In Memoriam

Patrick Brent Lewis, 1960- 2010

Pat died suddenly at his home on Sunday October 31^st 2010 creating a shockwave around the Prison Fellowship community from the faith based unit at Rimutaka Prison, to the staff and volunteers across New Zealand, to those men now released from prison that he was guiding in their journey of restoration, through to his international prison ministry colleagues in USA, Singapore, Australia etc.

His last words to me last Friday in our office epitomised the man and his passion to help those he had committed the last 7 years of his life to assist. “Boss” he said, “we have to sort out some places that the guys can go to on release- what we are doing to many of them when they come out is not helping them!”

Pat was a passionate man- he was passionate about his children, his sport- especially Rugby, his faith and his work alongside the men who had committed themselves to a walk of faith under his guidance.

Pat worked for Corrections at Rimutaka Prison for 16 years as a Corrections Officer, Sentence Planner and Criminogenic Facilitator. That gave him the perfect CV for the sort of person Prison Fellowship needed to be their Programme Manager at the newly formed faith based unit, He Korowai Whakapono (The Cloak of Faith) that opened in October 2003.

For the last 7 years Pat has ridden the “ups and downs” of working on the lives of over 200 men within the prison environment, alongside Corrections and PFNZ colleagues. He travelled regularly to other prisons to interview men with a view to their joining the journey in the FBU. Several years ago he took part in Prison Fellowship’s “Odyssey” management programme in Singapore and it was there that a lot of his international connections were made. From that have eventuated a number of overseas visits to the FBU from other prison jurisdictions who are interested in the model he and his other PFNZ colleagues have developed within the FBU.

Pat was working up until his untimely death on plans to extend  our faith based prison work into a complete throughcare model. We will honour his plans for this. He was the last speaker at the recent “Breaking down the Barriers to get prison numbers down” Conference and on the day of the speech intimated to me that he was going to change some of what he had planned to say. Those of you there heard his heart for all prisoners to be treated as individuals, with decency and respect “they are after all “he said “my brothers”.

The Pat Lewis Memorial Fund is being established in Prison Fellowship New Zealand to commence plans for providing suitable “halfway house” accommodation for men leaving the faith based unit and other units at Rimutaka Prison. If you would like to contribute to this please donate mentioning  “Pat Lewis”.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” 2 Tim 4 v 7