South Africa's most popular Christian band MIC are in Britain this summer. The band's Stephen Rothquel spoke to Tony Cummings.

Tony: You expected to get assaulted, did you?

James: Yeah. I could see the threat of violence was building up over the months; they would bring coshes into my compound, or catapults. I'd already had a catapult fired very close to my face. I'd been dragged into my cell; a couple of stonings; so I knew that it was getting closer and closer to violence. They'd pile into my cell and tie me up or cuff me. It never meant... violence is not a reason to stop the struggle and I knew they would end up suffering more from it than I did. Which is what happened.

Tony: That's the theory but the emotions of fear... nobody enjoys violence, nobody enjoys the pain.

James: It was more shocking than painful, and it was terrifying to have to keep pushing and there was no way I could have done it apart from prayer and absolute trust in God and that God had brought me there. God had protected me every single minute of every day. He'd shown himself so often to be looking after me in this hard time that I had to trust him. So long as I wasn't being unnecessarily provocative or unfair in my conflict with the regime then I had nothing to fear. Although you have to keep praying to focus on there. It was terrifying, but, you know, God had given me four years training in that region, saying, 'Yes, you will face frightening moments but have faith and you will overcome and the next day you will look back on that terrifying moment and think, "What was I afraid of?"' And read the Psalms! It's so true that you have nothing to fear from man, be afraid of the one who made you.

Tony: Were you aware of the publicity that was building up for you back in the West?

James: I had some idea because the consulate staff would tell me every month when they visited. That was very, very welcome. It was encouraging for me to think you're not forgotten, to keep going. And it was encouraging in that it was putting the whole Burma issue on the table. That was one of my main hopes of release, that the Junta, from the beginning, wanted and expected that they'd just throw me in a cell and that was the end of the story. But I knew otherwise. God is not going to give you a task that is more than you can cope with. So however hard it seems, just keep slogging on with it and when you need to be pulled out of it, God will, and did.