Report for Weekender Prison Team May 30 – June 3, 2017
This month we were in a prison again – this time in Santa Rosalía, where we have been going every year for the past eight years – sometimes twice in a year. It was so wonderful to be back again sharing the love of Jesus and the message of salvation with some of the staff, guards and inmates; and to see some of the fruit of our previous labors.
On the day we arrived, we were welcomed very warmly by many of the staff and guards – quite a difference from how everything began eight years ago. All of the suspicion, apprehension, and criticism we experienced back then had been replaced with embrace after embrace; and on the last day, one of the lead guards asked if we could take our health fairs to the communities around his home – and he assured us that he wanted to help us put these health fairs on…
In the meetings we had with some of the staff and guards at the beginning of each day, I explained exactly why we keep coming back – beginning by telling them why every time we come we give everyone the little booklet, “Agua Viva”- the Gospel of John.
What makes this book special is that the writer had seen and heard something so very unique, from a person he had got to know so well, that he felt compelled to share what he had come to know with as many people as possible. In the same way we too have come to know and experience some-thing we want to share – especially with the inmates (who have been discarded from society) – because everyone who comes to know and experience what this writer explains, will have their lives will be changed forever, for the good…
The writer used these words trying to describe who Jesus was: The Word, Creator, Life, Light, Grace, Truth, Son of God, Lamb of God, Forgiver… During these three morning meetings we read together John 1:1-23 and I explained in detail what each of these words meant; and then I went on to explain that John the Baptist declared himself to be preparing the way for the Messiah – the One who was coming into their world as promised, to change everything…! In the same way I said, “We’re like John the Baptist – coming into your world to share this same wonderful news…”
After the meeting on the third day one of the office staff came to me explaining how much she really appreciated what we were doing, and had done over the years; and then went on to explain that her life had been changed as a result, and that she had been attending one of the churches in Santa Rosalia that we had held our health fairs at a few years ago…
At the meetings we had with all of the inmates at the end of our three days I again explained to them, using a modern parable, the personal value there can be of reading the Bible, believing what it tells us, and doing what it says…, over one hundred men picked up Bibles.