Born-again ex-inmates are special blessing

With a wealth of experience from the UK, chaplain Simeon Sturney is helping churches and prisons in Ghana support offenders too. His new book proved to be the perfect training tool on a recent visit. Chris Rolfe reports.

“Prison systems around the globe might be vastly different, but prisoners’ emotions when they enter and leave them are the same the world over,” says Simeon Sturney.

That’s why, on a recent visit to Ghana, he was glad to use his 22 years’ experience as a through-the-gate chaplain at HMP Bronzefield to train churches involved in prison ministry.

“I ran two workshops called ‘The heart of prison ministry’ in Kumasi and Tamale – cities in central and northern Ghana – for the Church of Pentecost,” he says of the trip taken with friends Andy Gilmour and Terry Lewis.

“They were for church leaders and others who run ministries supporting people in prison or as they come out.”

The workshops talked about Jesus’s heart towards people on the margins who might be going in the wrong direction in life.

“We looked at the heart of an offender and realised it’s probably the same as ours.

“Then we looked at what churches can do for offenders, but also what an ex-offender can bring to their church; how we might be blessed by somebody who’s experienced prison and turned their life around.”

Simeon’s relationship with the Ghana Prisons Service dates back to a visit to the country in 2009. Since then he has continued to visit prisons and help with training.

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