President of Prison Fellowship International, Ron Nikkel
Nepal: As president of Prison Fellowship International, Ron Nikkel treks to towns accessible only by foot. Outside one prison, he says, “I saw an inmate reaching his hands through the bars, and either giving or receiving something from a little girl in the streets. I thought, gee, that was odd, and I thought probably it was a kid bringing food to an inmate. But once I got inside I was approached by an inmate begging for help: ‘My daughters are in the street, I have been in prison for two years. My wife has left me, my two daughters are living in the street.’ He was giving his daughter a handful of rice to keep her alive.” Today, PFI runs a program offering housing and education to homeless children of prisoners in Nepal.
Australia: Nikkel met with sex offenders and victims who had participated in a PFI reconciliation program in which they told each other their stories. The victims told him of healing obtained from hearing the prisoners’ stories. The effect was even more profound for the offenders. Nikkel relates that one said, “Before, I’d get up in the morning, look in the mirror, feeling sorry for myself, and all I could see in the mirror was myself. Now when I get up in the morning and look in the mirror, I see my victim, and I weep.” He no longer saw his victim as a source of gratification, but as a living, breathing, feeling human being. Even the prisoner saw this as a change for the better.
