The welcome back party with the kids, when “Edward” was released from prison

God turned being falsely imprisoned in Brazil, into something good

By Jeannette Lukasse

Special to ASSIST News Service

A couple months ago, Edward* (not his real name), one of our staff workers, ended up in jail even though he was innocent, through a very unfortunate set of circumstances. It has been 15 years since we have had any major problem with the police. At that time they abducted and tortured Mati, one of our young men on staff from Samoa. I wrote about this situation in my book “A cry from the streets”. But now Edward, a very quiet and reliable staff worker was arrested under false accusations, while he was on an outing with one of the kids in a local park.

We were astonished with this injustice. At first, we were confident that

after some explanation the police would acknowledge their error and that Edward would be released. However, Edward was chained for 10 hours to a bench and then transferred to a very cramped cell which he had to share with 9 other men, some of whom were mentally disturbed. Fights and rape are very common occurrences in such prison cells, which were originally built to hold only 3 prisoners.

Later on Edward told me that during that awful night, the words of Psalm 139:8 came to his mind “if I make my bed in the depths (hell), you are there”. God really comforted him in that terrible situation: He was assured that God was with him and would help him…

We continued to think: “Tomorrow the police will admit their mistake and will let him go”. But the opposite happened: he was then transferred to another jail! There he was not even allowed to receive visitors for the next 30 days, except from his lawyer. The first four days, things just kept on getting worse! We found out that he was then sharing a smaller cell with 14 dangerous prisoners. I couldn´t even begin to imagine what he was going through. It was horrible. It was even hard for us to sleep! But when word got out, more and more people started praying for him, our staff, the kids, and his home church.

On the fifth day we got a phone call from friends who work with the government, just after a prayer time with the leadership team from the base. They had arranged that we could visit Edward, contrary to all the rules & regulations, and that we even could take him clothes, food, books and a blanket. They also promised that they would have him transferred to a different cell.

Edward told us afterwards how happy and grateful he was when he saw his new roomy cell, with 14 bunk beds bed with actual mattress!

“It felt like checking into a nice hotel”, he said. All the other prisoners had believed in his innocence, and had left him in peace; some even had prayed with him and together they had read the Bible.

When we visited him that same afternoon, Edward told us that on that morning God had told him that “the victory is already his”, and he was totally convinced that he would be released. Even so, it took our lawyer and our influential friends a total of 23 days to get his final release, and 2 months to have his name cleared from any accusations.

When I asked him if God had taught him anything through all this, Edward told us with tears in his eyes that he always had found it difficult to believe that people from his church, or the staff and kids on the base, really cared about him or even loved him. But when during the first night, chained to the bench in the police station, he saw at two thirty in the morning a van full of his team members arriving to show their support, and saw them waving to him at the other end of the corridor, shouting that they would pray for him, some of that unbelief was broken.

After this, it only got better. During every visit, loads of letters, emails, and drawings from staff, home church and kids were given to him. Edward got a standing ovation during the first weekly meeting back at our YWAM base. He burst into tears, from happiness, relief and gratefulness. What a great testimony how God can change such a terrible experience into something positive.

Daily rapes in prison…

For a moment, the World was shocked after the notice from Brazil that in a prison in the North of Brazil a 15 year old girl had been thrown in a cell with 30 men, where for weeks they raped and abused her. When questioned, the judge and police gave the unbelievable excuse that they hadn´t realized the girl was a minor!

This was not an isolated case! Repeatedly girls and women are raped in prison cells without anyone ever taking notice… Brazil, together with a few other countries, heads up a list for countries with the worst, most inhuman and most unjust treatment in its prisons.

I hope that the situation with Edward will somehow be of help in bringing this gross injustice to the attention of the authorities as we process this situation with a Christian friend who is the head of the government commission for human rights in our state. Let us pray that all over the world, Christians will make a difference, go visit prisoners and bring the good news.

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[01/11/2008]

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