On Wednesday, the 15th of August, Sue and I went to our evening Bible study and prayer meeting as usual.  As we went in, I glanced down at the mail slot in the door and noticed a small envelope addressed to the church.  Opening it, I began to read a sweet letter of God’s gracious intervention in a man’s life.  The letter, however, originated from HMP Altcourse, a prison just outside of Liverpool.  The man who wrote the letter was a man Sue and I had met on numerous occasions at his grandmother’s house and for whom we had prayed at the request of his grandmother.  He was a likeable young man in his late thirties when we first met.  Because his grandmother had raised him, they were very close and his love for her was special.  Due to this special relationship, he tried to visit her as often as he could.  His story began about the time of his grandmother’s funeral and continued to the time the letter was posted to the church from Altcourse.

His letter told of a broken man whose whole world had collapsed around him.  Whereas before, he was, by his own choice, free of any care and responsibility and just living his life by his rules.  He told of his nephew who had been killed in a recent car crash and how after the death of his Nain (Welsh term for grandmother) his life fell apart.  Eventually, his alcohol and drug abuse took over and he lost his business, his home and his family. 

Because of a number of violent outbursts he caused thousands of dollars worth of damage and was on the run from the authorities who had issued a warrant for his arrest. He left the UK and was travelling through Europe without hope, and soon, he had no income.  Finally he reached the depths of despair and sought the God that his grandmother had often told him about but whom he had repeatedly rejected.  To make a much longer story shorter, he turned himself in to the authorities and they extradited him to the UK where he stood trial for numerous ‘crimes’ and is now serving out his sentence.

Things have changed dramatically in his life because of Christ.  His life of selfishness has given way to a ministry of helping those who are seeking the Lord.  While in prison he says, “I can’t stop witnessing to people.  Many are interested in the journey I took across Europe…and ask why I wrote ‘mugged by God here on 16 April 2006’ on the map I drew. 

Needless to say, many in Wales are worse off than he because they never had a grandmother who prayed.

Richard Reddoch, Wales