David Clarke was born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1949.
Thirty years after the author’s confession to Aylesburys Police, to many crimes, and his conversion to Christianity, he got news of his older brother, Michael John Clarke’s arrest, and prison sentence in the Philippines.
The author’s story of confession, was originally published as headline news in Aylesbury’s Bucks Herald newspaper, on the ninth of February 1971.
These brothers, David and Michael Clarke, were both well known young criminals, in Aylesbury, during the mid nineteen sixties. However After 5 years, of Michael’s, sixteen-year sentence, he too was convinced that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God, and he too became a Christian.
It was then, in September 1999, David decided to go on a mission of help to the Philippines. This was to bring help and relief to his brother. This part of the story was reported as news by Portsmouth News. Their story was also reported in The Oldham Chronicle, the town where the brothers were born.
David visited Michael in New Bilibid Prison, for the first time, in 2001. This prison being the National Penitentiary and Maximum Security Prison, in Asia’s Far East.
He visited Michael several times over the next four years, and the two brothers worked together, within the prison, with Religious Volunteers, and many prison inmates, seeking to help former criminals, in their own stages of rehabilitation.
The brother’s vision was to equip former converted criminals to Christianity, to return to their own villages, towns or Cities and preach the gospel, to their own friends and relatives.
The first inmate to be released, with this commission was William Ola Poloc, who in August 2002, returned to his own city in Baguio, in the Northern Philippines. This was after serving 14 years for homicide. Many other prison inmates, in New Bilibid Prison also testified, in their own handwritten accounts, their own stories of reformation, which David writes about in their book, Trojan Warriors, that contains 66 testimonies of some of South East Asia’s most notorious criminals.
But Sadly, Michael died of Tuberculosis in New Bilibid Prison before their vision of bringing help to many had been realized. Michael’s story was reported in the Eastbourne Herald, on 27th September 2012.
Since August 2002, William Poloc, the first of these prisoners to be released, has worked in Baguio City Jail and Benguet District Jails, working with inmates and former criminals, and founded several church groups, called Christ-Centered Churches, Inc. And a Theological Institute. David, the author, writes this story with a view to help many.
16th January 2021
5th September 2024
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