Hope Prison Ministry

This is Marvin.

He was brought up in a house of violence and fear with his extended family but without a father figure - no discipline, no love.
At seven years old he was raped close to his home by a man who is still known to him.  From then on he walked further and further into the darkness.  Soon the longest he'd spent out of prison was three months at a time.  Inside he was repeatedly raped but he joined the 28 prison gang, rose rapidly within their ranks and became a general.  No one can touch an officer but he can have his way with underlings: what men had done to him, Marvin now did to others.

Then Hope Prison Ministry organised a Restorative Justice course for the centre where he was being held.  The prison chaplains, who'd started praying seriously for him, recommended he attend and on the first day, cap pulled down over his eyes, arms crossed, face scowling, full of anger, hatred, mistrust and bitterness, Marvin sat and waited to see what it was all about.

By the third day he was broken.  He knew that he didn't want to continue the life that had dragged him so far down.  He was realising the pain he'd caused to others by his actions; he couldn't carry on in the darkness.

It's not easy to leave one of South Africa's fearsome prison gangs, violence and death are run of the mill to members of the 28s or 26s, but that night, back in his prison room, Marvin announced to the rest of the 28s that he was leaving.  They could kill him if they liked but he was no longer going to be part of the Number.

Obviously they didn't kill him as today he's an enthusiastic and vociferous advocate for the power of Jesus to turn lives around.  He now works for Hope Prison Ministries, taking part in Restorative Justice courses, sharing his testimony so others can escape their darkness too. With his wife he has four daughters, being a good father to them and breaking the cycle of broken families.
At one ministry meeting he called out to a man sitting at the back and asked him to come forward.  The man couldn't speak through his tears.  He was the detective who had arrested Marvin and seen him off to prison so many times.  Now they work together in Hope Prison Ministry.