it. It’s been good to know that the original hunches and thoughts that led to the development of the materials were correct, and that there is a place for this.
But most of all it’s been fab to hear how the chaplains perceive that the materials will help to enhance their work, and input into the lives of the prisoners that they are working with.
As with all prisoners, the range of crimes committed by them are wide and varied. Some are serving sentences related to crimes during the genocide, although that is now a small percentage as most of that category of prisoner have done their time and been released. Some are inside serving sentences for crimes that they have been tried for. But others are inside waiting for their trial, with little access to representation, little knowledge of their rights, and all within a justice system that moves slowly.
The chaplains are allowed inside the prisons to carry out chaplaincy-type duties: preaching, teaching, and discipleship sessions at a group level, and a few opportunities for one-on-one interventions. The need is overwhelming, and the list of inmates in need of additional support at a spiritual, emotional and psychological level grows at an alarming rate. The work that they do is incredible, the stories that they share are heart-rending, the passion that they have for the work, and for transforming the lives of others is beyond commendable.
And so, to hear their feedback about how the materials will help has been so encouraging and uplifting. Here are just a few examples of their reflections:
- - We have been helped ourselves. It’s not just about using the materials to help others, but it will also help us to be stronger in our ministries.
- - More understanding now on why a person might be behaving as they are – whether it is stress, or trauma etc. So, if we know more about what happened to them, then we can help them become a better human being again.
- - This is like a key that can help unlock some of the problems that we encounter.
- - Everyone in prison has a trauma of some sort, but everyone can be helped through these materials, if we can just get the chance to share with them. So, we need to request more opportunities for individual time with inmates. We need to encourage the prison staff to help move the opportunities from mainly group work, to having opportunities for individual counselling time as well.
- - We also need to share these learnings with the workers in the prisons, and then the prisoners will be given help from the same direction by everyone. The medical staff, the prison guards, the additional staff – it would be good if they can all be trained.
It’s been a very special few days, seeing God take these materials and use them to speak into the lives of the chaplains, His servants here in this ministry. And it’s humbling to know that through the chaplains, these materials will speak into the lives of some of the most broken souls as they serve their sentences. Definitely some resonance with Isaiah 61:1 going on here!
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