This blog is about a cool experience that happened back in October while we were in South Africa. There are a few older stories from my Race I still want to tell, so I will postdate them for anyone in the future attempting to read my blog in order. And the blog titles will always start with a hash mark (#).
Posted on July 5, 2013
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“What kind of prison are we going to?” It was too early for me to think clearly, but excitement began to set in for our prison ministry. Amie, Rich, and I were lucky enough to be on the road heading to a prison with Catherine (one of the missionaries at MCV) and Pastor Surprise.
Pastor Surprise flashed his signature grin. “Today, we are going to Maximum A in Barberton.”
“You mean, like maximum security??” I was both caught off guard and confused.
“Yes. Barberton has the toughest criminals from all over South Africa. Some get sent here from Zimbabwe and Mozambique as well. And Maximum A is where the people are sentenced 40 to 100 years.”
Wow. Apparently our prison ministry was not going to be at some podunk prison for petty crime. The idea of serious business woke me up pretty quickly. At this point, I did not even know what prison ministry would look like, or really who Pastor Surprise even was.
After a good hour and a half of navigating various South African highways, we arrived in Barberton and continued along a road that became more and more desolate. Finally we got to the prison complex and Surprise parked his car among a sea of prison guard vehicles.
The local pastor was there to greet us and carefully escorted us through a large gate with a handful of guards. Then we proceeded through the gates of two parallel electrically charged razor wire fences that stood twenty feet tall and twenty feet apart. Admiring the security of the prison, I thought we were completely inside, but then noticed we were just on the property. To get into Maximum A, we had to advance a hundred yards through a guard station and series of six locked iron gates.
Finally we entered the outside yard, where a large group of inmates in vibrant orange jumpsuits was spending their outdoor time. Almost everyone took notice of us immediately and I had the eerie realization I was the only white male. On top of that, I was with two white females, but guards were plastered everywhere. Surprise continued to march onward with the other pastor in an untroubled manner, enthusiastically greeting the inmates with firm African handshakes. A few of them extended their hands out to me as well and I hesitantly shook them in return with a forced smile. Dear Jesus, please don’t let me get shanked here.
The dull cafeteria was packed full of eye-straining orange jumpsuits. Apparently, the prisoners were well informed of Pastor Surprise’s visit because at least sixty of them were eagerly awaiting our arrival. As we were escorted to a row of chairs in the front, loud worship broke out.
Suddenly, I realized something was very special in that place. A passionate contrast emerged, much like the energetic orange shade that overpowered the dingy grey walls as people continued to enter. Deep African voices blended together in a rejoicing chorus of worship I could not understand, but did not need to. There was freedom in that place, and it was clearly felt through the prisoners’ deep emotional expressions of worship.
I could hardly fathom the choices these men made to warrant them being locked up for the rest of their lives in a maximum-security facility, but they were able to express more freedom than I have ever felt any church’s worship in the United States.
This irony still baffles me to this day. Did I really grow up with more freedom than these men could ever imagine, but experience religious captivity in place of the paradoxical freedom they had? Did I truly know what freedom meant in a relationship with God?
After more inspiring worship, or group was asked to share any thoughts we had. Jeremiah 29:11 immediately popped into mind, so I walked up to the microphone and recited it, along with my observations on the freedom seen in that place.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
This verse can promote a culturally damaging prosperity gospel, but these men really had hope and freedom from the Lord, even amidst a seemingly bleak future. The prophet Jeremiah wrote this encouragement to those who were exiled from Israel and also in a lifetime of captivity.
Too many Americans lack the same prosperity and success that these men had in what I saw as true freedom. There is a much deeper sense of freedom outside of its physical façade that can end up meaningless and damaging to how we see God, others, and ourselves. In the long run, a lack of spiritual freedom can bring more captivity than these men had in the physical sense.
Pastor Surprise was then introduced as a famous international speaker, and we learned that he’d just returned from speaking engagements in Israel and Korea. He added to the freedom motif, even repeating Jeremiah 29:11 to everyone, and he spoke forth with boldness from the Lord, commanding more focus and respect than I was ever able to get from any classroom I student taught.
Pastor Surprise (Photo taken off of his website.)
(You can't really bring a camera into a maximum security prison…)
At that point, we had just started working with Pastor Surprise, but we learned more about him as the month passed by. Since he is such a humble guy, we had no idea how crazy his life was until one of his friends gave us copies of his biography. His story still blows my mind to this day:
As a young boy, he grew up in a Mozambican village with two parents who were tribal witch doctors. One night as a teenager, he heard a voice telling him to run away or he was going to die. He left with his friend and they survived alone in the jungle for two weeks, eventually crossing the border to Malawi and finding a man waiting for them. The man had heard from God that they were coming and that he needed to give them a home and share the Gospel with them. After living there six weeks, Surprise went on throughout Africa as a young ambassador of Jesus to bring communities together, plant churches, and experience ridiculous things I cannot even wrap my mind around.
In his lifetime, Surprise has helped start over 15,000 churches in Africa, he speaks 17 languages, and he now has a family. He is very well known internationally and travels the world as a speaker. It was such a blessing to be able to work with him and tag along for incredible experiences like the maximum-security prison ministry. It was there God began to show me what freedom looked like, and it was not in anyway I had expected. Good thing he is the one who knows the plans for me and my future.
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If Surprise’s story interests you or you just want to read a dang good book, I highly recommend you check his story out: A Voice in the Night. It is well worth buying, but most libraries should be able to request it as well.
