Prison

(This is my second attemp to write this post. The first time, Augusto helped me by pressing "esc," deleating my whole email. Somehow it was ok, as he was singing "Under de sea..." while he was doing it. Ha- SO CUTE! It will be very hard to leave Dorcas and Augusto.)

Saturday night Kaas Tannis has the team over for dinner. Dinner at the Tannis home is always a wonderful experience.

Kaas told me that Sunday he would be taking the team to the prison to minister. Kaas and another missionary at Maforga rotate going to the prison each Sunday, always taking some of the boys who live here.

Kaas has lived here for 12 years and has been going to the prison for that long. The prison used to be one room that was so small, the men were not able to lay down. They could only sit with their legs crossed or stand and just had a hole in the wall as a toilet. Many died due to the conditions. Once a man was put out of the prison who was very sick and could not even straighten his legs.

Kaas and his family took him in and nursed him to health. This incident provoked Kaas to take pictures of the prison and turn them into a human rights organization. Soon a short term mission team came and began building the existing prison, a much larger room with better toliting conditions.

Ever since I came, I have been interested in visiting the prison, so I told Kaas that I wanted to come with him. The next thing I knew, I was taking the team alone! Wow. I have never done prison minsitry before, let alone in Africa! Thankfully the boys were very comfortable.

10 people piled into my car after church, headed for Gondola prison. On the way, we stopped to get 100 pieces of bread from the baker and LOTS of bananas. Food is very limited there.

When we arrived, we saw that there were 123 inmates, so we needed more food. The team and the boys stayed, while I went for more food.

When I got back, the boys had lead worship and a team member was sharing about how Christ identifies with our suffering. They had tried to do a drama, but their cd player did not work. Later they improvised and did a drama that did not require music. VERY well received.

When the team was done, our friend looked at me to ask if I had anything to share. I had not even considered sharing, until now. Until I was being asked to come up and did not have anything to say. I got up and said my name and thank you... and that was it.

Then we started passing out the bread and bananas. As we did, I looked into the men's eyes. Each man, one by one. The Lord so clearly spoke to me as I was doing that.

Everyone was ready to leave, when I asked if I could speak to them. I shared with them how honored I was to be with with and to look into their eyes. There is HOPE. The Lord loves them VERY much and longs for them to hope for the future (in Christ).