Prison ministry & 5 women.
Nothing short of intimidating and in a foreign country, you never quite know what you’re walking into.
Prison overseas is very different then in the United States. We weren’t allowed to bring cameras so i am going to do my best to describe what we saw.
Driving a short distance outside of town we come to this facility on our right. The main entrance/gate is very accessible from the outside and inside. As a guard pushes the gate open we cross over. We start to see lots men in dark blue sweats and very few guards. Some men are tending gardens, others are cleaning the area, and others are simply looking through a fence that is roughly 10 feet high with a little barbed wire on top.
However, there are still prisoners freely roaming the area (some walking next to us), moving freely throughout the prison.
As we enter in to the main area of the prison, crossing through one more gate, men start coming from all parts of the area to get close to the fence to watch us walk by. You can tell these men don’t regularly receive a friendly smile or a “Chu Rip Sua” (which means Hello), very often.
Imagine 5 beautiful white women walking through a prison where the majority are men and what kind of attention that immediately brings.
Eyes everywhere, watching us up and down and on their faces seeing questions like, “why are they here?”
We are the first foreign group given access to the prison in about a year, so G-d’s grace and divine appointment for us to be there these three days is very evident. We didn’t really know what to expect other than, ‘the prisoners like music’.
So we continue to step through a walk way with fences on our right and left and men separated in to different sections of the prison. In the middle of the courtyard there is an open room with five men being taught English. Just to give you more of a clear mental image, these men have been convicted of murder, high theft, drug cartel, and involvement in prostitution.
We come in full of smiles and friendly hellos and the atmosphere changes.
It never ceases to amaze me how the presence of God shifts peoples hearts. There is this heaviness that fades and all the sudden we begin teach to them how to sing, ‘How great is our G-d’ and then ‘Oh, How He loves’. The men’s tough, hard demeanor’s soften before our eyes and they begin to sing with us.
PRISONERS! Buddhist prisoners begin to sing WORSHIP SONGS WITH US!!!
That’s insane.
How Great is our G-d, really? HE IS SO REAL and He tangibly moves in the hearts of people. Two of the girls on my team share the story of Jesus and the freedom He can bring from shame, guilt, and embarrassment. The love that the Father has for each of them no matter what they’ve done.
“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman standing there.
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
[Luke 8:3-11]
G-d loves the murderer.
He loves the theft, the gang banger, the ‘bad’, ‘evil’, and ‘wicked’.
Jesus died for them and He see’s there sin no differently then He see’s yours or mine.
I serve such a good G-d. A loving, compassionate G-d that opens His arms wide for the sinner to come.
That’s my Daddy.
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
[Luke 5:21-24]
