A young man (John) recently showed up at missionary Eric Fair’s headquarters in Papua New Guinea eager to talk. Fair relates the story that John told him:

“You came to the jail on March 7, 2018 and sang a few songs with your guitar and preached to the prisoners. I was in the jail that day for armed robbery. You were the guys that gave me the tract after you preached that day.

“I was under so much conviction after the message and reading the tract that I told the Lord I wanted to give my life to Him. I tried my best to pray to Him and tell Him that I wanted peace... I asked God to take my life and use it because I wanted to follow Him and not Satan anymore.

“I knew I had wasted so many years of my life living for the devil, but I wanted God to take the rest of my life and use it. The police told me I would most likely get 75 years for my crimes.

“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I will never come out of this jail alive. I’m 31 years old now, so I would be 106 by the time I would be let out!’ The people in my village told everyone that I would be a dead man before I would be released.

“I realized that was the point where the Lord wanted me to be, because I would have never humbled myself to come to Him while I had an escape route.

“I had to appear before the courts 3 times. The first 2 times they had the hearing and said they would make the final decision at the 3rd court hearing. Well, I do not know how or why, but they released me before the 3rd hearing.

“After I gave my life to God, I would lead all the other 10 prisoners in my cell in morning prayers and a song service. I know God has given me this opportunity to live my life for Him now! I told the Lord if He ever gave me the chance to find the guys that came to the jail that day, then I would let them know what the Lord has done in my life and thank them too!”

Amongst all the many problems that we run into here, it’s definitely a huge encouragement to see some fruit from this ministry. After giving John a Bible and over 200 tracts, which is the same Chick tract that he read that day —This Was Your Life— we prayed together and made plans to meet in the near future.
In Christ,
Eric Fair