Iran: 'Pray we aren't released until our mission is complete'
Luke Randall
As Christians in Iran continue to face hardship from all sides, their witness also continues - both outside and inside of prison.
As turbulence continues in Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) continues to hold on to power, leaving Christians and other minority religious groups vulnerable to discrimination, including prosecution and jail terms. Elam Ministries's Chrissy Parkes, however, has revealed that there are also reasons for encouragement: Iran’s church is standing firm amid the darkness around them.
I passed the ‘kill fence’, entered the prison and found grace...
Krish Kandiah
Around the perimeter of Jefferson City Correctional Centre, Missouri, one of North America’s maximum-security prisons, runs what they call a kill fence. It sits between two razor wire fences. It looks innocuous enough until you see the warnings informing you that it carries a lethal voltage. One touch, they say, and it’s lights out.
You have to wonder why it needs the razor wire fencing, let alone the numerous men with machine guns lurking in watchtowers. This seemed to me, as I was ushered through the metal detector, to be quite literally overkill.
Why our prisons aren’t working, and what’s needed
Susie Richardson
Despite the imposition of “special measures”, “urgent notifications”, “improvement plans”, and “change agendas” in our prisons, something we mortals are doing is not “quite” working there. This is despite some very good humans doing their absolute best, with all their human strength and might!
We as Christians are called to care deeply about the state of our prisons. There are many references in the Bible to prison and imprisonment (both actual and metaphorical). And we are given a very clear instruction in the book of Hebrews (13v3): “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.”
Why our prisons aren’t working, and what’s needed
Despite the imposition of “special measures”, “urgent notifications”, “improvement plans”, and “change agendas” in our prisons, something we mortals are doing is not “quite” working there. This is despite some very good humans doing their absolute best, with all their human strength and might!
We as Christians are called to care deeply about the state of our prisons. There are many references in the Bible to prison and imprisonment (both actual and metaphorical). And we are given a very clear instruction in the book of Hebrews (13v3): “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.”