(This article if from the Spring 2010 issue of flow Magazine)
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Matt Hawthorne joined the Reflex team last year. Here are a few extracts from his diary during his first few months on the job.
There is a lad in our Hindley discipleship group called Evan*. He used to argue with the officers and get into fights daily (and had the ability to win most of them as well). He just had a lack of respect for everyone and h
imself. He recently became a Christian and the change in his attitude is astonishing. He now has a servant hearted attitude, helping out even before asked. Even the officers are shocked at the change. I asked him why, and he replied, ‘That’s what happens when you put your life in God’s hands’.
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One lad we first met in Forest Bank in September called Lee had a very hard exterior to begin with. He really didn’t want to open up, and kept himself to himself. However, after completing the music course, Lee asked to start our Uncut course, introducing the Christian faith. It was clear that he was really searching, but at the same time not wanting to be too vulnerable. A couple of weeks into the course we found out that Lee was in for a crime that had a lot of media attention. Because of this tragedy, Lee was understandably holding a huge amount of guilt, but praise God that Lee became a Christian at the end of the Uncut course, and is now part of a Discipleship course every Thursday.
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I was leading a Bible study in Hindley last Tuesday, going through Mark with eight lads aged between 16 and 18. Five of these guys had become Christians recently and are really growing and maturing. Three other guys had completed the Alpha course but not become Christians, but at the end of the session were really interested.
One of the three – Darren – was asking questions and said that he wanted to become a Christian but t
hat he didn’t want to lose his youth. Basically, he wanted to be able to go out, get drunk and sleep around. Without the team saying a word, the inmates who were already Christians started to explain how Jesus had changed them. One told about how since becoming a Christian, he didn’t want to get drunk, take drugs or sleep around. After he’s hearing this, Darren gave his life to Christ along with another guy. At the end of the session the whole group were really excited about being ‘brothers’ in Christ!
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One of the managers from Styal came for a meeting, asking us to expand the work we do, thanks to the success we’ve seen over the last six months. On the wing that we work on regularly, there used to be an incident of some sort every week – either a riot, a fight, self-harming, or attempted suicide. But since Reflex started running sessions, there have been no incidents for six months! She loved both the youth work and the Christian work that we do, and asked us to do more in the prison.
*All young people’s names have been changed
