HILMAR, CA (August 14, 2006) – When Dan Johnson showed up at an Egyptian jail, the prisoner grabbed Johnson in a hug and wouldn’t let him go. So Johnson, associate pastor of Hilmar (California) Covenant Church held on and returned the hug.
The embrace had been years in coming.“Jakob was just so excited,” explains Johnson. “He couldn’t believe we would come all that way to see him.”
Inspired by an International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church eight years ago, Johnson began writing prisoners and government officials as well as praying monthly with about 20 other church members.
“I had never received back anything,” he says.
But two years ago, Johnson received four large boxes of intricate beadwork, paintings, and cards from two prisoners in the Kanater Men’s Prison outside of Cairo, Egypt. They had been incarcerated roughly 18 years of a 20-year sentence on drug smuggling charges but had become Christians shortly after being imprisoned.
The two prisoners—Martin Oky and Jakob Emeto—create the artwork, which they sell to support themselves. Egyptian inmates must raise money for all their needs, including food, clothing and personal items, Johnson says.
“Their work is amazing,” he adds. “It’s like something you’d find in one of those high-end stores like Neiman-Marcus.”
Within a matter of months, the church had sold $500 worth of the crafts and subsequently raised a total of $3,000 Johnson says. During the time, he was mailing the prisoners regularly.
When Johnson took a sabbatical with the organization Bridges for Peace in Israel, he decided to visit the inmates. With the help of Christians in Egypt, he was able to travel to the prison, located in the “the middle of nowhere.”
The hugging began as soon as Martin and Jakob entered the room. Martin was excited, Johnson says, but “Jakob would not physically let go of me the entire time.”
The visit lasted 90 minutes rather than the 20 to 30 normally allotted, says Johnson. “That’s unheard of,” he adds. The time together was overpowering.
The joy in the prisoners’ lives despite confinement in such an oppressive environment, humbled Johnson.
“I would be suicidal,” he says. “These guys—their faith has sustained them.” Johnson adds, “Prayer is key to their existence.”
Martin and Jakob, both Nigerians, are housed among 300 foreign inmates in their section of the prison. Four hundred Egyptians are held in other buildings. The two are part of a fellowship group of 24 people, Johnson says.
The men meet together in small groups during the week, and then gather for hours on Sunday to share what God had been doing in their lives and to sing “like in a house church,” Johnson says. Afterwards they fix a meal that has served up to 80 prisoners and the guards. The men buy food at a store in the prison and cook by running heating wires through a brick.
The meal is one of the ways the Christians try to witness their faith, Johnson says. They are intent on being obedient and compassionate, sharing food with prisoners who can not afford their own, and even giving Christmas gifts to the guards.
Martin will be released in September, and Jakob in October. Both hope to do mission work when they are released. During the meeting, Jakob told Johnson, “Daniel, you have brought me out of death! Today I am free! I am not a prisoner anymore. Yes I am in prison still, but I am really free!”
Jakob was anxious to get Johnson’s phone number. When the prisoner is released, he said, “I am going to the first phone and I’m going to call you!”
The meeting ended all too soon, Johnson says. The men who greeted each other with laughter and hugs, “sobbed” together, prayed and embraced again. The person who drove Johnson to the prison, “had to almost tear me away from them.”
“It was an experience I will never forget,” Johnson says.
Johnson says he came away with a greater understanding of the power of incarnation. “They need a real, physical touch from other people,” Johnson says.
Johnson doesn’t know whether he will have the opportunity to meet the two again, but he plans for the church to continue assisting them as they are released.
Jakob faces a new test of faith. Johnson received a letter from him Monday saying the prisoner must pay $1,700 in fines or could be jailed for another five to seven years. Johnson has not heard about the amount Martin will have to pay. Both will need to pay their way back to Nigeria.
For more information, contact Johnson by email at djohnson@hilmarcovenant.org or at Hilmar Covenant Church, PO Box 340, Hilmar, CA 95234.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
