Prisoners across the world heard the good news in 2015 thanks to a successful Christian course.

Alliance member Christianity Explored Ministries' (CEM) and Prison Fellowship International's (PFI) evangelism tool The Prisoners Journey is now running in more than 100 prisons in 11 countries.

20,000 inmates were reached with the gospel in 2015 through the programme, which is at the heart of PFI's strategy to reach one million prisoners with the Christian message by 2020.

Since its launch in January 2015, The Prisoners Journey, which we reported on last year, and within which the Christianity Explored course is a key component, has been used in 103 prisons in countries.

There are an estimated 10 million inmates in 22,000 jails across the world, and it's hoped more will be reached in 2016.

Daniel, a prisoner in South Africa who completed the course, said: "A lot of people who are not believers are taking part in it, especially in my cell. Even inmates that I used to invite to church and were not accepting my invitation joined this program."

The course is already running in Nigeria, Australia, Singapore, Spain and Brazil, with nine more countries joining the programme in 2016 - Portugal, Honduras, Malta, Albania, Kenya, Zambia, Swaziland, Togo and Burkina Faso.

Ian Roberts, chief executive of CEM,said: "We've been thrilled how the prisons edition of Christianity Explored has already been embraced by chaplains and volunteers in the United Kingdom and beyond. We are even more delighted that our partnership with PFI is bearing fruit in a similar way."

PFI was founded in 1979 and its network of 45,000 volunteers currently undertakes monthly prison ministry with 2 million inmates in 3,700 prisons in over 120 countries.

You can find out more about the ministry and the course here.