 When I post stuff to the ministry page I often say “we”when referring to ministries done here. The ministry is a group effort and though I am here by myself for the most part the ministry has a good group of folks praying and supporting us. Without the folks that pray and support the ministry “we” wouldn’t be able to function. I don’t usually get to go in depth how ministries affect me personally. Well I want to share something that really had an effect on me personally. Yesterday we partnered with a local church to do ministry at the local prison/jail here. I have done this before and kind of knew what to expect. It didn’t however change the heaviness that hit my heart once entering the jail and seeing the iron bars with the inmates crowding the small door. Imagine if you will a concrete block room about 12ft x12ft with no running water just a plastic blue barrel for all to share. There are no lights inside the cell so darkness becomes your environment. The small door is made of rebar welded together with a small slot just large enough for a plate of food. There are 18 and at times 30+ more people in this room with you. They are there for a mistake made same as you. It could be worse or it could be for a lesser crime. There are strings tied from the welded bars above that form the cage you are in. Some of those with you haven’t bathed in a while and with this being a tropical country the heat can get overwhelming. There is no breeze to help cool you down and the weight of your poor choice is right there in front of you all day and night. There aren’t enough beds so you may end up on the floor depending on when you got there or how hard you are willing to fight for a less than comfortable place to sleep. You are constantly hungry because your only meal is a piece of bread and a drink of water from that barrel in the middle of the room. The same barrel you use to shower, flush the toilet, and wash whatever clothes you happen to have. The days move slowly and the nights even slower as you are left to ponder and meditate on what brought you to this place. It may not be your first time here. You may have hit the bottom and become almost dependent on this environment. This should paint a pretty sad picture in your mind and hurt your heart. Then one Thursday morning you hear some commotion out in the foyer and wonder if you are getting new cellies or just what is going on. You peep down the hall and see a group of people walking towards your cell and they have a book in hand. You think to yourself “are they coming this way? I hope so; I would love just to talk to someone outside of these concrete walls and cage doors”. They get closer and closer and then stop in front of you and ask a simple question. “Would you like freedom and liberty”? That simple phrase hit’s you like the smell of a fresh baked pie right out of the oven. Your fellow inmates soon rush the door because they can smell it too. The group starts talking about an in measurable love. One that can’t be matched or broken. This sounds good to you because the only love you know is that of the vices that brought you to this place. They share stories of others who have been right where you are and how they found freedom, happiness, peace, and mostly a love that you have long sought after and never found. The group sings songs and you just happen to know the words from hearing your grandparents singing them during your childhood. A time when the weight of the world and your poor choices didn’t weigh you down to the point you feel like you can’t even move. They are all smiling and telling you know matter what you did they love you and want you to feel the peace that they have and to feel the love that navigates their lives. You think it’s too good to be true that there is now way a person can actually feel that way and live that way. You start to want what they have so bad you feel like you could bust down those rusty cell doors and get the freedom you yearn for. Then they start praying for you and each word they speak is like each one of those heavy bricks is being lifted from your head and heart. A cool breeze flows through the cell and you feel something you thought impossible. You feel love. Love from a stranger that knows nothing about you, that knows nothing of the choices you made that put you there, Love from this father that they talked about a love you may have never gotten from your earthly father. The tears start to well up in your eyes and you take a deep breath to hold them back but it’s too late your cheeks are damp now the shell around your heart has been cracked and a seed has been planted. That taste of freedom is felt even though your hands still clasp the bars that are holding you in. Peace has come that day because of the love shown by this group of Christian men and women. They hand you a plate of real food not the bread you have grown accustomed to you get a fruit drink and the taste has never been sweeter. They then hand you a small book with the letters B.I.B.L.E. on the front and say “Your freedom awaits you in this book”. As they leave and you start meditating on what had just happened you notice something. You are smiling. This is the first true smile you have had in ages. You almost don’t know what to think about it. You dive right in to reading the book and step closer and closer to freedom with every verse read. You look around to see what your friends are doing and how they are reacting and you see them all just like you nose first in the book they had just received. One guy in the corner starts singing the song from earlier in the visit followed by another then another and the next this you know the whole place has broke out in song. Even though you are in earthly chains in this moment you start to feel that freedom.
Now that you have hopefully imagined this what seems to be made up place I want you to know it is exactly what I saw yesterday. 150+ inmates, fellow brothers and sisters, children of the same God some of you say you love sitting in lock and chain desperate for the freedom and peace we know that comes with a relationship with God. This is why this ministry is so heavy on my heart and why I can’t let anyone sit in such a dark place with no hope or knowledge of the love Jesus Christ has for each of us no matter what choices we have made on earth. Freedom not from the chains of the world that is a debt you must pay. I am talking spiritual freedom where no chains can bind you nor can any concrete and metal bar room hold you.
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