Pat Lewis, program manager of a Prison Fellowship faith-based reentry unit in New Zealand, held this belief dear to his heart: that the prisoners and ex-prisoners he passionately served were no different than he was, and must be treated as individuals worthy of dignity and respect.
“They are, after all, my brothers,” he told listeners at PF New Zealand’s national criminal justice conference.Backstage before his speech, Pat Lewis, program manager of a Prison Fellowship (PF) faith-based reentry unit in New Zealand, made some 11th-hour changes to his remarks. What he planned to say before, no one knows for sure, but his new speech hinged on a belief dear to his heart: that the prisoners and ex-prisoners he passionately served were no different than he was, and must be treated as individuals worthy of dignity and respect.
In 2003 Pat joined the staff of PF New Zealand—one of over 115 Prison Fellowship International affiliates. Before that, he spent over a decade working in New Zealand’s correctional system. With his passion for the transformation of prisoners, Pat was an ideal candidate to manage a new prisoner reentry program based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The program took place in a 60-bed unit at Rimutaka, one of New Zealand’s largest prisons.
Crisis in the Unit
Pat, along with dedicated PF New Zealand staff and volunteers, worked to help the 60 residents learn to live in Christian community. Progress came slowly.
Then an unexpected tragedy struck.
In 2004 Rex Hooper, a resident of the faith-based unit, was murdered by another inmate in the program. The remaining prisoners were shocked and sobered. Pat was close to despair and considered leaving the unit, but in that dark hour he found encouragement from others and decided to stay. The prisoners resolved as a group to leave behind the mindset of hardened criminals and follow Christ wholeheartedly.
A New Era at Rimutaka
The murder marked a new era—not just for the residents, but for the program as a whole. Pat and others realized that the unit needed more than strong programming. It needed to foster an authentic Christian community, one where the inmates took ownership of their own transformation.
New residents were surprised by the feeling. One of them said, “You can’t leave your mask on here, as hard as you try, because there are so many loving hands. They’ll make you feel at home.”By 2010, the unit had come a long way. Pat and Robin Gunston, national director of PF New Zealand, no longer referred to it as a “program” at all. They called it a “therapeutic Christian community”—a place with a healing atmosphere that emanated from inmates following Christ.
But Pat felt that God wanted to do more through the faith-based unit. He wanted his “brothers” to succeed on the outside, and he believed that to do that their sense of community needed to extend beyond prison walls. He encouraged the former inmates to band together as brothers.
An Unexpected Turning Point
It would take another tragedy to bring Pat’s dreams to fruition.
Early on a November morning in 2010, Barry Timms, PF New Zealand’s general manager, walked into the faith-based unit to share news that, as Pat’s “brothers,” the prisoners should be among the first to hear. The previous night, Pat had suffered a heart attack and died.
The men responded, as the staff had, with disbelief and sadness at the death of their 50-year-old leader and mentor.
But they also responded with astounding faith. At a special memorial service behind prison walls, prisoners stood up to testify to the transformative effect the faith-based unit had had on their lives. They talked for hours. And Pat’s casket was carried by poignant symbols of his legacy: six graduates of the program, now thriving outside prison, who had agreed to serve as pallbearers.
Hope Out of Despair
Just as God worked for good after the 2004 murder of a program resident, Pat’s unexpected death has also ushered in transformation.
Robin notes that, in the absence of the leader they loved, “[The inmates] are taking a lot more control and responsibility for making things happen.”
Outside Rimutaka, the men on the outside are beginning to look out for each other as brothers, as Pat prayed would happen.
Tonto left prison nearly two years ago. Today he works with youth and speaks to groups in an economically depressed area. “It’s what God wants me to do, to carry His work on from the faith-based unit outside,” says Tonto, who once felt adrift in his life.Recently two graduates, Michael MacGregor-Hay and Tonto Tuhoe, met with reentry manager Audrey Moonlight to talk about their progress beyond prison.
The conditions of Michael’s probation prohibit him from working right now. But he’s doing all the volunteer work he can at his church, and he started a running group that travels through the streets of Upper Hutt, singing praise songs and praying aloud. He is working with Audrey to develop a plan to start his own painting business that will employ other graduates from Rimutaka.
“I get what Pat was trying to do,” adds Tonto. “He knew that we struggle and get lonely. He knew that we needed to maintain that contact and stay together, because we could follow Christ or go the other way.”
Through the work of Pat and PF New Zealand, Tonto and Michael no longer feel labeled by their prisoner pasts. They feel like members of a Christian brotherhood, called to lead as they fulfill their potential to love God and one another.
