The Gangster Meets God
By Brenda Kiš
What does the fact that Jesus bore your sins and died for you mean to you personally? Find out how this precious truth impacted Meng. “When my fellow inmate hanged himself, it was a wake-up call for me. He had only one year left to serve, but Thai prison life was too miserable for him. Until now, I had spent seven years of my 46-year sentence unrepentant for my gangster life and a subsequent murder. I hadn’t cared if my actions hurt anyone or not, even when the prison guards nearly beat me to death, but now I spiraled into despair. Deep sadness and regret overwhelmed me. I, too, wanted to die.” Meng describes his journey into darkness with candor. As a Buddhist young man, he believed his experience in prison was karma for all the bad things he’d done in his short life. After his friend’s suicide, Meng was transferred to a larger prison where God had arranged a personal encounter with him. At the time these events were taking place in prison, Pastor Sone Faraimo, ASAP’s field supervisor in Thailand, was pondering Christ’s words “I was in prison and you came to Me.” Prison ministries were basically non-existent in Thailand, but Pastor Sone could not shake the thought that prisoners needed to hear the good news, too. He himself had been a prisoner once and he knew the needs in the hearts of shackled men and women. Approaching the non-Christian prison officials, he was met with skepticism and resistance. Inmates with whom Pr. Sone and his wife Suwadee attempted to share Bible studies reacted similarly. At first, only Christian inmates of other faiths expressed interest in these studies, but eventually Buddhists started to join the group as well. Soon they had a crowd of 50-60 prisoners in regular attendance.
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“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten….” Joel 2:25
