He smiled when we would have expected him to cry. He smiled when we expected him to hate. He smiled when we expected him to revile. Tshenuwani Simon Farisani is a leader in one of the churches in South Africa. As a leader he felt it his duty to take a stand against the official government policy of apartheid. Apartheid means apartness. It's about keeping the races totally apart and separate from each other. Fortunately, the policy of apartheid has just recently been abandoned in South Africa. The abandonment of this policy, however, came only after years of immense suffering by the peoples of color in South Africa.

Because he stood against apartheid, Rev. Farisani was imprisoned many times. He was arrested first in 1976. Police surrounded his house. First his feelings were that he felt himself to be totally outside of the protection of God. Indescribable fear filled his being. The police accused him of being a communist and a terrorist. Farisani was arrested and commandeered to a prison 1,000 kilometers from his home. Said Farisani: "My world came to an end. No company, no freedom of movement, no say about food ... I was a creature without rights, a non-being."

And he was tortured. Endlessly. He was taken to yet another prison and handcuffed and leg-ironed. He remembers only punches and kicks. His hair was pulled out. His beard was uprooted. He was thrown to the floor then commanded to stand. He was thrown to the floor again and on and on it went, the thunders of the blows punctuating his groaning. Then they dangled his body upside down out of a window. "Answer us or we will let you fall to the ground and scatter your brains everywhere," his torturers growled. "We'll tell the world that you jumped!"

In subsequent tortures over the years Farisani experienced electric shock and more beatings. He cried out to God in prayer and God finally sent what seemed to be angels to relieve him. In fact, he has said, God sent so many angels to comfort him that he urged God to send some of them to his cellmates.

God was with Rev. Farisani. So in the midst of this indescribable suffering he could sing, "I will walk tall in Jesus' name. Food with worms, I will eat tall. My wife, my children, congregations away, I will walk tall in Jesus' name. Wounds all over, I will walk tall in Jesus' name. Pangs of prison, I walk tall in Jesus' name. Tall fences around, I walk taller in Jesus' name!"

Rev. Farisani should have grown to hate these bloody torturers. But he did not. Instead, he began to pray for them. Only after he had prayed for them, he has said, did he realize how much his guards and torturers needed daily, serious-minded intercessions. To all to whom he has told his story he has asked for prayers of intercession for the security police.

And one day in prison he smiled. He exchanged a simple smile with one of his torturers in order to sow a small seed of love in a world of hatred and division. He smiled when he would have been expected to hate. He smiled when he would have been expected to revile. God had given him such peace in the midst of hate that he could dare even to exchange a smile. These are the smiles that change the world.