I am going to write this for a couple of days to get it all in in short chapters. I don't like LONG blogs, so I will write a little bit each day. This is a picture of Emboscada. Going back a couple of years...In 2005 Oscar started going to the prison in Emboscada, a place about an hour away from Asuncion. In August (2005), a group of Christians from several different denominations went there to preach to the inmates. Before this time, only the Catholic Priests had visited this prison, full of some of the worst convicts in Paraguay.
Some of the guys in this first group had kids at Colegio Privado Adonai and they invited Oscar to go with them, just to see it and preach there. He went once and ever since then, has loved working with these men and would go, sometimes, one or twice a week.
By the end of that year there were about 50 prisoners who received Christ as their personal Savior and Oscar, Christian and Carlos were visiting the prison almost every other day. Christian started organizing the group, the meetings, the discipling, etc. Carlos started working with the Buen Pastor (a women’s prison) and Oscar offered to serve once a week during the week and once a month on Sundays, taking a whole group from our church for praise and worship, a sermon and a movie.
Some of the guys in this first group had kids at Colegio Privado Adonai and they invited Oscar to go with them, just to see it and preach there. He went once and ever since then, has loved working with these men and would go, sometimes, one or twice a week.
By the end of that year there were about 50 prisoners who received Christ as their personal Savior and Oscar, Christian and Carlos were visiting the prison almost every other day. Christian started organizing the group, the meetings, the discipling, etc. Carlos started working with the Buen Pastor (a women’s prison) and Oscar offered to serve once a week during the week and once a month on Sundays, taking a whole group from our church for praise and worship, a sermon and a movie.
For some reason, they had nine lady prisoners there, also, (which soon turned into a promiscuous situation), but while the ladies were there, I got involved. I met with them and prayed with them. Most of them had had a very hard life and couldn't break out of their addictive cycles. They knew most of the prisons around the country AND everyone in them. Being in jail (in and out and back in again) was the only life they new.
I went almost every other week mostly because of worry or curiosity of what Oscar was getting into. Deep down in...I was scared for him...or for me. All the while, I also knew that these people were only crying for attention, love, hugs, words of encouragement, gifts and most of all, freedom...and we had/have the answer...freedom in Christ!
Bible verses are written all over the walls of their cells.
1 comment:
Your entry reminds me of my own entry today. I am in the process of putting God's Word all over Natalie's bedroom walls, for I cannot change her life...BUT GOD CAN!!!!
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