Today is Friday and we went to the prison for the last time. Our mission for the day was to lead their weekly worship service. Two other teams came with us also that didn’t have a ministry site to go to. All three teams piled in to a small truck bed as we made our way through town towards prison. It’s funny how far I’ve come in just a short week of going to the prison. On Monday I was afraid to look at anyone in the eye, and today I was calling some guards mi amigos (my friends) and yesterday an inmate gave me a bracelet he made. Today he gave another teammate one too.
At the service, about 30-40 inmates gathered for the service. Some came to hear the word of God and some came just to get out of their cell for a couple hours. Our guide, Ricardo, told us that most of them were not saved. I got to help lead worship with the other girls on my team, and I LOVED it! We started the service by singing a simple Hallelujah song. While singing, the Holy Spirit came over the place almost instantly. I had goose bumps all over my body. When I looked out to the small crowd through my teary eyes, I saw some men weeping in their seats. Team members began to lay hands on them in prayer. Guards were starting to gather around to see what was happening…
After our first song, Ricardo started a small preaching segment. It was in Spanish so of course I had no idea what he was saying, but the inmates were listening intently and answering back to him that God (Dios) was aqui (here). “Donde?!” (Where?!) “Aqui!!”
As he started talking, we started hearing this really loud noise from somewhere in a cell upstairs. At first it sounded like someone clearing his throat really loud, but then it kept going and got even louder. The guards started scrambling and going towards the cell that the noise was coming from. I looked around for reactions, but Ricardo and the inmates weren’t even acknowledging it, so I guess it wasn’t really serious. The noise got louder and louder and if I could describe it, it sounded like someone hurling really loud and repeatedly. It was definitely spiritual warfare. The power of God was in that jail and someone did not like it, so we think he was trying to be distracting and ruin our service. Keyword: Trying. It stopped after about five minutes or so.
The service continued as my own teammate, Jake, got up to preach. The Holy Spirit was all over him as he preached with such power and love. He preached on Jesus being the bread of life. You can chase other things like wealth and prosperity (little loaves of bread), but it will never fully satisfy your “hunger” like Jesus will. It was so good because he also talked about how even though they are behind bars, some of them are more free than people on the outside of those walls are because some “free people” have bondage and chains on their hearts. So Good!!
At the end, he gave an invitation and invited people to come up who didn’t know Jesus. At first, no one stood up. Then one brave guy stood which then led to six more rising and coming up front. We gathered around them as they got on their hands and knees. As we laid our hands on their backs and prayed for them, they were sobbing so hard their tears were just falling off their faces onto the concrete floor underneath them. These men were so broken and were calling out for God to save them. Grown, tough men who are serving time in a Guatemalan prison were shaking with the presence of God on them. One by one, we had them sit in a chair and a team member cleaned their feet. I have never seen or been a part of anything like that before. I felt the presence of God fill a room of men with no hope in their hearts. I heard a demonic presence try to mess up our service. I laid my hands on people crying out to God, aware of their sins, and asking God to free them from their bondage, not physically, but in their heart.
Ah! God is so good and I can’t wait to have more experiences like this!
