Joy. Peace. Loud clapping and singing songs of loudest praise to our
Lord and savior. You would think those beautiful voices would be coming
from a church. Actually those songs of praise came bellowing out of the
cafeteria at the Boane Juvenile Detention Center. It was an absolutely
incredible scene to walk into! The squeal of the bared door to the
cafeteria was unnoticeable as the smiling faces of the young men
rejoiced in the Lord. It was extremely powerful! My eyes became teary
and almost broke down in front of the whole group, but held back.
This was our third visit to the Detention center. Our first visit was
the second day we were here in Mozambique. The first day we went was an
incredible experience. The spirit was moving as we stood in front of all
the inmates. God burdened my heart for them and It was a blessing to
share my testimony with them. I felt I could really relate to some of
the young men in there. By their nods as I spoke I knew that was true.
After our team shared a couple of testimonies , one of the pastor that
came with shared a message and had them roaring with laughter. It was
great!
Our second visit was my highlight! God was present and it was obvious!
As we arrived in the cafeteria, I was the last one of our group to walk
down the side aisle next to the tables full of the young men. One of
them stopped me and “excuse me, I have a paper for you”. ( of course it
was extremely broken English but that is what I gathered he had said
after the event) I had no idea what that meant so I called a translator
over to see what he meant. The young man looked kind of scared and I was
upset cause I thought he might be in trouble. I did not want to get
anybody in trouble at all! But it seemed to be ok as the translator ran
over to Flavio, an awesome dude who goes into that jail every week and
seems to me kinda runs the show in there. I gave the young man an almost
apologetic look and shook his hand to move to the front. I went over to
Flavio as well who was holding a stack of letters! He and the
translator were ecstatic reading through all of them.
The letters consisted of the inmates expressing their joy in us coming
in there and asking for prayer and help and counseling on certain
issues. I looked at Flavio who was grinning from ear to ear and I could
tell that it was a big break through.
After two of our teammates shared their testimony I began to preach a
sermon on redemption and Paul’s life was a main point. The Holy spirit
was there and flowing through me.
I just felt great after I preach the sermon, I felt like God had touched
someone through me. When is was finished preaching Ben hot up and asked
if anyone wanted prayer. Hands shot up all over the room! Many of them
wanted to feel God and it was three of them that wanted to give their
lives over to Christ. One was Albim who I prayed over and it was an
exhilirating and beautiful moment! I had never prayed with someone
giving their life to Christ. It was extremely powerful. Albim was lost
and is now found. He was dead and is now alive for eternity!!! He was
crying when we finished praying because the Holy spirit was now living
in him!! Yeeeeeaaaaa siiiiccccckkk!!!
Our main purpose of going there the third time was to minister to
some of the inmates one-on-one, but my team leader Ben, shared a word as
did a pastor from Assemblies of God that came along with our group.
I scanned all of the young men in the cafeteria, about 60, during
Ben’s message and they were all listening intently to his choice in
following God and how God has a purpose for all of us. Then the pastor
got up and preached a great sermon. It was very intense. Then we went
into an extremely long and powerful prayer session. I was quite
distracted at first, then all of sudden found myself at such peace and
basking in the presence of God. I felt something on my face. Oh, there
were the tears I had tried so hard to hold back at the beginning of the
service. God’s presence was so tangible in those moments.
I also had the pleasure of talking with one of the inmates, Nelson and
my heart really went out to him. His family had no idea where he was
and his very good friend in the prison had passed away due to
tuberculosis. Nelson had taken care of his friend till the very end.
Bathing him, getting him food and water, and basically showing him love
till be passed. Nelson shared with me that he was very sad and upset
about it. I shared some encouraging words with him from the bible and
from God. One of the men who goes in to the jail to evangelize was able
to contact his family as well and they are organizing a visit. It was
great news to Nelson and he was very excited for it.
In Nelson, I see just a young man who is a great person, but just
messed up. That’s what I see in all the young men there. They aren’t
malicious at all, but there is a thirst for truth and light and that was
our purpose in going into this place. God used us to convey is
redemption and forgiveness and and the young men responded very
positively. It was an incredible experience and words cannot really
describe how it felt to be there and how it felt to see these young men
leave death and deception and glide into life and truth through our Lord
Jesus Christ. I really wish I could convey what happened in there. They
are awesome people, they aren’t untouchables as we sometimes view them.
Like I said they are normal people like you and I who happened to mess
up. My prayers are with them and my heart really does go out to them. It
was one of the highlights of the whole race and I believe God put me
there for a bigger reason than I originally thought. I am blessed and
honored to be living on His will.
In other news I really wanted to thank everyone for being supporting
me in this venture far away from home. I am now fully funded!!!!!
Yaaaaaayyy!!! Thank you everyone again!! You have honored God and God
will honor you in your finances! Much love and peace to you all. We
leave for Swaziland tomorrow on a another project that is in God’s
hands. Only threes months left time has flown but it will never be
forgotten. I pray many blessings upon y’all and I hope all is well at
home!
