Transformed is an organisation founded by ex-offenders for ex-offenders. Its goals are simple: to serve those who are trying to escape from the crime and addiction subcultures.
It also seeks to encourage hope in the hopeless, to show a cynical world by stories of changed lives that Jesus is alive today, and to mobilise the wider church to do the same. In particular, it sees its calling to the mission field beyond (as opposed to behind) the prison gates.
YouTube and testimonies
From destitute addicts to international smugglers, muggers to murderers, prostitutes to career criminals, Transformed has seen and Jesus Christ changed them all. Often such people find no church which is suitable. So, Transformed meets monthly in Brixton and Southampton as a fellowship of ex-offenders, families and friends. One or two ex-offenders will share their testimonies at each meeting and, in the Brixton meeting, these testimonies are videoed and over 60 have been published on YouTube. There have been 20,000 channel hits so far, and 225,000 video views. 120,000 evangelistic leaflets have been printed and handed out all around Brixton and in many prisons.
Prisons in Australia have used the testimonies, as they have been able to make DVDs from the downloads, and prison radio stations in the UK have also aired some of the life stories.
Other than trumpeting the testimonies out into the world, Transformed has often become involved with people’s lives; within the group a considerable network of skill sets exists covering helping to find housing, rehab, discipling and so on.
Beginnings
The work started with Frank Brookes. As a young man, Frank became lost in hedonism, and came to Christ in 1972 through Arthur Blessit’s ministry in Birmingham. God gave him a passion for the lost and, after 20 years in the mission field with Operation Mobilisation, he became pastor of a small church plant in Brixton in 2000. He became aware of the needs in the area: Drugs, Abortion, Prison, Prostitution and Arabic people, and the church began to pray. These needs became known as the DAPPA agenda.
Through Frank’s prison ministry he began to build up contacts and outreach with ex-offenders who had become committed Christians and needed consistent and continuous support in their faith. Hence the dream for Transformed — and God brought helpers in from across denominational and social boundaries to fulfil it. There were a number of ex-offenders Frank knew. Then Tom Seidler, with IT skills (and a willingness to be an amateur videographer), bumped into him. Frank also met chaplains/workers in various prisons, a charity lawyer, a Sergeant in Lambeth Prolific and Priority Offender (PPO) unit and various other related organisations.
Family in Christ
Frank was 57 when the first meeting was held. Both he and Tom came from very small churches. But this was no problem. Frank saw it as the way God worked, using the weak things of the world and making them unexpectedly strong. Often visitors stayed with the project from the day they first turned up, and each person frequently introduced a few more, and the Transformed members grew as a family in Christ sharing the same concerns. Thus a loyal and large network of ex-offenders has come together — many of whom are already passionately involved in their own ministries or serving. They have been further strengthened to reach back to those still in the darkness they came from.
In 2010, Frank became ill with cancer, and a committee was formed which began to undertake some of the administrative burden. In March 2011, Frank died (leaving his wife Van and two daughters Olivia and Grace, aged 11 and 8). Before he departed for glory he appointed Tom to lead the work after him, serving the needs of Transformed with the committee, which has three other ex-offenders on it — Mandy Ogunmokun, Steve Rawlings, Noel McNamee. Frank was a real man of God and a great uniter of the brethren.
Fifth anniversary
Transformed would greatly value the prayers of Christian people that it may continue to serve its Christ-centred foundational purpose. ‘It’s not always been easy or “successful”’, said Tom. ‘But there have been many miracles of God’s grace in the lives of the lost over the years.’
The organisation hasn’t made it a priority to make itself ‘famous’ in the Church. However, it will be its fifth anniversary this October, and it is a good point at which to seek wider church partnership. The reasons for this are numerous: 1) the church is already in contact with a great many of the ‘target’ community; 2) Transformed can help the church to reach them more effectively, by making relevant testimonies available, and providing information on appropriate Christian support; 3) prayer is powerful and Transformed needs it to fulfil the very large dreams they have and to make an impact; 4) finances — Transformed believes that more of the church should have the opportunity to share in its ministry.
Needing professionals
Since 2006, Transformed has received about £5,000 in donations and three years in free labour from a relatively small crowd of volunteers who have given as freely as they received from Jesus Christ, so all glory to the God who saved them. Transformed has done as much as it can with this, but feels that its website has had its day — it was built when there were only a very few testimonies, and when it could not have imagined that there might one day be 60, let alone 200!
So everything about it is struggling, and the main focus is the YouTube channel. Transformed would like to get in a professional team to help build a premier website that will show related testimonies as well as available support networks, rehabs, etc., so that people can walk away from the site with as much benefit as possible. The experience Tom has gained as IT manager for The Good Book Company (his day job) since 1999 puts him in a great position to oversee such an ‘upgrade’.
Transformed’s aim is to make the name of Jesus famous for doing what he does best — ‘to seek and to save the lost’. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate place than Brixton in which Transformed could have grown: it is upon those living in the land and shadow of death that a Light has dawned.
http://www.transformed.org.uk
http://www.youtube.com/TransformedLives
