Three new converts at Yayachu prison being baptized by our indigenous parters using the only water available

Dear Friends and Family,

I’ve just returned from a wonderful visit to the mysterious and beautiful country of Myanmar, also known as Burma. Unfortunately, its people are held captive by a repressive military government and by a Buddhist religion that binds them to worshiping a god they cannot know personally. Thankfully, however, freedom is coming to some of the most unlikely places—the prisons. God has opened the door for our partners to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in Burmese prisons!

Our partners are ministering in the work camps near Kalaymyo, a city located in the remote northwest region of the country. The prisoners receive warm clothing, blankets, food, medicine and a Bible; then they hear the gospel, many for the first time!

During my visit with our partners, I provided them with a camera and a laptop to help with documentation and administration of the prison ministry. And because workers often must rent a car or truck to get to the more remote prisons, Heaven’s Family also purchased a new motorbike for them, all thanks to generous gifts to the Prisoners Fund.

Inmates, many in shackles, responding in prayer

Heaven’s Family is also working to help our partners begin ministering in a 4,000-inmate prison in Taunggyi, a city located near the center of the country. There are some inmates in that prison who have been labeled as “untouchables.” Our partners will be helping to meet their physical needs and telling them about Jesus, the One who is not afraid to touch them.

Please pray with us for this ministry in Myanmar. I thank all of our Heaven’s Family friends from the bottom of my heart for your faithful support and obedience to the command of Jesus to minister to “the least of these” around the world. One day you will hear Jesus say, “When I was in prison, you visited me”!

May God continue to richly bless you!

Bob Collins
Director, Prisoners Fund

Prisoners repenting at Goma’s Munzenze Prison

Dear Friends and Family,

Last month I shared with you our experiences in the prisons of Cameroon. The second part of our African trip took us to the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is very difficult to explain what this city is like. Goma has been decimated by 20 years of off-and-on warfare.

Despite a fragile peace that now exists, it did not take many hours of being in Goma to realize that the only hope for its future lies in breaking the cycle of vengeance and retaliation. Our Heaven’s Family partner in Goma, pastor Simeon Muhunga, is a very courageous prison chaplain who works tirelessly with his team to foster forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ—to both victims and offenders.

Simeon Muhunga, left; Luanda and Monique, right, all faithful ministers in Munzenze Prison

Theirs is a daunting task, as almost everyone in Goma has had a family member raped, murdered, or imprisoned. Much of their ministry is directed towards the perpetrators of these crimes who are now incarcerated in Goma’s Munzenze Prison. When prisoners there repent and believe in the Lord, the groundwork is laid for reaching out to the offended parties to bring forgiveness and restitution.

We met with many women in Goma who told us stories of being raped, having their husbands or children murdered, and of being forced to flee from their homes. We also listened, however, to many heart-wrenching stories of criminals repenting and victims forgiving them—and who are now living in harmony with those they had so cruelly wronged. This incredible work could only happen because of the persistent efforts of the Holy Spirit working through Simeon and his team as they present the power of the gospel!

Some of the women whose husbands had been murdered who shared their testimonies of forgiveness and reconciliation

Carole and I were given permission to go inside Munzenze Prison twice to minister to the inmates. It is a shocking place, incomparable to any prison in the Western world. Thanks to our Heaven’s Family donors, however, we were able to bring some blessing, taking with us several hundred pounds of corn, beans, flour, oil and other food items. Because the inmates consider themselves lucky if they receive one rationed meal a day, they greatly appreciated our gifts of food! We also donated much-needed medicine that will save many lives.

Loading sacks of food and supplies to take into Munzenze Prison

Carole and I also attended a church service at Munzenze attended by about 700 inmates. We had a great time in the Word of God, and many repented and made decisions to follow Jesus. Praise the Lord for the opportunity to minister the hope of the gospel in such a horrible place!

Carole was given opportunity to minister directly to the female prisoners—whose children are often imprisoned with them. Although kept separate from male prisoners, the women and children are still vulnerable to rape, as well as disease and malnutrition. We felt privileged to minister encouragement and hope to those women and their children on behalf of you who prayed and gave so that we could serve them.

Carole also met with three pregnant female prisoners who will be delivering their babies in the prison, and with very little medical attention. She gave those desperate women food, cooking supplies, and much-needed personal hygiene items.

Heaven’s Family has partnered with Simeon to continue Jesus’ work of reconciliation and forgiveness in Goma. Even as he and his team struggle with their own poverty, their work shines like a bright light in a very dark, hellish place. The needs are great, but God is greater! Thanks, on behalf of everyone who has benefitted, for your contributions to the Prisoners Fund. Your gifts are making a difference in the lives of prisoners who will thank you in heaven.

Ministering to “the least of these” in Jesus’ Name,

Bob Collins
Director, Prisoners Fund

The Holy Spirit moving on the men at Mbalmayo Prison

Dear Friends,

Carole and I have returned from our trip to Africa with many good reports of God’s amazing work. In fact, there are so many good things that there isn’t enough space in this update for them all! For this reason, I’ll divide it into two parts. This update will focus on Cameroon, which was characterized by repentance and conversion. Next month, I’ll tell you about D.R. Congo, which was characterized by forgiveness and reconciliation.

In Cameroon we met with pastor Emmanuel and his two associates who are the chaplains with Bread for Life, a ministry that Carole and I have had contact with for many years. Pastor Emmanuel, pastor Lobe, and pastor Paul minister full-time in the many prisons around Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon. They evangelize and mentor inmates and plant churches inside the prisons. All three chaplains are very poor, yet they have established a great work for God with what they have.

Bread of Life Ministry asked us to help conduct evangelistic meetings over several days in three different prisons in and near Yaounde. Akonolinga Prison was our first stop. Pastor Emmanuel already had a good church established in this prison of about 250 men. We brought several hundred pounds of beans and corn along with soap and medicine for the inmates. After I preached the message God had given me, 55 men repented and believed. We were overjoyed at the work of the Holy Spirit!

Pastor Elom, pastor Lobe and pastor Emmanuel, left; repentance and faith at Akonolinga Prison, at right

Our next stop was Mbalmayo Prison. At that meeting, I gave a clear and sobering invitation to repent and follow Jesus. Out of 450 men present, the Holy Spirit then brought 150 to repentance and faith!

As a result, the church inside this prison was strengthened with many new converts. Carole and I also strengthened pastor Emmanuel’s reputation with the warden, simply because we are Westerners—a rare sight in those parts. The warden and inmates were all very happy to see the 220-pound sacks of beans and corn, as the government feeds them only a single rationed meal a day. They also appreciated the medicine we gave them.

Our final stop was Central Prison of Yaounde. Although this is a minimum security prison for inmates who have shown good behavior, the warden did not like Christian ministry in his prison. Our gifts of much-needed food and medicine, however, softened his heart enough to let us in, and he attended our meeting, too. Little did he—or the rest of us—know that God would speak to him during the message. Afterwards he stood and gave a testimony of how God had impacted him! As a result, he gave pastor Emmanuel an open door to minister in this prison and provided a separate room to start a new church inside this prison. Look what the Lord has done! Sunday morning we returned to dedicate the new church!

The warden giving a testimony of how God touched him, left; at right, the first meeting of the new church leaders!

I am so overjoyed at what God did on this trip, opening the door for even more ministry in Cameroon. Your faithful gifts to the Prisoners Fund made this possible. Please know that all of you who prayed and gave to this effort are one with us. You might not be able to go and do this work, but through your support we will go for you. Your reward waits for you in heaven! Thank you for your hearts of obedience to Jesus.

In service to Him,

Bob Collins
Director, Prisoners Fund

Prisoners in chains at the Yayachu work camp in Myanmar

Dear Friends,

I’m currently traveling in Africa, visiting several prisons, and when I return I’ll have many stories to share in the coming weeks and months. But this month, I’d like to share with you the following story from my visit to Myanmar in 2005. -Bob

“Many men died there,” John Siam told me as he pointed out the bus window to a large rock quarry on the side of the hill. The gravel “highway” we were traveling on from the capital city of Yangon to Mandalay was crushed—by hand—from rocks that came from that quarry.

The labor came from one of many prison work camps in Myanmar. The prisoners who worked on the road I now traveled on have, I was told, this saying about their harsh labor: “If the corpses of prisoners who lost their lives working on the Yangon-to-Mandalay Express Highway were lined up it would be longer than the road.” So many lost their lives on the project that it became known as “The Road of No Return.”

Thanks to Heaven’s Family national missionaries John Siam and David Seth, however, some prisoners are now on the “road to life.” They regularly take the love of God to the Yayachu work camp near the city of Kalaymyo, where David Seth lives. Most of the prisoners there are nominal Buddhists, but their horrible living conditions make them very receptive to the gospel. So far, John and David have baptized 31 new believers in the prison.

John wrote in a recent email that the guards at Yayachu have given David Seth favor and he wants to begin Sunday services so he can disciple the new believers there. He needs a guitar and a motorbike to continue this ministry. The guitar [$50] will allow him to bring praise and worship into the prison, and the motorbike [$800] will allow him and his helper to travel the 106-mile roundtrip to the prison. Currently he has to rent a vehicle, and it uses a lot of fuel. If the Lord leads you to help meet these needs, please let me know.

Our Heavens Family national missionaries preaching the gospel and baptizing in Yayachu prison

Thanks in part to your obedient and faithful gifts to the Prisoners Fund many souls are now on the road that takes them to the Kingdom of God, giving new and lasting hope to the prisoners in Yayachu work camp!

Thank you for your support to help “the least of these” in prison,

Bob Collins
Director, Prisoners Fund

Men waste away in Munzenze Prison, awaiting some hope before they die

Dear Friends,

Quick question: What do doors, electricity, and mattresses have in common? Answer: They are all comforts most of us take for granted, but which haven’t been in Munzenze prison—a place some call Hell on earth—until very recently.

Located in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa and built in the 1950s to house 150 inmates, the crumbling structure now bursts at the seams with over 900 men. They sleep on dirt floors, and the smell of urine and disease is said to almost suffocate visitors. Many inmates are dying.

Simeon Muhunga, a Heaven’s Family partner who ministers in this prison, tells me that the government sporadically issues a small ration of food for the inmates, but if they do not have family or a church to feed them, they slowly starve to death. Besides slow starvation, many suffer from dysentery, malaria, and other fatal diseases.

We believe that this prison is a place where Jesus would go and minister hope, love, healing and salvation to all who would come to Him. That’s why Heaven’s Family is joining with Simeon and his team to minister to the basic needs of these prisoners and bring them the Good News of Jesus Christ, the only one who can truly set them free. Gifts to the Heaven’s Family Prisoners Fund help make this work possible. Our prayer is that many will come to a saving knowledge of our Lord before it is too late.

As director of the Prisoners Fund, I and my wife Carole plan to go to DR Congo next month to visit inside this infamous prison. We will be bringing food and medicine but, most importantly, we will be going in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring hope, healing and salvation through his gospel. Please pray that many will be saved.

Thank you so much for your support of “the least of these” in prisons.

Blessings,

Bob Collins
Director, Prisoners Fund