J.O.Y.

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows- this is God, whose dwelling is holy.God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy…” Psalms 68:5-6

We spent the past month spending our time with prisoners at the Rizal Provincial Jail, in the Philippines. When we were first told what our ministry was going to be, I had no clue what to expect, I had never imagined myself spending time with prisoners. I was a little scared at first; scared of the uncertain,scared of the people we might be in contact with,scared that they would not accepts us. God was telling me though, “Kendall step out of your comfort zone, step out in faith, stop staying in the shallow end.” So I did just that, I stepped out in faith, and my life was completely and totally changed.

In the verse above it states ” He sets the prisoners free and gives them joy” I have heard that statement before but never really put much thought into it, if any thought at all. I first hand saw this verse come to life in the past month of spending time with the inmates at the Rizal Prison. Many of them since coming to the prison have come to know the Lord intimately. I was speaking to one of the women and she was saying that when she first arrived at the prison she felt lost,lonely, and hopeless. She came to know the Lord while in prison and she said she instantly  felt an overwhelming joy, that could only be from the Lord. I sat there in awe of her statement, sitting in front of me is a women who has lost everything, her nine children, her marriage, her freedom from the outside world and yet because of her relationship with Christ she still feels an overwhelming joy each day when she wakes up. I wish all of you reading this blog right now could experience the men and women that we spent time with over the past month in the prison. They showed me what it really looks like to find true genuine joy that can only come from the Lord, they showed me what it really looked like to live a life where just having God was enough! God still calls each and every one of the men and women in the Rizal prison his child he has not forgotten them! No matter what they did to be in prison, God still loves them and chooses to show them joy and love.

                                                                                                  

While we were at the prison 12 men came to accept the Lord as their personal savior and we baptised them on our last day there. We brought a bathtub that was in the backyard of where we had been living and we tied it onto the top of our SUV and brought it into the prison so the men could be immersed in the water. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever pictured myself at a prison and on top of that baptising men in a bathtub in the courtyard of a prison! God is so faithful and good!