As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the world, concerns are growing about the impact in prisons – some of the most crowded places, where it would be incredibly difficult to contain it. Yet the God we serve watches over all these prisons, even as he watched over the prison where Peter was held before sending an angel to lead him into freedom (Acts 12:1-18).

For many years CSW has advocated for countless people who have been imprisoned unjustly, and our faithful supporters have joined us to campaign and pray for their freedom. Now the whole world is being shaken in a manner none of us have ever witnessed, and many things will change as a result. Who knows what incredible stories may come out of this pandemic? The fact that some prisoners have been released in Iran is already an answer to prayer! We’re told that before Peter was released, ‘the church was earnestly praying to God for him.’ (v.5)

Knowing that we worship a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), let us be bold enough to pray big prayers to our big God. Let us pray that no one will ever again be imprisoned because of their faith.

• Thank God for the release of several prisoners in Iran, either temporarily or permanently, due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in the prison system. These include people incarcerated due to their faith such as Fatemeh Bakhteri (Aylar), a Christian from a Muslim background who was serving a 12-month sentence after being found guilty of ‘spreading propaganda against the regime’.
• Ask God to provide adequate food for prisoners in Vietnam. In response to the pandemic, prisoners were not permitted to receive visits from their lawyers or their families, or to receive parcels of food to supplement the insufficient food they were given in the prison. Some are now able to receive visits and parcels, but others are not. Pray that all prisoners would be able to see their families and have enough food.
• Pray that the Eritrean authorities will respond to the UN Special Rapporteur’s call for vulnerable prisoners and prisoners of conscience to be released from Eritrea’s overcrowded prisons, to offset the spread of COVID-19. Tens of thousands of Eritreans are detained without charge or trial in appalling conditions, and last year alone more than 200 people were imprisoned because of their faith.
• Thank God for the wonderful stories from Early Rain Church in China, where several church members are in detention, on bail or under house arrest: ‘Sometimes they give hymns to the guards, sometimes they give food, sometimes they give the Bible…This is the way Christians express their love.’
• Finally, pray for those still in prison, and join us in a bold prayer, that the COVID-19 pandemic will fundamentally change the world so that no one will ever again be imprisoned because of their faith.

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