Proclaiming the Gospel in a Prison

Several months ago, when Brad and I first met, we had a crazy experience together and I wrote about it in my blog, I titled it Proclaiming the Gospel in a Wendy’s (view by clicking).  It was a very influential event in my life and I am still thankful for that experience to this day.  Just a few days ago I had another opportunity to proclaim the Gospel somewhere unique, this time God chose to use my voice in a prison, or juvenile delinquent facility for street children.  Here is my story…

The new ministry my team became a part of since we were not going to go back to Tondo is called Children’s Garden.  As I’ve mentioned in my past couple blogs, Children’s Garden is a ministry for street boys.  On Thursday’s they go to the streets and feed the children, including young prostitutes who live in a brothel nearby.  But CG’s main ministry is the boys that live in their facility.  Children’s Garden has about 25 boys living in their “home.”  All of the boys living there have come from the streets.  Many of them had been living on the streets since they ran away from abusive home situations at ages as young as six years old.  Children’s Garden takes these boys in, gives them shelter, food, education, love, and most of all, CG gives them Jesus.  I have become incredibly passionate about CG and the amazing work they are doing in these young boys’ lives.  After hearing many of their testimonies it is very difficult to picture any of them in those past situations of drugs, violence, and theft, when you look at the amazing boys they are now.  Children’s Garden also has an “aftercare” program for the young men that have grown out of CG housing and are now more “on their own.”  These young men are bright, gifted, passionate and incredibly kind; they also have a very evident love and faith in Christ.  They are inspiring to be around. 

For our second full day working with Children’s Garden, I volunteered to give the devotional for the CG boys.  I stayed up late the night before praying that God would give me the words He wanted me to say but nothing would come.  I ended up finally going to bed at 2:00 am, praying that God would bless me with words in the morning.  I woke with approximately 15 minutes or less to come up with something and God did not let me down!  Not only did He give me the words, but He also gave me an illustration to use to help the boys understand my message better.  I was excited to share with them my word from the Lord.  When we arrived at CG, Sharon, the amazing woman in charge, immediately started talking about going to see the “boys in trouble with the law.”  This was something I thought we would do in the afternoon, since we were scheduled to be doing ministry from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm.  But it became very clear that we were about to head to the prison and that that was where I was going to do the devotional.  This was quite the curve ball to me and instantly fear and doubt flooded my mind.  Is my message relevant to boys in prison?  Are these boys going to receive me well like I know the CG boys would?  What if God has a completely different word He wants me to share with prison boys than the word He wanted me to share with CG boys?  My mind raced like this all the way to the prison. 

When we arrived at the facility for the “boys in trouble with the law” aka prison, I was trying to suppress the nerves but they were definitely still there.  We were led into a small room with a large group of boys sitting in chairs facing the entrance waiting to receive whatever it was that we had to bring to them.  Two of the boys from CG aftercare were there with us and they led the group in three worship songs.  By the third worship song I started to feel the pressure…  I closed my eyes.  I closed my mouth.  I wasn’t looking at anyone in the room.  I wasn’t singing.  I wasn’t even thinking.  Everything just stopped.  I instantly felt this overwhelming sense of peace come upon me and then I physically felt myself being filled up with the presence of God.  Words cannot express what this experience meant to me.  I needed something, some sort of nod from God to go ahead, and He gave me so much more than I could have ever asked Him, He gave me a completely pure moment of intimacy with Him.  I was able to rest for a moment in His presence.  Then the song was over and I was called to the front.

I glanced at my notes, set them on the table, and never looked at them again.  The words God filled me with just flowed from my mouth.  I didn’t have to think.  I didn’t have to wait.  I was already filled.  So I began to pour out…

I asked them if they knew why Jesus died on the cross and they responded ‘for the forgiveness of our sins.’  Then I asked them if they knew why Jesus was raised back to life and they were silent.  None of them had an answer!  I KNEW they needed to hear the message that I had.  So I told them that up until this past year, I didn't know the answer to that question either.  I told them that I lived a sinful life and that by the time I was 19 I was fed up with that lifestyle and wanted to try and make my relationship right with God again.  I accepted the forgiveness that He offered me and by the time I was 20 I got baptized.  But I explained to them that whenever I wanted something good to happen in my life I would remember my sins and think that God also remembered them and wouldn't what to bless me.  I explained that I believed God held a grudge, that He had forgiven but He hadn't forgotten, that when He saw me, He still saw my sin…

Then I took a slip of paper and I had written the word IMPURE on it. I held it above my head and said that I felt that God saw this whenever He saw me.  Then I took a black marker and put an X through the word.  I explained that by Jesus' death on the cross, my sin was forgiven; my sin was crossed out.  But, you could still see the word behind the X… so, it might not be forgotten.

Then I read them Romans 4:25 “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”  I explained to them that I understood that Jesus was delivered to death so that our sins could be forgiven, but that until I understood this verse, particularly the word justification within this verse, I did not fully understand why He was raised to life.  I explained to them that the word justification, as it pertains to the Bible, means to make something ‘as if it never happened.’  Understanding this totally changed my relationship with God.  I realized that my sins were not only forgiven, but they were erased, totally forgotten, through justification.  I also read to them Romans 4:7-8, where it says that your sins are covered, that they will not be counted against you.

So to bring it back to my illustration I had started – with the paper held over my head, I explained that my sins are not only forgiven and crossed out, but forgotten and completely erased.  Then I took the sheet of paper that I was holding above my head and tore it up into tiny pieces and let them fall to the ground.  The boys were captivated.

I asked them if they had a sin on their mind that they felt like God hadn't forgotten.  They all yelled “Yes!” so then I handed out paper and pens to all of them and told them to write it down.  I told them that no one else needed to see it but God.  That it was between Him and them.  They all started writing so seriously and intensely… they were writing for a long time and really thinking.  I explained to them that they didn't need to write everything down, because God knows them anyway.  Then when they were done writing I asked them if they wanted to receive what Christ was offering them today.  If they did, I wanted them to raise their sheet of paper above their heads.  So they all did.  Then I had them repeat after me.   I prayed a prayer of truth over them, calling them to accept their forgiveness and believe that their sins have also been forgotten.  That they would believe that God doesn't hold a grudge against them and that they are new people.  That they deserve good things and many blessings and God WANTS to give that to them!  Then I had them rip up the paper and I basically told them that God doesn't see them for who they were, He sees them for who they are and who they will become.  Basically, I said let yourself be forgiven, let your sins be forgotten, and never look back.

To watch these boys, with such broken pasts and such difficult circumstances, passionately receive the message of the gospel, and passionately rip apart their guilt and throw it to the floor, was overwhelming.  I am humbled that God used a broken sinner like me, forgiven by HIS death, and justified by HIS resurrection, to share HIS perfect story of redemption, to a group of boys in a Filipino prison.  Wow.

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Very soon I will be in a closed country and I won't have internet or any communication with the outside world in order to protect our contacts. Please do not post any comments about where we are on facebook or on our blogs for saftey. Thank you for your prayers!!