“Foreign Prisoners Fellowship” was founded on the 1st of December 1985 in “Lurigancho” prison, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, by Jesus, calling Gary and Ron to carry it on. The latter two had no plans for such a ministry, nor any idea of how to do this. Gary and Ron had both been arrested on (separate) drug trafficking charges in 1982 and had first met briefly in October of that year at the (no longer existing) Lima city prison “El Sexto”. Gary was from the East End of London and Ron was from the West End of Frankfurt. Ron was transferred away after only a few weeks to Lurigancho and Gary came there too in April of 1984, after the infamous prison riot in El Sexto, which left 22 people dead and 60 wounded, when it was stormed by police and subsequently shut down for good.
They had both met Jesus in different ways in those prisons and had not had that much contact with each other while in prison, even though both were UK citizens. One reason was that it had taken Ron several years just to understand Gary’s incredible ‘Cockney’ (a very thick London) accent… ????
When Ron was released on parole after 37 months in October of 1985, by coincidence together with Steve, another fellow foreign inmate from New Zealand, they decided to rent an apartment together in Lima which Steve chose from a local newspaper ad. It turned out the apartment was only half a block away from the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd and so they frequented that church until Steve left Peru about a month later.
Ron shares how and why he first went back into prison after only 2 months being out:
“While going to church on a Sunday morning on the first of December 1985, someone who knew my story asked me before the service whether I could visit Gary Harris from London, one of the foreign inmates left behind in Lurigancho prison, and deliver an important letter to him. First I thought she was joking, since I never wanted to see any prison ever again, not even from far and much less this one, so I vehemently refused and left her standing there, a bit rattled about my harsh reaction. At the same time, I was asked whether I could stand in for someone in the church choir who had reported sick. I accepted and felt pretty good and ‘holy’ in the prominent blue and red velvet robe that was put over me. ‘What a career, in just 2 months from inmate in a lousy prison with rats and cockroaches to choir member in a distinguished international Anglican church’, I thought to myself, all complacent. However, this feeling was quickly destroyed by the church sermon that morning which was about the Bible passage in Matthew 25:31-46, where Jesus is telling his rather astonished audience at the end of times: “I was in prison and you visited me…”, and “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me…”, and also: “whatever you did NOT do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”. So right after the service was over, I stripped off the robe and looked for the lady who had talked to me earlier and told her that I had changed my mind. I took the letter from her and went out immediately to visit Gary, as Sunday was the men’s visit day.
However, after riding in a taxi for about 30 minutes, when I saw that dreadful prison in the desert hills outside Lima from far off again and finally entered through the same big gate I had walked out of only 2 months earlier, a cold shiver ran down my spine and I really wondered what had gotten into me. Had I lost my mind, why was I going back now voluntarily to the same old place and what would happen if they didn’t let me out anymore? Nightmarish thoughts overcame me and I almost decided to turn around and head back to the city, but then again I didn’t want to be a hypocrite, so I cried out to God, ‘OK, I’ll do it, but just this one time’, and went in.
Of course everybody in prison, both guards and inmates, still knew me and wanted to know how life was on the outside, many asked for money or to bring them something when I came back another time. Prison visits in Peru are very different from those in Europe or in North America. Once you are processed past the entrance gate, you are free to go anywhere you want inside, until the visit time is over at 6 pm. So I went to my cell block “Pabellón 7” and up into my old cell n° 6 on the third floor, greeting first my former cellmate, and while drinking a cup of coffee with him, marvelled how I could have lived in such a small and crummy place for so long. I was greeted and hugged by a lot of guys, but my visit with Gary was the highlight. He had become a Christian too while in prison and even though we had not really spoken that much while together in prison, this time we talked and prayed for more than 4 hours in his cell without interruption. It was Gary who had the impression during that time that God was calling us to form a fellowship of foreign prisoners. Actually, a fellowship for all prisoners who had been saved by Jesus Christ anywhere in the world. Humanly speaking, this seemed an utopian and impossible idea to us that sunny Sunday afternoon, Gary wasn’t even out of prison yet and I was in a precarious legal situation, 7 years of parole still to go and an Interpol arrest warrant out for me from Germany.
I got out of prison late that afternoon with no problems and felt exhilarated. On the way back home I wondered what was so exciting about a prison visit? Perhaps that I had actually done what Jesus had asked me to do in the message I had heard in church that morning?”
After Gary was released only a few weeks later, in fact, exactly on New Year’s Eve 1985/86, we teamed up for the mission to the prisoners, which we named “Foreign Prisoners Fellowship”. The Anglican church gave us an office for free to work from, organizations like ‘Prison Fellowship Peru’ helped us get visiting passes, and in the end we stayed almost 2 years longer in Peru, visiting our former mates in Lurigancho and other prisons every single week, plus inspiring regular church members to come along with us, doing Bible studies, praying for the inmates and helping them to get out.
In March of 1987 Gary and Ron left for Brazil (see story above), but the FPF committee and the volunteers in Lima continued to visit and care for foreign prisoners.
In 1988, missionary John Roberts from Belfast was called to carry on the work, being seconded by his mission agency (then called RBMU-UK).
Later that year, Gary, Ron and John all met at the “Prison Fellowship International Convocation” in San José, Costa Rica, where they also got to know Chuck Colson and Ron Nikkel, the founder and leaders of that international association of prison ministries:
A faithful Peruvian brother, Pablo Garcia, an ex-prisoner himself even before Gary and Ron’s time, has been helping foreign prisoners now since almost 40 years and is still carrying on the work:
Anna Sims from the Church Mission Society has been helping foreign women prisoners in Lima since 2013 and is also active there right now.
Link: https://churchmissionsociety.org/people-in-mission/anna-sims