Gary stayed most of his time in Brazil from then on, founding FPF prison ministry groups in Rio de janeiro and São Paulo, also reaching out to juvenile delinquents. Here he is at the “FEBEM” youth prison in São Paulo:
He was very much involved in visiting foreign and Brazilian prisoners at the infamous “Casa de Detenção”, or Carandiru pre-trial detention center in São Paulo, which was even worse than“Lurigancho” in Lima with over 8,000 inmates, also where a horrendous prison massacre occurred in 1992. It was eventually demolished by the Brazilian government in 2002.
(Gary ministering to inmates at the Casa de Detenção in São Paulo)
FPF Gary newsletter 1990 1-3
(Gary’s newsletter-you can scroll down 3 pages)
*****
In 1989 we all met again at the “Prison Fellowship International” World Convocation in San José, Costa Rica:
John Roberts, Chuck Colson, Ron, Gary in Costa Rica 1989
John, Ron Nikkel, Gary, Ron in Costa Rica 1989
(With international delegates at the 1989 PFI Convocation in Costa Rica)
(From Gary’s Brazilian newsletter – him meeting the president of Costa Rica at the Convocation, Mr. Óscar Arias Sánchez, Nobel Peace Prize winner)
At the conference, we held a workshop about ministry to foreign prisoners and discussed with the president of PFI, Ron Nikkel, and the founder-chairman, Chuck Colson, how we could work together on an international level.
*****
Afterwards, we decided to fly back together to Brazil. However, we missed our plane in San José and had to buy new tickets. At the travel agency, however, we learned that the original flight would have made a stopover in Lima, Peru and at that time, our sentences still hadn’t expired. Hence, we probably would have gotten into serious trouble upon entering Peru, as our names had still been in the system (they were only cleared and erased many years later!). God knew what he was doing and with the new tickets, we had a day of layover in Panama, where I had been on the way to Costa Rica and had met an Anglican priest who was also doing prison visits. So, we visited him again and discussed possibilities to create another FPF ministry there as well.
Back in Brazil, I did a tour with Ron to various churches and contacts in Rio, São Paulo, Campinas, then on to the famous Foz do Iguaçu waterfalls:
From there we went by bus to Paraguay and visited my contacts in Asunción. I had been there already several times, and there was a fellowship group that had been formed by an inmate, Felix, with the support of a missionary couple from New Zealand, Merv & Leonie, a retired farmer’s couple. Incredibly, we had met the chairman of PF New Zealand, Ian Elliot, at the Convocation and it turned out that they were related to him!
At the Tacambú prison in Asunción, Paraguay, with Felix, an unknown inmate, Gary, Merv, Ron
*****
In 1990 I returned to my home in London, at long last, and met up again with my family, my mum and brothers and sister, my daughters, and at that time Ron was appointed European director of Prison Fellowship International, after our meetings in Costa Rica, and we went to speak at the PF England & Wales annual conference that year.
I also took Ron to a very secret club of my old crime associates in London, in fact, you only get in there alive if they know you personally, and we had a great afternoon being witnesses for Jesus to my old cronies. Once we got in through the hidden backdoor entrance and up the stairs into the secret bar room, everybody knew me of course from years before as an enforcer and extortioner. We were standing there at the bar, holding glasses with soda in our hands, when one of my old mates asked me, “So tell us, Gary, what’s the new business you’ve gotten involved in, since you’re back from South America?” All the eyes in the room, the entire upper echelon of the London hardened crime leaders was fixed on us. It was an eerie moment, indeed. They even turned off the music to hear me speak, you could hear a pin drop. I took a deep breath and looked back at them. “I have given my life to Jesus Christ, and now I am a servant of God, proclaiming the Good News in prisons!”. Everybody stared at me in disbelief. Actually, one main London crime boss, my old friend from way back when, in apparent shock, dropped his whisky glass on the floor, I still remember seeing the ice cubes scatter all over the expensive carpet. After he had regained his composure, he asked, “You’ve got to be kidding, mate, religion?? What’s the money in this?”. “There ain’t no money in this”, I replied, “we do this for the glory of God, isn’t that right, Ron?”, and he confirmed it, although looking quite concerned about the tense situation. But then the whole room burst out laughing, they all just couldn’t believe that I had become new person in Christ. The music came back on, we were slapped on the back so many times, and for the next 2 or 3 hours, were bombarded with questions about our faith in Jesus, it was such a great time. They wanted to invite us to cocktails and champagne and smoke marijuana or snort cocaine, but we denied it all and eventually hugged everyone and said good-bye. I never went back to that club ever again, but felt very good that I had given my testimony for Jesus and hopefully it helped some of them to find Him, one day…
Ron continues:
In 1991, Gary was chosen to be trained in an intensive course at the “Haggai Leadership Institute” for 3 months in Singapore, on a full scholarship. Haggai International only equips qualified leaders from emerging nations and one will only be selected if he is already a recognized leader. To attend the international training, the trainee must commit himself to pass the training on to at least 100 other leaders within two years of returning home.
Gary went and was greatly blessed by this course. Upon his return to Brazil, he did train hundreds of Pastors and volunteers to get involved in prison ministry, also inmates and that ministry even turned into a chaplaincy training institute in São Paulo later on, to be continued by the people he discipled, even those from the “FEBEM” juvenile delinquent institution.
Gary’s graduation photo at Haggai’s:
*****
Gary always felt that he was called back to Peru for some reason and although I never agreed, he did return and stayed there until his untimely death in 1996.
He went back to Lima in 1992 and reconnected with the Christian community at the Anglican and other churches, particularly with our old friend Al Shannon, and visited all the Lima prisons again, plus discipling several of the ex-prisoners from our original Lurigancho group, who were out now, living in different parts of the city.
Gary with former inmates in Lima
Ministering in prison
Ministry with foreign ex-prisoners in church
(Gary in his element at a family event inside the Lima “San Jorge” prison in 1993)
But then the devil hit back with full force and a very evil plan. Gary had made contacts with a Christian ministry in the jungle town of Huánuco, where a drug rehab center was being set up. This is also the area where most of the cocaine in Peru is being processed. On a bus trip returning to Lima in 1994, Gary by custom was sitting in the last back row, when a police checkpoint came up and someone quickly shoved a bag under those last row seats. Gary immediately denounced this and complained to the police officers entering the bus, but perhaps due to his poor Spanish skills, or the bribing of the cops by the real drug traffickers, he was arrested for the supposed transport of coca paste in the bag (which is a very raw, pre-product of cocaine). An aggravating factor was his criminal record from 1982, which was still in the system (see above our 1989 flying experience from Costa Rica!). Gary was taken back into Lurigancho prison! Nevertheless, undeterred, he continued the ministry to foreign prisoners now full-time from the inside. He even turned my former “German restaurant kiosk” (still my property to this day since the purchase price was never paid…) into a chapel for FPF! Numerous inmates from all over the world, many of whom had been severely addicted to drugs, got saved during that time.
Gary back in Lurigancho…
The former “German restaurant” now the FPF Chapel!
Ministry inside the chapel
With Al Shannon and Steve Bronstein, our good old inmate friend from the 1980s, back in prison again as well
*****
Gary was taken to trial and during one of the court hearings in June of 1996, he had a massive asthma attack. By criminal negligence of the Peruvian court and prison administration, he was not provided with medical care and a new inhaler, as his old one had run out. Unbelievable to all of us, he died in June of 1996 at the Callao courthouse. I still remember receiving that night the fax from a “Latin Link” missionary about his passing and just could not get over it. But it was unfortunately true. Gary’s body was flown back to the UK later and we attended his funeral in London. The criminal case against him had been a complete farce, Gary Harris died as a martyr for the cause of the foreign prisoners, that’s the truth.
*****
Here the testimony from Allan, one of our former fellow inmates in Peru, about Gary’s ministry to him:
“Ah, what to say about the great Gary Harris!
In my mind’s eye I see him right now in my San Francisco home, his jet-black hair and his eyes that saw Jesus in every person he met.
I don’t know what was in my Lurigancho Prison notes about Gary, because they wound up in the hands of someone in the U.S. who ignored my requests to mail them to me; consequently, my memories of those two years in Peruvian custody fail me.
After the ridiculous Peruvian judges essentially acquitted me of cocaine possession for being insane — which I never claimed I was — my USA embassy wanted nothing more to do with me and whisked me on the first plane out of the country: So long, Machu Picchu, hasta la vista, Sendero Luminoso!
Gary and Ronald were released some time earlier, and through their relentless efforts, eventually I likewise left, but was unable to join them, as I explained above.
I know that Gary was framed up later, no genuine evidence is required in Peru to lock someone up for years. I’m sure that someone saw cops boarding their bus, so the real culprit pushed his bag of coke backward on the floor under Gary’s seat. Believe it or not, that alone is enough to lock someone up for three or more years. I can totally guarantee you that Gary had no cocaine business, he had only Jesus’ business!
A dignified Chilean folklorist musician who was in Lurigancho when I was an inmate there, was locked up just because he bought a plane ticket to Lima from Cochabamba, Bolivia, right after a smuggler bought one, and was finally released without charges after being locked up for 39 months! He complained to me, “What kind of a country is this, that keeps a person locked up for three years before releasing him for lack of evidence? That should be done after three days or three weeks, not three years!”
Normally, prisoners were only released if they paid bribes; I had no money to bribe my way out, so I engaged in a long hunger strike that struck gold and got me out of that awful inferno called Peru.
I know that Gary and Ron were with me when I was subsequently shown around a hospital after being ordered released, on a goofy tour, to supposedly being transferred to. Obviously, since I wasn’t going to pay a bribe for the transfer, it was never going to happen and soon after that the U.S. embassy cavalry came to my rescue and flew me home.
Because my notes were lost, I can only remember that when Gary accepted Jesus into his heart, he began to speak in our Lurigancho meeting room, but it didn’t seem like sermonizing, it just felt like Gary being the best person in the world. Being around him was being in the presence of the most positive and encouraging person you’d ever met.
I always like to say, that after Gary’s release from Lurigancho, although he spoke only incomprehensible Cockney, he was able to establish this Mission in multiple South American countries, even though he spoke none of those languages.
Gary was quietly undeterrable because he knew prisoners needed him, so I always picture him entering a prison office, being told No, get out of here and politely leaving, but returning the very next day to the same office with the same request, just like Groundhog Day for the officials who had to deal with him. Gary knew they had to stop saying No and cave in to saying Yes, because he knew that was what Jesus would want.
Thank you for everything Gary, you’re an inspiration for someone like me to aspire to go to Heaven after this life so I can join you!”
Last comments by Ron:
Although we had a bumpy start due to the language barrier, I never had a better friend in mission than Gary. We were 100% on the same page, despite being completely opposite characters; Gary was totally extroverted, straight into your face; I was more introverted, diplomatic, but we complemented each other perfectly in the mission. Since we got into action in the mid-1980s, many people compared us to the equally dynamic “Miami Vice” TV-series team, although we considered ourselves to be the “Jesus Vice” mission team, using spiritual weapons of warfare instead of guns, of course.
I can honestly say that I would have never gotten involved in prison ministry as a life vocation, had it not been for Gary. When I got out of prison, I did plan to be with God and serve Jesus somehow, but I suspect that I would have chosen a different, more easy mission, or even gradually have drifted back into some secular business, but definitely never would have visited any prison again! Looking back now, over 40 years later, I can only marvel how God knew how to put the right people together for HIS mission. Gary has been gone from this world for almost 30 years, which is a shame, but his impact and energy is still going on. Gary’s mum and one of his brothers are still involved in this mission, and we still meet online every week with many long-time missionaries, like Richard, and other supporters. The mission has never changed, to the contrary, there are now more foreign prisoners around the world than ever before.
I still miss Gary. I miss his inspiration and the relentless energy he had to serve Jesus and his single-minded motivation. But FPF is Jesus’ mission, we were and are only tools in His hands, empty vessels, by which Jesus could fulfill incredible things through His Spirit, which we would have never been able to perform in our own strength.
Whenever I get to heaven, I look forward to two encounters: 1) To meet Jesus in person, and 2) to hear Gary shout ‘Oi!’ at me.
Here some happy pictures with our great friends, film producer Penelope Lee, and John Sapieha, long-time leader of FPF in Brazil, and our brother and former fellow inmate George in London, so many years ago:
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:8)