Jonathan Bellamy heard Anthony Bostock's story.

These two guys were cleaners also and very quickly I found myself in a cell sharing the gospel with these two guys. They told me that their nans used to take them to church and it was okay and that we don't know if this is true, but tell us about what happened with you. They didn't receive the Lord that time, but I believe that God used me to water the seed that had already been planted in their younger years. Two days after this had taken place, I was then shipped to another prison.

Jonathan: How did your faith grow while being in prison? How did you mature?

Anthony: The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and that's how I made my faith greater. I ate God's word. I watched very little television, which was what I'd usually do in prison and is what most people do. I just read and read and read God's word and God romanced me, for want of a better phrase.

My faith started to grow in this time and God directed me to do some things that I wasn't very comfortable with, but I realise now that we've got a God who's always seeking to have us come out of our comfort zone. The first thing that he asked me to do in the new prison I was at, was to join the choir. The prison had tried to soften up the choir and they called it the singing group, but it was a choir, so I kicked against the goads as we do and said no for about three or four weeks, but God was persistent with me and everywhere I went, I'd be hearing these singing group auditions, or practices being fed out to the prison. So I joined and I was the only one there that wasn't somebody that was being bullied, or somebody that wasn't there for an ulterior motive for the chocolate and the tea that you got when you went along.

On the first day we had to sing in the Catholic Mass and I was the only one that turned up alongside two elderly women. I sung Amazing Grace in front of a lot of men that I would have never sung any kind of song, never mind a song to God and about His grace. God massively moved and I saw different men asking questions of, "Why are you doing that? You're switched on, you're one of the lads. We can tell that you're not like those other people over there that are involved in this singing group, the ones that hadn't got the guts to turn up to this, this morning. Why are you doing it?" It opened the door for me to share my faith and God brought these guys in one by one. Over a period of time the singing group grew and there wasn't just one of me, there was 10 of me.

Jonathan: Did some of those guys make decisions to follow Jesus too?

Anthony: Yes. One of the guys who made the decision is still in prison now and I'm looking forward to his release. He's been set on fire for the Lord. He loves His word and he's a born and bred evangelist, you can't shut him up about Jesus and the grace and love of God. Other guys came and went, which guys do.

So that's how my faith started to grow, as I feasted on God's word, received revelation from Him and then had the courage and boldness to step outside my comfort zone.

Jonathan: Earlier, you said God romanced you. That's a very intimate word to use. Can you explain that? How did Jesus romance you in prison?

Anthony: Men aren't comfortable using these kinds of phrases, but I'm comfortable in using that because I love the Lord. I often share with men in the church and outside the church that I'm just an ordinary bloke. I burp and fart and the odd swear word might slip out of my mouth when I'm getting a bit frustrated, or anxious and I'm trying to get things right all the time and failing most of the time. I'm just an ordinary bloke, but I love the Lord. When it comes to the Lord I absolutely love Him because He took me out of death and brought me into life. How could you not love somebody who has done that for you? And I have in Him the promise of eternal life.

The romancing thing is that He just lavished His love on me and He made that so real to me. "I love you, I love you, I love you", is all He kept saying. I saw God then as a perfect Father. So where my dad had failings, like I've got failings and everybody in the world has failings, I saw that God is my perfect Father. He started to counteract this relationship of fear that I underwent in my early years, with this relationship of love. It was a romancing time where a lovesick God came and took His beloved.

Jonathan: When you look back on that time, was there a sense that Jesus was changing the old and transforming you in a process and dealing with some of the baggage?

Anthony: Yes definitely. I think we're too quick to run away from those kind of things, because it hurts drudging up stuff. Prison is not a place that I'd advise anybody to go to. It's the last place that anybody should be looking to go at whatever age, or whatever stage of life you're in, but it was the perfect place for me to be, for the Lord to have intimate time with me, because for the majority of my time there I was locked behind a steel door on my own. Some days there'd be that much intimacy with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit and I'd feel His breath. I'd have to check if there was a window open, because I'd feel the wind of the Holy Spirit actually touching my face, or on the back of my neck. This was just how He was and another stage in how He was romancing me. Yes, He brought up a lot of stuff from childhood times. There was a lot of shame and a lot of guilt that I felt for the things that I did and that weighed heavy on me. He slowly started to release those things, as He does, in a drip feeding way. He slowly started to release me from those things and show me that He'd forgiven me and that it's only His estimate of me that really matters.

Jonathan: Before you went into prison that final occasion, you mentioned that you met a man called Simon Edwards. He'd started something called the Walk, so did you maintain connection with him while you were in prison?