Prison Ministry 4

Last chapter of prison ministry for a while...
Christian is working for the government and worked on getting our Apostolic Christian Church the resolution to work at Emboscada in a spiritual/rehabilitation-type way. The guards were not happy about that, but we somehow got through the iron gates to the Christian’s pavilion several times a week. There was still a lot of tension, but we were praying for a miracle. Crazy things were still happening and one of the worst was when our Christian friend, “Juan”, died. (I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago.) He knew and told “too much” and was a threat to the General Director and guards.
About three months after he died, in September of 2006, 16 prisoners escaped from Emboscada. The general director was fired and the jail was closed down to be rebuilt and refurbished. Everyone was relocated to other prisons. I think that was our miracle!
Since then, Oscar started going to Tacumbu, a prison in Asuncion. The ministry activities in Tacumbu are organized by a pastor named Abel. Oscar and Pastor Dario go several times a month. Since Lugo became president, Oscar says that things have been “cleaned up” and it is so much safer. Praise God! (If you haven’t been there, I could not even begin to explain to you about all the unhealthy, primitive conditions they live in and the lack of safety for inmates and visitors. Once, for example, at an alter call, Oscar brought home 2 bags full of very sharp, homemade knives and weapons. The inmates went forward in repentance and left them at the pulpit! WOW!)
At Tacumbu, some days they have prayer meetings, some days they will show a movie, and some days just a sermon and worship. If the weather is nice they have “church” outside and 500 prisoners show up. If they have church inside the chapel, about 250 fit. Not all of them are Christians. There are also other organizations, denominations and people working towards rehabilitation in Tacumbu.
Thanks, once again for your prayers!