I may not be famous anywhere else but I sure am at the Antipolo City Women’s Prison! A few of us have visited the last 2 weeks with the women doing bible studies, sharing testimonies and having worship. Ever since I left back in October, I have been writing a lot of songs so I sang one of them for the women. They now think I’m famous, since I write my own songs and sing them. It makes me feel special.
Most of the women are in for drug possession. I don’t know all of their stories but as Angie was sharing what was on her heart today I began to just look around the room at each of their faces. Wondering where they came from, what their family is like, where they live, what their story is. There are about 54 women total and only 8 of them have a high school education or higher. 17 of them are married but most of them have children. The majority of them are Roman Catholic with a few Islam, a Mormon and some Baptists. Yes, Baptists. One lady has been in since 2003 and no one from her family has visited her one time. Not once in almost 8 years. The way the government works here, the women serve for years for the same thing someone in the states would serve for months.
It has become one of my favorite places for ministry, not just because the women think I’m famous and I think that’s funny, but because I feel their appreciation for us coming there. Whenever we take time to visit and listen, they feel loved and know they haven’t been forgotten. It makes me think of Matthew 25 when it talks about the sheep and the goats. God says, “I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, sick and in prison, and you never visited.”
God loves each of these women; their life matters. So even though their friends and family may have forgotten or turned their backs on them, God never will. To be able to share that is so humbling and rewarding at the same time.
