On Tuesday during my time of prayer
I was given a message to tell the women about baptism. It was a message about
what baptism is and the reason that it is used. It was a message I did not come
up with on my own and I give all credit to God. I knew that it would change
things. So today I gave that message. I told the women that baptism is about
being like Christ, that is show what happens in the heart to everyone else, and
I told them that it is not a requirement to salvation.
I was right that things changed when
I gave the message, it just was not the change I had expected. I expected what
Carl and Mike saw; a large group that wanted to be baptized to fulfill what was
on their hearts. This is not what happened on the women’s side.
I finished my message and we
all got into our small groups. Mine included a guard to help translate and Liz
was also in my group again. I found out that the women in my group are Catholic
and they do not have a relationship with Christ and had a misunderstanding
of what was needed to be saved. I did my best to clear this up. I was also able
to spend one-on-one time with the guard to tell her that she does not have to
do anything to be saved and go to heaven except believe that Jesus died to save
her and trust that her sins are forgiven. As there is a language issue I am not
sure if she is fully convinced of this truth yet, but she is open to it. As I
was speaking to the group I felt this strong presence that I was fighting, I
was fighting an unseen force and it did not matter what words I used, it
mattered who was on my side to fight. Once I finished with my group I was exhausted.
I felt like I had been used up.
The other groups had different
experiences. Katie had a few people in her group that wanted to be baptized for
the right reasons, but she also had someone who wanted to get violent with her
for an unknown reason, and she also had people who are now realizing that this
Bible study is not just fun it is also work that they really don’t want to be a
part of. Kathryn had people who were interested, but at the end of our time she
also got a note that one of the prisoners was thinking about suicide (something
I know all to well). Lindsey had people who really did not want to talk about
how they were in her group. Overall we all feel spiritual drained.
