From Blantyre Missionary to Belmarsh Chaplain

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Written November 2023

 
We first met in the 1980s when I visited Malawi where he and his physiotherapist wife were based.  It was principally to explore the needs of disabled persons during the International Decade of Disabled Persons 1983 – 1992 and whether there was something The Salvation Army, with its experience with disabled children in neighbouring countries could and should offer.
 
A few days together and I soon heard his story. He'd grown up in Malawi, the son of an agriculturalist sent out during British rule. He'd then qualified as a lawyer in London. It was as a committed evangelical Anglican that he'd experienced an overwhelming calling to offer his service to the Army. They took little persuading to be convinced, and with two years of training completed he was back in Malawi consolidating the army's embryonic work there. 
 
He recounted stories of days at a time visiting congregations and spearheading growth. He was in Livingstone country, doing the kind of work the famous missionary had in mind - breaking the legacy of slavery.  But evangelism and church-planting were his emphasis.
 
The recurrence of his wife's breast cancer brought their Malawian years to an end and he was back in London supporting her and their young family through the end stages of her illness. His work as part of an editorial team seemed just coincidental.  But was there perhaps a role for someone with a legal background as a prison chaplain? And now after decades of chaplaincy work, including years in one of England's top security prisons, he can tell stories of visiting detainees in single cells or together; of listening and more listening, and that in spite of his significantly impaired hearing; of worship services and Bible studies; of confessions and conversions; of friendships with other chaplains forged across denominations and faiths.
 
He's remarried, his wife deeply involved in work in the field of modern slavery. That's different from what was happening in Malawi but the overall purpose is the same. Yes, Livingstone would have approved.
 
When my late wife spent her last five years in a nursing home - and in some ways that's not dissimilar from a prison and other forms of isolation, leprosy included - they were among a group of friends who came to see us. It was social isolation, if not social exclusion.  Again it was the visiting that mattered. 
 
Thank you, Lord, for those who come alongside us in the simplicity of a visit. 
 
October 2023