I know I have already mentioned some of our ministry at the local Prison during our time in Malawi. I honestly sit here still in shock of what God did in my heart for a prison and a whole bunch of prisoners. God surely brought us to that prison to show us how it was all His work and not our own.
Let me just take you back to the first day that we walked through town. We were passing the prison on our way through town and one of my teammates stopped and suggested that we go talk to some of the men that we standing outside. At this prison, men who didn’t have a horrible crime could exit the prison walls and many of them would sit outside the gate and watch the passing road. In Malawi, people can be arrested for many different crimes, sometimes for things they didn’t even do. Some of the people are arrested for something called vagabonding or wandering without a purpose after sun down. As we turned to head towards the men that were gathered outside, we also saw that there were guards outside the gate. We stopped at the guards to tell them what we were doing and tell them about Jesus too.
This day just so happened to be the very day that God had planned for us to be there because we just so happened to walk up to the very guard who held the position of Prison Chaplain. This was the only day that this guard was working in all the times that we walked through town and this was the day the Lord had set apart. We introduced ourselves and continued to build a relationship. Upon our departure that day, Joshua (the prison chaplain) asked us to return to preach to the prisoners again.
We left with hopeful hearts that we would return, but left it in the Lord’s hands to work it into His plans. Well, a couple of days later, God lead us back to the prison. We didn’t prepare anything to preach on or even hold any ideas of what our time would look like. None of us had preached in a prison, or even done ministry with prisoners before, so we left it in God’s hands yet again.
A guard on duty called the chaplain to come to the prison, so we waited. Upon his arrival, we greeted him and then entered the prison gates. We walked through the main corridor, passing by a huge metal gate that stood between numerous prisoners and us. We turned the corner and saw a small nook filled with benches of prisoners. This small quaint area looked like a mini church awaiting it’s guest speaker for the day.
Our friend Gift listening to the Word of God during one of our visits
We sat down, glanced at one another, took a deep breath, and began. We tag teamed through the whole Easter story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Now just take a moment and imagine telling about how Christ was arrested for a crime that he did not commit in the dead of night because the guards knew he shouldn’t have been arrested. If he had been arrested in the daytime people would have fought the guards saying he wasn’t breaking the law. Imagine telling this to prisoners who many of them had been arrested the same way- in the dead of night for not really committing a crime. It doesn’t just stop there. Imagine telling prisoners about beatings, and guard punishments that Jesus went through, that they probably know more about then you do. We explained how Jesus had to walk through town with the cross on his back which brought humiliation on him in the same way these prisoners have to dress in all white to stand out against the rest of the town. This was the most convicting and real rendition of the Easter story that moved this crowd of men. God was moving. By the end of our time explaining Christ’s sacrifice, fourteen prisoners knelt down in front of us holding hands asking to give their lives to Christ. God drew his sons back to him through Jesus’ story and how they could relate to it. Jesus suffered worse pain and punishment and ridicule than any of these men, but He did it all FOR these men.
Amidst those fourteen men was a man named, Michael. Michael had been one of the specific men we went back multiple times to talk to for a couple minutes here and there as we passed through town. Michael looked around 45 years old and had a quite disposition that reminded me of my grandpa. Michael couldn’t speak very good English so he would sit with us as we talked to other friends just looking off in the distance, but not understanding everything. You would think he was totally out of what was going on, but he would chime in every once in awhile and his words would hit home. He would light up when we shared scripture with him and different stories about God. He would scribble the verse references all over his arm because he didn’t have any paper. Michael’s eyes had a special glisten in them too; when he would look at you, he would look at your very soul.
Michael shared his story with us on one of our last days with him and I was brought to tears. Michael was a fisherman on Lake Malawi when one day he was returning home after working. He walked up to his neighbor’s house on fire and began to help put it out. When the police came they arrest Michael thinking that he started it. He wasn’t given a second chance or a judge like in America. He was thrown into prison for 2 years. When we met him, he had about 6 months left of his sentence. He shared with us that while we was serving his first year of his sentence his wife remarried another man. My heart broke in the moment he told me this.
Michael had been arrested and served a sentence for a crime he did not commit. He lost his wife in the midst of giving up 2 years of his life for this false punishment. With all of this, Michael still had faithfulness. Michael still had that glisten in his eyes. Michael still scribbled down those Bible verses. Michael had walked a hard couple of years, yet he continued to have this faithfulness and fire for Christ.
Why is it that we hear so many stories about people who have one death in a family and fall away from Christ? Why do we hear about one child gets into drugs and the whole family turns from Jesus? Why is it after one person looses a job is it God who gets dropped? Why is it that so many things come up in life that are just what we need to turn from God?
Michael never did. Michael had a lot worse than a blank paycheck, a car crash, or a troubled child and he still clung to Jesus’ words. Michael even knew that he wasn’t perfect. He would ask for guidance in how to control anger and prayer to walk in the fruit of the spirit. I know I learned a huge lesson from a prisoner’s faithfulness, Can we all?
Do we have faith even when it gets hard?
Do we believe God is good even at our lowest?
Do we trust that Jesus paid for all of our sins?
Um…Can we learn from the faithfulness of a prisoner?
