Prison Ministry

Wow. The service at prison this morning was amazing. I spoke to Stephanie last Thursday, who leads this ministry and these services, and she had been out of town for about six weeks. She mentioned to me that she really wanted to go to Jubilee this Sunday (today), since she hadn’t been there in so long, and so I told her that she could do that and I would be fine leading the meeting in the prison.

I’ve know that I was going to talk, but it was so amazing getting to organize the meeting and lead it. I asked three other people to go in with me. Sean led worship. Luke shared his testimony. And Laura did a rap that she had written. We really all led the meeting together.

God showed up. It was so powerful. I loved it… I so feel in my element with I am doing women’s work and women’s ministry and women’s prison work. I love to show women God’s unconditional love. I love for them to know that God is for us and that our lives our in His hands. Maybe it’s because I’ve struggled with this and I am a woman through and through… emotional and craziness and all… and I know what it’s like to be consumed by our thinking and wrapped up in our thought lives.

The service was amazing. God was in every part of it. I felt like I struggled a bit with my talk, but God came through. What did I talk about? I talked about waiting on God through our circumstances… the importance of the body of Christ… the importance of what we feed our minds… the importance of waiting on Him and in His presence. The theme being focusing on Him through life and ways which we can do that.

I actually had such a hard time in knowing what to talk about. I felt like God was leading me to speak on being fully devoted to Him in body and in Spirit… and I did in a way, just not where I thought that talk would go. I even had everything typed out yesterday, went to Jubilee to print it out and practiced it there. Then, last night, I had new ideas and things that I felt would be good to share… thinking that God was redirecting my talk. So, I sat down, and almost started over. I text messaged one of the guys, Luke, thinking that he may have a printer at his house… so, I redid it last night, went over it this morning, and emailed it to Luke. He printed it out and gave it to me as we left for the prison.

After I had spoken, we had about 20 minutes of ministry time. It was amazing. The women were coming up to Laura and me asking for prayer for different things that they were struggling with. Laura even had the opportunity to pray with one of the ladies to recommit her life to God. The woman were coming one after the other. As we would pray with one, the next one would come right up.

Can I tell you how much I love serving with the body? It is such an amazing way to get to know each other and to love Him together… God is amazing. This was the first time that Sean, Luke and Laura had been in a prison. It’s not an easy thing to see. In speaking with them afterwards, Laura mentioned that it wasn’t what she expected. These women were normal… we can have normal conversations with them… it’s hard to imagine what they could have done to be in a prison. I remember thinking that same thing just a few months ago when I first went to Pollsmoor.

Wow. I love watching God work. I love it when He shows up. I love it when He leads. I just love Him.