This month I have had the opportunity to visit the nearby women’s jail in Antipolo city and minister to the women there. I honestly was a little fearful before going having no idea what to expect. I did not know how safe the facility would be or what any of the women were in there for. I didn’t have anything prepared to share and was nervous about what they would expect out of me.
As I walked in, I quickly realized their systems are much different than America, and with the help of our friend Ana, we walked in pretty easily, only having to give a form of ID. We were not allowed to bring our phones in, but my small purse was fine and not even checked. I mostly just had my bible and water, as we were there for a bible study, but still the ease I was able to walk through this place with shocked me.
We walked through the middle of the jail into a concrete room in the back where 45 women piled onto the floor eagerly waiting to hear whatever we had to say. They brought the 3 of us plastic chairs to sit in and sat us against the wall. We first went around and introduced ourselves. While we gave our name, age, and where we were from, each one of them told us their name, age, and what they were in for. After about the 12th one who said her case was drugs, I started to become deeply saddened by the fact that they had to identify themselves by what they had done. I started to realize I automatically was remembering them more by what they were in for then their names. Although their names were hard to understand, I immediately did my best to tie their name to their face instead of their case, for the rest of the introductions.
I realized in that moment I wanted to say the name of Jesus more than the word drugs was just used in that room. The way they spoke about their case made it clear it had become a large piece of their identity, and I could feel the Holy Spirit telling me that is not what He wanted these women to be identified by.
My teammate Jess started telling the Bible story about the adulterous woman and how the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus into giving them permission to stone a woman who had clearly broken the law. Jesus responded by telling them the one without sin can throw the first stone. One by one they left until it was only Jesus standing with the woman, who told her that he does not condemn her and her sins were forgiven.
As Jess was telling the story, I could not stop thinking about how loved these women are and how they have been bound by the identity of their actions and their mistakes rather than by the love of God. I started thinking about how many of us are also bound by the same thing, except our actions haven’t been mixed up with the law. What we start to declare over ourselves and believe about ourselves becomes our identity. And God only wants us to be identified by his love, not by our own lies. I felt so strongly God wanted these women to know why Jesus came and how they could be free. So I started sharing about God’s original intent for humans, to be loved by him. I shared about how he gave us the ten commandments only after the fall, as guidelines to live a better life closer in relationship with him and how humans were so afraid of messing up that they created 600 more laws to avoid breaking those first ten. They became so focused on the law they forgot all about God. By the time Jesus came, the world was so broken by religion. He came to set people free from the law and give them the Holy Spirit, so they can be back right in relationship with God and bring Heaven to Earth.
As I talked I realized I was sharing the gospel without even trying. Growing up in the church and in religion, I always seem to try to have the ‘right’ answer and whenever someone says to share the gospel I internally freak out thinking I wont be able to say the “right” words. But it is actually pretty simple, and just talking about the love of God let me to telling about the gospel. How cool is that?!
After I shared with them, they sang a worship song to us. Let me tell you the sound of prisoners singing praises to God in the middle of a jail is a heavenly sound like no other. Worship is a huge piece of my own heart and testimony so I decided then I wanted to come back the next week and share my testimony with them.
I went back the following week and was able to bring my guitar. I got to share my testimony. I got to share about God’s promises and how he is faithful to fulfill them, and I got to share about the power of worship. I shared the story of Paul and Silas and how their worship broke the chains in the jail in the middle of the night and set not only the prisoners free but the guard as well. I got to share with them how each one of them also has the same power in their worship. While they may not have control over any of their daily activities, they always have control over their heart and they can connect it to God’s at any moment. And that connection is the heart of worship.
Four years ago, God told me I was going to travel the world and teach about the heart posture of worship. For the first three months, in Africa, I got to teach many people about the power of their voice and their worship, and I got to teach kids dances and songs to help them connect to their own hearts. In Thailand we worshipped in an abandoned airplane and got to launch the Breathe life Project (more to come on this) and breathe life into the abandoned places. In Malaysia and Indonesia, I learned about the power of prayer and saw so many of my own squadmates and our local friends we made, find freedom in worship and break lies they had been believing. Now in the Philippines I have had the privilege of helping prisoners find their freedom and their identity in Jesus, through the power of worship and connecting their heart to God’s heart. There has been so many stories, and so much freedom, I can’t even put it all in to words.
It is only month 7 and I have seen God be SO faithful to fulfill his promise to me in ways I could have never possibly imagined. I am so extremely humbled and grateful that God chose me to show the hearts of his people to. He didn’t need me for any of this, but he invited me to be a part of it because He loves me! I can not wait to see how He moves in the months to come. My expectations have already been blown out of the water so many times.
My heart is to see people come alive and set them free. I have already seen it so many times and I know this is only the beginning. Even beyond the race, this is still my life’s mission. The race is only the beginning and has helped equip me for the rest of my life.
Life with God is truly the greatest adventure.
