Jon Bellamy heard Ryan Cox's story.

Jon: This became a defining moment in your life spiritually, but before I ask you what happened, I'm interested to know what experience had to you had of God up to that point?

Ryan: I definitely believed in God, even though people around me was disagreeing with God, but I didn't understand nothing about God, I didn't know Jesus.

Jon: Had you ever been into a church? Did anybody ever talk to you about Christianity?

Ryan: No, apart from my R.E teacher I suppose, but I didn't take nothing in back then.

Jon: So what happened to you spiritually in prison?

Ryan: I went to Dovegate prison. I was about halfway through my sentence and I was talking to a Chaplain, Sandy Hicks. I was upset about stuff and she'd just come to comfort me and she says, "Can I introduce you to a friend?" I thought she meant another chaplain, or counsellor. She goes, "It's Jesus" and I was like, "You're flippin' crackers". Then she goes, "Come to chapel, Sunday, come see what it's all about." I thought to myself, "You've got nothing to lose", so I went along and gave my life to Christ that Sunday.

Jon: What happened that morning in the chapel?

Ryan: As soon as I walked into the chapel, I saw all these prisoners and I usually feel a bit of intensity there, but I felt peace. Everyone was smiling and laughing with each other and I just felt peace. There was some worship and I listened to the teacher and Sandy come and spoke to me after, she goes, "What do you think to that?" and I was like, "Pretty good, that was brilliant." So I said the Lord's Prayer in the chapel and then I've never turned back since.

Jon: That was halfway through your sentence. What was the rest of your sentence like?

Ryan: There's quite a few lads off my wing that went to chapel as well. It was a nice break for me as well on the wing. I started talking to more lads and my personality come out a bit more and I just felt peace and protected. I walked around the wing with the Bible on my hands some of the days and I got some looks and I thought, but it's a book you know, it's no different from you carrying your newspaper around or something.

Jon: Did you start reading it more there?

Ryan: No, I couldn't read, but it felt like my security blanket. I couldn't read, so I started doing a lot more education in prison and learnt to read and write. So the words I could understand. I had to use one of them screens for dyslexia. I had one of them and my reading got better and better and then the more my reading got, the better I could read my Bible and now my reading's pretty good. My writing's still upside down and back to front though.

Jon: Did your relationship develop with Jesus in those three months?

Ryan: Definitely. I was praying for my daughters, I was praying for my family and I was praying for myself. I wondered if I could keep it up after I came out of prison and I have. I had a little shout and cry at God, but it's ok, we're cool.