This is our friend Gift. He is being released today after 6 months in prison. True to his name, Gift was one of the biggest blessings of our month in Malawi.
We met Gift the very first day of “ask the Lord” ministry in Nkhata Bay, Malawi. Our team had been out prayer walking and meeting people in town that morning and we were on our way back home when Karen thought we should turn around and go back to the prison and talk to one of the inmates she saw standing outside. His name was Gift and we spent several minutes talking to him about his life. He was in prison because he was arrested for being out after hours. Basically, the police can arrest you for walking the streets after 10 or 11PM and if you have too little money they think you are going to go steal from someone, if you have too much then you have already stolen something. Gift was most likely innocent and he never even had a trial…just an automatic 6 months in prison. I quickly came to realize that a lot of the prisoners we met were most likely innocent. They were forced to work in the fields outside the prison most of the day and were given 2 meals per day. Anything else (soap, extra food, etc) was expected to be provided by prisoner’s families, which is a problem when these men aren’t there to provide for their families or the ones who don’t have families who visit them.
While Karen and I were over talking with Gift, the other girls had met a man named Joshua who looked like a prison guard. It just so happened that Joshua was the prison chaplain and normally he only worked nights…but for some strange reason he was there during the day. We also met a man named Michael who became our other frequent friend at the prison. Every time we walked/drove by we would look for Michael and Gift and normally we saw Michael beaming from ear to ear and waving excitedly as we passed. Naturally, we are always asked why we are where we are and what we are doing…so it’s very simple to talk about Jesus everywhere we go. The girls told Joshua that we were missionaries and he invited us to talk with the prisoners one day. We also got to encourage Gift and Michael, both of whom were Christians. We walked away that day excited about our new friends and the opportunity to go visit the other prisoners.
A couple days later a note was delivered to Kate; it being a small town and knowing we stayed at Butterfly Space, Gift had sent a note through a friend. You would expect a typical prisoner in Africa who has nothing to ask the white girls (everyone automatically assumes you have money if you are white) for food or money. Gift asked us for 2 things…to pray for him and for a Bible. He could have asked us for anything, and what he wanted most is the word of God. We were amazed and even more excited about going back to the prison.
The next week Jacquie, Kate, and I went back to the prison with the 2 awesome kids we met- Stalone and his older sister Rejoice – both of whom spoke perfect English and loved Jesus. They had gone out with us on the first day of ministry when we met Gift…we had met Stalone the day before and told him he could come with us. Even more awesome – Stalone prayed that he would be able to go into the prison and bring Jesus to the prisoners before we even mentioned it. Stalone is 12 years old. So when we returned to the prison, the other guards called Joshua and asked him to come while we were there. None of us had planned anything because we were just stopping by to see Gift and Michael and hadn’t arranged any sort of meeting, but Joshua got a small group of maybe 25 prisoners together and asked us to talk to them about Jesus. Easter was coming up, so we impromptu talked about Jesus and what Easter is between the 3 of us while Rejoice translated for us. God showed up when we didn’t have a plan or anything to say. He gave us verses. He gave us words. He spoke through us. I was blessed to lead 14 of these grown men, all bowing down and on their knees, in prayer to repent and receive the gift of salvation that Jesus purchased for all of us. Sometimes I wonder if people we pray with are really understanding and accepting Jesus or if they are just trying to please us, but I have zero doubt in my mind with these guys. We spent 20 minutes after talking with them about questions they had. These weren’t your typical Sunday day school questions; they asked deep questions and we all walked away knowing they understood that they had just accepted new life in Christ and truly desired their lives to be radically different. They asked questions about how they could live and look more like Jesus. These are men of God who carry hope for Malawi on their shoulders.
We had to leave Nkhata Bay soon after this, but we were able to give Gift his very own Bible and later when all of you wonderful people from home gave money for Bibles for the vendor church, we also bought 8 Bibles for the prison…one of which was Michael’s. The Gideons are also sending 200 Bibles, one for each prisoner! Thank you for continuing to allow God to use you for His glory! And thank you for providing this opportunity for me to travel around the world and see this first hand!
Just to give God all the credit He deserves for this, we met several people on multiple occasions after this who were shocked that we were allowed into a prison. One of whom worked with a relief organization wanting to help prisoners…this girl had been trying to get into the prisons for months and couldn't believe we walked right in so effortlessly. We had no idea it was so rare to get into a prison until after God had so easily lead us in by setting up an unlikely meeting with the chaplain that first day. There are no doors that God can't open when you walk with Him!
