Setting Captives Free...

Friends from Vida Abundante and the Church of the Nazarene share worship time in our home.

Pastora Claudia preaching on Romans chapter 7 in Vida Abundante

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The mist and light rain was falling today as Rhonda and I walked up and down the street outside the prison meeting the women waiting in line to go inside. The lines form every Sunday regardless of rain or sunshine. Most of the women are Aymara, wearing their traditional dress, some carrying meals or breads for their family inside.
Some recognize me from the week before, they smile and utter a word or two in Aymara because they remember me butchering their language last week. They laugh at my attempt and Rhonda passes out a small newspaper entitled, “The Message of Peace.” In the United States, I remember holding out tracts and waiting to find someone who would take it; but not here. The women are reaching for it. They know it is Christian and many of them are not, but they want the paper anyway.

This prison is not like any other that we Americans understand. Here, in Bolivia, when a man commits a crime he goes to prison and so does his wife and children. During the school year the children are released from the prison to attend school and they return to the prison after classes. School ends here next week for summer vacation and I don’t know if they will have the opportunity to leave the prison walls again until February when classes return.
It is said that if a family wants a cell to themselves that they can buy it or their family outside can buy it for them. If they don’t pay for a cell then they sleep in the courtyard, but I don’t know if that is true. It is also said that cocaine is manufactured inside the prison, but again I don’t know if that is true. I know is that God loves the people inside that prison and we are praying for their safety and for revival to overtake the prison.

After we pass out some of the papers I deliver a short message about God’s love for them and how God’s plan is not to harm them but to give them hope and a future. Many of the women listen, some turn their backs (but we know they are listening) and others shout “Amen.” Rhonda finishes our visit by praying for their safety and for God’s love to break into their lives and set them free. More women reach for more papers. They share smiles with us. I think they are happy to know that somebody cares and that we can see their value. And we wave, say good-bye and say to them all, “Oramos para ti y para su familia,” “We are praying for you and your family.” Many of the women have tears in their eyes. Rhonda and I walk away to words of “Gracias,” and I wonder who was blessed more, them or me. My breath is gone and God’s presence covers me and I am the thankful one.

We are writing our own tracts each week to hand out at the prison. They are about the mini sermon that was shared the week before, so that the words are reinforced and they can take the message inside to their family. We are also taking cookies once a month to pass out to the 100 or so people that wait. I want inside the prison but I am not allowed right now. I am waiting for the paperwork to apply. Everything is a process in Bolivia. The ladies tell me that there are some English speaking people inside that don’t speak Spanish and that have no one come to visit them.

I am unable to take any pictures because the guards would frown on it. We will write more as the doors to prison are opened by the grace of God.

God be with you!

Ron, Rhonda and Sam