Hello hello! This is a blog I’ve been dying to share, but Wi-Fi hasn’t been the best this month in Panama so I am so sorry about that!
Last month, my team got the incredible opportunity to serve at the local women’s prison in Costa Rica for three days. We got to paint their nails, do a little Zumba, play some sports, and get to know them the best we could. We were told to not ask about why they were in prison because they would automatically think we were judging them. However, that question really never crossed my mind. I honestly could have cared less why they were all in prison at all. I see it as they just made a mistake. The reason they were in prison didn’t matter to me because our mistakes don’t define who we are. These women were amazing! I wish I got more time with them. They taught me more than I could have ever taught them.
However, there was one woman that opened my eyes a tremendous amount. She has that mind-blowing kind of faith. The kind of faith that moves mountains. She is an absolute gem of a person – FULL of the pure and raw love that Jesus only gives. I love her so much.
This woman (I wish I could share her name, but it’s confidential) has been in the Costa Rican prison for 3 years and has 3 more to go. However, she isn’t from Costa Rica. She was just caught in Costa Rica and unfortunately had to stay. So not only is she in prison, but she is very far away from her family. She is away from her only daughter meaning her daughter was on her own in another country when she got caught having nowhere to go. I can’t imagine. That broke my heart. While I was talking with her, she simply said: “but God is so good”. I quickly looked up and looked excitingly confused. I thought she was about to tell me how angry she was about being taken away from her daughter. Instead, she began talking about God’s amazing plan for her life. She had a HUGE smile on her face and kept talking about all the things God had done in her and her daughter’s life while she has been in prison. She went on and on about how thankful she was for being in PRISON? She said that there would be no way she would have learned the things she knows now if it weren’t for her time in prison. She was so thankful God came through and so joyful at how much He has loved her through this time. She said that being here has shown her how real God is. WOW, right?
I was in AWE of her! This woman decided to praise Him instead of hate. Instead of whining and blaming God for what had happened she talked about how much He loved her and about the impact this season has made on her life. That’s WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!!!! It’s so true. I don’t believe God put her in jail, but our God truly does want good to come out of every little crevice of our lives. He hated watching her go to jail, but He was definitely going to make something magical come out of it. That’s just who He is. I loved how much she believed in Him. I loved how much she shined when she talked about how good He was. It opened my eyes and made me question if I would react in that same way if I were in her shoes.
THIS WOMAN WAS SITTING IN PRISON AND WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW GOOD GOD WAS. I can’t get over it. I want to be able to be in the worst time of my life and still look up and thank God for who He is. That is the kind of faith that we were made for. That’s the kind of faith I want forever.
I’ve always said I want to be that person that throws people off by how faithful I am in the hard times. I want to be someone who praises Him when nothing is going my way or when nothing makes sense. I want to almost love the incomprehensible moments in my life because I like to think in that in the hard times is when God is cooking up something really powerful and beautiful. That day in Costa Rica, this woman gave me a lot of hope for the rest of the women in that prison. I told her to never stop sharing about His love and about how His love actually changes things. She is a true warrior for the kingdom. My goodness, I wish you could all meet her. The best I could do was write this blog and feed whoever is reading this a little encouragement.
I believe that living a life walking out the kind of faith that she does will change people. Change the people around us and yourself. I think that’s how you prove this gospel we talk about is real. When Jesus died on the cross He wanted us to live the kind of life like the woman I met in prison that day. Full to the tippy top with God’s love and knowing that He is worthy of trust in every crevice of our lives.
LOVE Y’ALL!
Xx,
Mace
