Andrew Chan's Testimony from Kerobokan Prison

The following transcript is Andrew Chan's testimony from Kerobokan Prison - it was given to me via a Pastor friend. Andrew has given permission for it to be shared.

"I grew up in a Buddhist family so didn’t know much about Christianity. On the day I was arrested at the Bali Airport on the 17th April 2005, I was taken from the plane and after a search and initial interrogation at the airport I was taken to the Police Station. They threw me into a cell on my own and were shouting at me. I thought they were going to kill me.

As I didn’t want to be tortured I decided to commit suicide and end my life. I was afraid that I might be tortured and I knew I couldn’t take it. I took off my shirt and tied it around my neck. I climbed up and tied the sleeves above me and was preparing to jump. It was then that I remembered going to Sunday School a couple of times with Luke, a close family friend, and I heard about
heaven and hell. As I was about to jump I knew that if there was a heaven that’s where I wanted to go and I certainly didn’t want to go to hell. So I became afraid to jump as I was afraid I would go to hell. I untied the shirt and climbed down.

The next day I asked the guard for a Bible. I just wanted a Bible. He spoke angrily at me in Indonesian and I didn’t know what he was saying. The following day I was called out of my cell, then I was given a Bible. It was a King James Bible. When I went back into the cell and opened the Bible it had Luke’s name and signature in it. I thought, “How’s this possible?” How could Luke know where I am and get a Bible to me so fast. I knew that Luke had become a very committed Christian.

Anyway, I started to read the Bible, beginning in Genesis chapters 1-2 but I couldn’t understand it so I put it down. The next day Luke came to the Police Station and saw me. He had flown in from Australia and he asked me if I had started reading the Bible. I told him I had but couldn’t understand it, so he told me to start reading the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So I read the four Gospels.

The next day Luke asked me, “Have you read the four Gospels?” I said I had, then he asked, “What did you get out of it?” I said, “I got nothing out of it.” Then, as he left, he said, “Well you better read them all again.” So I read them again. This went on for four days with the same question and the same answer. At the end of the 4th day Luke asked a different question: “Did you ask God to help you understand what you were reading?” I said, “No!” Then Luke threw down the challenge to me: “You pray and ask God to help you understand and if he doesn’t help you, then when I come back tomorrow, I’ll take the Bible back and we’ll throw it away!” But I said I didn’t know how to pray. I had never prayed before. So Luke explained that it was just talking to God and asking Him to help. So I did what Luke asked me to do.

This time, I had read the Gospel of Matthew and got as far as Mark chapter 11 and then God spoke to me and helped me to understand. In Mark 11 I read about two things that challenged my life.

The first was in Mark 11:12-14. “Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it."
My life had been like the fig tree and was dying. My life had meant nothing. There had been no fruit. It had been useless. But I felt God telling me He wanted to change my life, to turn it around and make it fruitful.

The second thing God spoke to me was about having unwavering faith in Him. He spoke to me through Mark 11:21-24, “Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

The Lord was showing me that all things are possible and that all I had to do was to believe in Him without wavering and that’s what I decided to do. Before the trial I began praying and telling the Lord, “If you get me out of this and set me free I will serve you forever.” Well, when the judge announced the death penalty I was in shock and I said to Luke, “I told the Lord I would serve Him forever if He would set me free,” and Luke began thumping me on my chest and saying, “He did set you free! In here, in your heart, He has set you free.” 

I then understood that I was free. I might be in prison, but in my heart I was free. I found a real salvation through Jesus Christ in prison, and the message of salvation in my life that I share with everyone can never be contained by the walls of the prison.

Andrew Chan, Death Row, Kerobokan Prison, Bali.