First Replies

  First replies.

It is the day after Boxing Day, and the postman has delivered two letters. I am strangely nervous about opening them and think I will wait until I can read them uninterrupted by my kids.

Just before I sent off my original letters, I mentioned to my husband that I was writing to some prisoners on Death Row. We didn't really discuss it much, but I have told him that I have had some replies. He is very nervous about me writing and very suspicious about the reasons behind people on Death Row wanting pen pals, and he doesn't understand why I feel the need to write. 

I find my reasons hard to explain, but these people (even though they may have done terrible things) are all alone with very little contact with others, often abandoned by even their families and this makes me feel an awful, desperate loneliness for them. As Christians we are taught that every sin can be forgiven if we truly repent, and even Christ forgave murderers. Saul of Tarsus at one time hated Christians, and was responsible for sending many of them to their death: "I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death" (Acts 22:4). Saul repented and converted and became who became the Apostle Paul, the greatest Christian who ever lived.

The guilty amongst those to whom I have chosen to write, appear to be repentant. The sceptics amongst us may say, they only appear to have found God, so that they may receive leniency or clemency, but in truth, neither of these will come just because the convicted has found The Lord. Yes, they may still fight for a stay of execution, but using other facts, not a conversion to Christianity. A belief in God cannot help them avoid their execution, but can offer some love, peace and comfort as they wait. 

When I told my husband that I felt the need to reach out and offer some comfort to prisoners on Death Row, he asked me why I couldn't reach out to those starving in Africa or dying in Africa due to the aids crisis. I guess the answer is because those people often have family and loved ones around them, and more people throughout the world willing to help them. Not so many people are willing to write to someone on Death Row, but upon reading some of the sad, desperate words of some prisoners, I felt compelled to write to a few and just extend the hand of friendship, and through a few kind words and a lottle compassion, provided a little light in that dark world in which they find themselves.  

It is strange how good it feels to receive a real letter from the postman in this technological age. It brings back all sorts of memories of when I was younger, before email and text messaging took over. I used to love getting proper letters from friends and family, and I remember the excitement of waiting for the mailman. I was with mixed feelings that I opened my letters, partly due to the unknown of the contents of a letter from a man on death row, and not knowing how my first letter would have been received and partly due to my husbands, shall we call it "lack of enthusiasm" for what I am doing.

I am not going to reveal the names of my pen pals, nor give any exact information of the things they write to me, as I feel that that is private and I would not wish to violate any sense of trust that may build up between these men and myself.