My name is Cameron Watt and I am 33 years old. I probably seem fairly ordinary. I attend St Paul’s, Castle Hill and am married to Rachel, with four kids: Chloe, Josiah, Abigail and now Noah, born January 5. I may have grown up in a normal ‘religious’ house but the way God has worked in my life has been far from typical.

At age 15 I attended a charismatic convention in Adelaide and was led to the Lord under the teaching of Winkie Pratnie and Tony Campolo. By 26 I was deacon in a church, married with a child and was the acting head of a Christian financial organisation. It was then that I made sinful decisions that led to my being sent to jail for two-and-a-half years for “obtaining an advantage”. By the time I was sentenced to jail we had two more children, the youngest being only three-and-a-half months old. I was scared because everything I knew about jail was what I had learnt from American movies. I was scared for my wife. I couldn’t imagine how she was going to survive. I was worried about how my friends and family were going to react.

The pastor at my previous church supported us through the entire process. I stood before the members of my old church weeks out from the court case and admitted all that had happened and spoke of possible consequences. Whilst this was a really hard thing, all of the church stood united behind us and cried and prayed with us before, during and after the event. We never received any openly negative responses. However one of the hardest things for Rachel was when she saw people we knew who had not heard about what we’d been going through. I think Rachel dreaded these conversations more than most things, and started to shut herself off from people.

Upon entering jail, many Christian family and friends reminded me time and again about Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28. I felt like telling all the well-wishers that perhaps they could come and spend some time in jail with me and still believe in those two verses. I thought that God had forgotten me. I was sure that God, despite my prayers and repentance, did not want anything to do with me. But little did I know, “What man intended for harm God intended for good” (Gen 50:20). But in amazing ways my opinion changed and I saw that God had a plan for me in all this.

Prior to jail I was a very timid Christian and had found sharing my faith almost unbearable. But early in my sentence I was surrounded by some fairly ‘heavy’ inmates and the question, “You’re a Christian aren’t you?” was posed. I was trying to work out how to get out of answering the question. I didn’t want to be ashamed of God but I also didn’t want trouble by admitting my faith. I think God dragged the word ‘yes’ out of me and so started a period of evangelism amongst inmates and officers that brought me privately before the leaders of bikie gangs, murderers, heads of drug rings and before senior officers sharing Christ.

I had inmates coming to my cell late at night, sometimes even the middle of the night, waking me up to talk about faith and asking for prayer for the members of their family. I got to preach at some chapel services and Kairos services.

This ministry in jail brought many people to consider their lives and I was privileged to lead quite a number to the Lord while challenging many more to consider their lives and eternity. God had released a speaking ministry into my life that was used amazingly in jail. This all coming from a man who was afraid to share the gospel prior to entering jail – truly this must come from a God who is able to exceed all we can imagine.

I started studying theology at the School of Christian Studies whilst in jail and continue studying to this day. I look forward to full-time ministry in the future. At present we are sharing our experiences with many different people. I will share in the jail at a Kairos event on February 5, a major miracle as I am still technically on parole.

I think there will never be a day that I don’t wish that there had been a different way for God to have taught me all that he did. I do still feel the pain of committing the crimes. But God used this time of punishment to change many areas of our lives that were not honouring him. We grew in trust and can confidently testify that God cares for us, even when we do things that displease him.

Rachel and I love sharing our testimonies to show what God can do even in the midst of hopelessness, and challenge the thinking of people who are free from man’s jail yet completely imprisoned to this world.