When Andrew Chan heard the fateful news he had lost his plea for mercy, he and fellow Bali Nine ringleader Myuran Sukumaran were taking the Norwegian ambassador on a tour of Bali's Kerobokan prison.

Sukumaran stoically proceeded with the tour. He detailed the programs he and Chan had initiated in the prison – the computer, art, painting, English and first aid classes – and the hygiene packs with basics we take for granted, including toothpaste, deodorant and ear plugs, that Chan regularly distributes to prisoners.

But Chan had vanished and his lawyer, Julian McMahon, was anxious about him.

"Julian went to look for him and found him with another prisoner whose arm was paralysed," says Christie Buckingham, a pastor at Bayside Church in Melbourne, who travels to Bali four times a year to visit Chan and Sukumaran.

"He was holding his hand, counselling him and calming him down while they waited for medical assistance. He could have easily thought of himself and nobody would blame him but that is the Andrew we know."

Michael Chan has not been able to speak to his brother since the news broke on Thursday – communication is restricted to prison visits. But the anecdote does not surprise him. "I think under the circumstances both of the boys are doing relatively OK. It's not something you deal with every day," says Michael, who is travelling to Bali in the next couple of days.

"For what they are going through they are probably doing a lot better than a lot of people on the outside (although) it sounds funny to say that."

Andrew Chan is completing a certificate four in ministry – a government-accredited course through Harvest Bible College in Melbourne. It's all very old school. Reverend Buckingham has been taking books to the prison and assignments are submitted via jail visitors or snail mail.

"I've been his supervisor and I've been blown away … he's never once asked for an extension," Reverend Buckingham says.

"The college has said that under the current circumstances he could have an extension and he said: 'You've got to be kidding, I don't want an extension'."

There is one extension that Chan does want, and that is to his life.

A spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney-General, Tony Spontana, said no decision had yet been made on when – or where – Chan and Sukumaran would be executed.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said both men were reformed characters who had rehabilitated other prisoners. "The prerogative of mercy should be extended to them," he said in a statement released on Friday.

He and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop "would continue to make every possible effort through the most effective channels to stop Sukumaran and Chan being executed".

Sukumaran painted Ms Bishop, whom both men have praised for her assistance, as part of the Kerokoban Prison exhibition held at Matthew Sleeth Studio in Brunswick last September.

It was bought by an anonymous donor who asked that it be given to Ms Bishop.

The painting is temporarily with Reverend Buckingham along with a painting of Chan that the Bayside Church board bought for their pastor, knowing how much he meant to her.

Reverend Buckingham says there has not yet been time to deliver the painting to Ms Bishop.

"I don't know how she is going to receive it if things don't go well," she says. "It will be haunting."