“I Thank God For Prison Because I Found God There”.

“I thank God for prison because I found God there”, said inmate Ipinge Nikanor. “I was deeply sad, but now I have received Jesus in my heart. There is joy in loving God”. These are the sentiments of a recent graduate of the Alpha Course held at Luderitz Prison.
The Graduation Ceremony of the Alpha Course in Leadership and Bible Studies was held on the 13th
of February and 50 inmates benefited from the programme. The course was run by Pastor Martin
Ganseb. Pastor Martin first began preaching in prisons in 2002. He was introduced to the Alpha
Course by Shane Porter in 2005 when it was first brought to Namibia. The Alpha Course was first
initiated in 1995 and it is a world-wide effort to bring God, “into prisons”. Pastor Martin began
teaching the course to the inmates of Luderitz prison in 2007 and has returned each year since to
give a two week long course on Bible Studies. Within the course there is also a special Leadership
Programme where some of the inmates can learn how to continue the cell group set up by the
Pastor during his time there. They are trained in pastoral care and ministry and trained how to lead
groups. The course itself was a voluntary, intensive two week long programme – 5 days a week,
9.00am until 3.00pm. In Bible Studies they read scriptures and discussed, “the questions of life”.
There was also counselling offered. Those following the Leadership Programme also had class on a
Saturday.

The Superintendent of the prison had this to say of the programme, “This programme was an
enormous task, so thank you to the Pastors and Sisters involved for the work they do. You can tell
when programme is in effect because the inmates are so compliant. Sometimes I even wish we could
put them in uniform and keep them here forever!”

There was a real sense of celebration and pride as the inmates went up one by one to receive their
certificates, for some they were the first in their family to have achieved something on paper. “You
will never be the same again after today”, said Sr. Elizabeth Wilskut, one of the course providers.
“Brothers, I’m so proud of you. Today is a celebration day. You will witness us dancing on the ceiling
later!” And I would have believed it! Pretty soon the entire congregation was up on its feet, singing
and dancing; praising their Saviour. Their singing was less than tuneful but there was an honesty and
a passion to it that made it beautiful. Members of the Spiritual Community also offered their
congratulations and advice for the future. Pastor Tony, amongst others, had this encouragement for
the graduates, “Outside there is a lot of temptation. I pray to God you can stay strong. But the fact
that you are here means there is hope for you. Always remember, God also wanted you to come
here. God wanted to use you here”. The entire ceremony was quite moving to witness and I wish
the graduates of the programmes all the luck in the world and hope they continue in their efforts
towards a, “radical change in (their) lives”.