Waking to a New Direction

She was falling--descending far into the bottom of the earth.  There she saw men bound in shackles and chains.  She prayed for them and watched as their chains snapped open and fell to the ground.

It was this vivid dream that led Fay Clarke back home to Guyana and into prison ministry. At the time, Fay was enjoying a successful career in aviation management in the United States, where she and most of her family had emigrated years before. It was a lucrative career far from the poverty and lack of opportunity she had experienced in Guyana.

But the dream and the events that followed gave a new direction to her life. She knew the dream held a special meaning, especially after she met some Christian ex-prisoners who introduced her to the Kairos Prison Ministry.  She joined them, making regular prison visits during which she began to sense a prodding to return to Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.  Over the years Guyana‘s depressed economy and rampant violence has led to widespread emigration, while those who stay face unemployment and poverty. Yet at a time when most of her friends had left the country, Fay moved back to Guyana in order to serve the Lord in prison.  Advocating a “holistic approach” to prison ministry, Fay soon became Guyana‘s first female chaplain and was later appointed the first female assistant superintendent of prisons as a staff welfare officer. She was overwhelmed by the need in the prisons - overcrowding, filthy conditions, disease and the lack of food and medical treatment. “I saw the faces in my dream when I looked at those prisoners,” she recalls.

Working with the director of prisons and local churches, Fay helped begin the Prison Fellowship ministry in Guyana. As PF Guyana‘s Executive Director, Fay brought her holistic approach into the PF ministry by creating the “Prisoners of Purpose” initiative,a comprehensive training programme for inmates. Nine-months of special training classes focus on life skills, biblical studies and job training. In addition, the prisoners are encouraged to explore their feelings through literacy by writing short stories and poems. A number of graduates are then selected to
enrol in advanced leadership and discipleship training classes that include courses in theology and Christian living. Upon completion of advanced training the graduates are commissioned to each other prisoners.  The results have been exceptional. 

Before the programme began the overcrowded prison had been the scene of frequent violent altercations, which often resulted in death. Today prison officials report that a dramatic transformation has taken place in the units where these classes were implemented a few years ago. “Many officers who formerly doubted that criminals can change are themselves testifying to the many changes they have witnessed,” Fay remarks. Since the programme has been implemented,

Fay has seen some of her former students become active in local churches upon their release.  When asked if she has any reservations about having left her profitable career in the United States in order to take up the call to prison ministry amid the difficulties she faces in Guyana, Fay says she has no regrets at all.