Meet T

I'd like you to meet someone. This is T. He lives in Zambia. T is a Christian man, serving a death sentence in a Zambian prison. He is one of many thousands of men incarcerated there. T has been in prison many years, awaiting either freedom or death, for the crime of robbery. He is not a murderer. He was a very poor man with a wife and children to feed. In order to obtain money for food he agreed to take part in a bank robbery. He was caught, and sentenced to death for his crime. His family have since forgotten him and have never visited him. He is a very poor man indeed.The conditions in Zambian prisons are horrendous. Click here for some examples.

There are people all over the world suffering. Orphans, hungry families, homeless people, and prisoners. So why should anyone care about a prisoner if there are so many other needy people, who may be far more deserving? That's a good point. The sad fact is that most people are moved when they see a documentary about starving orphans in Liberia, they are moved to tears when they see homeless families in India spending countless cold nights freezing inside make-shift tents. People don't like to see suffering, but for the majority of them, they are moved, and then they make a cup of tea, finish their dinner and forget all about it.

All this suffering sometimes makes me feel so helpless. What is the point of trying to do anything when there are countless more people living in poverty? I have heard it said that we "rich people" are in the minority. For us, this life (having a home, working hard, eating hot meals every day) seems normal, but to the majority of people our lives is a paradise that they can only dream of.

So what can I do to help? Well, those who know me well know that if I wasn't a devoted wife and mother I would sell everything and move to Liberia or Zimbabwe to open an orphanage, or something similar. Obviously I can't do that at the moment. But one thing that I have been doing, for 2 years now, is writing to prisoners. Not randomly writing willy nilly to prisoners, but writing to 4 prisoners. T is one of these prisoners. The other 3 live in America (one of those is on death row).

My heart goes out to T and others like him. A letter from me is all he has to look forward to. My letters take about 3 weeks to arrive with him. When he reads them he is taken out of his prison, in his mind, to another world. He has never asked me for anything other than friendship and correspondence. He has not asked for money, and I told him in my first letter that I was offering friendship and nothing more. But friendship is the most precious thing in the world to him. T is starving. The prison service give him 1 small bowl of rice a day. They expect family to provide food for their incarcerated relatives. But for so many of the men, like T, their family have forgotten them. For many years he has lived on this one bowl of rice per day. Some days there isn't any rice and they have to go without. T also has AIDS. He didn't know he had AIDS when he went to prison. He almost died from the disease (some part of me wonders if he would have been better off). He gets his medication provided free of charge. The medication often makes him vomit what little food he gets.

I have spoken via email to the prison chaplain, who is a man from Ireland, believe it or not. He knows T. He says he does not look at all well, is very undernourished, but praises God every day for his life. (The photo above was taken before he went to prison).

T lives in a concrete cell with at least 6 other men. They have no bed, no sink, no toilet, no window. At night when they are locked up he says that the men often hallucinate and believe that they have become small bugs that are able to crawl through the air vent and out to freedom. They have a chamber pot to share. In order to reply to my letter T cleans out chamber pots every day for the richer prisoners, and washes their clothes for them. If he does this for two weeks he receives a stamp from them, with which he can write to me.

T has asked me in his letters to ask everyone I know to pray for him. He believes that prayer is like dynamite. If you could also remember T in your prayers he would be very grateful. He is dreaming of freedom in his latest letter. He will either be freed or hanged.

This Christmas I want to send a care package to T. I can easily save the cost of posting these items by eating less take out food, or spending a little less on myself. I haven't decided yet whether to send one large package or whether to send little bits and pieces in each letter. Pretty much anything would make him happy. The prison mail is not checked by the guards and his parcels should remain untampered. I guess non perishable foods, sanitary items, blankets, clothes etc are all things that T could use. If anyone has any good ideas of things to send please let me know.

If anyone else would like to write to T, offering prayers and/or friendship then please email me and I will give you his address. If anyone would like to send something to him, in the form of a care package or a small treat then please let me know and again I'll give you his address. Anything, no matter how small would help to ease his suffering. Anyone of my family members who is about to buy me a birthday or christmas present, feel free if you like to send something to T in leau of my present ;)

Likewise, when writing your christmas cards this year, if you feel you would like to send a card to either T, or E (on death row in US) then please let me know and I'll give you their addresses. If you prefer you can put my address as the return address to remain anonymous.

• remember those in prison (Hebrews 13:3).
• Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone (John 8 v.7)
• For ALL have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God (Romans 3 :23)
• The Lord looked down from His sanctuary on high, from Heaven He viewed the earth to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death." (Psalms 102:18-20)
• And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (1 Cor 13 v2)
• And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Cor 13v 13)