Today I woke up tired . . . it's been an emotionally draining week already! After breakfast, we had our daily devotions with Ashley, our leader who takes us on work in the community. The verses were Romans 12:3 –
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. We also covered Hebrews 13:1-3 which read, 1Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
These verses were a perfect reminder that God is with each and every one of us as we headed into the Woman's jail (where people are guilty until proven innocent) to meet with isolated gang members from the 18 gang. Ashley reminded us that we need to sit with the women today and participate with the craft in order to be equals with them instead of leading the craft in which we would be "over them" in a way. Also, we focused on the idea of not judging others in terms of "thinking more highly than you ought" which was great for perspective to be ready to face the day!
Before heading to the prison, we did a service project at Dorie's Promise. This consisted of moving 355 brick pavers from the street to the basement patio of our guest house; we also needed to move some dirt out of the patio. It was quite a bit of manual labor but we had a good system going with some team members taking the pavers from across the street to the front door of the house and the rest of us moving them from the front door down the stairs and through a bedroom to the patio. Bob, Tyler and I traded off moving the dirt, as some good ole fashioned shoveling can be taxing on the back! We made good work of the pavers but it was physically exhausting. Nick, Tyler and I loaded the dirt up a long ramp from the bottom of the orphanage to the street where the bricks previously were only to find out the dirt was supposed to be loaded and taken a long walk down a few flights of stairs to the backyard. We made some extra trips before we ran out of time to freshen up, grab a quick lunch, and then head to the prison.
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| Darbi, Erin, Nick, & Ann all ready to DOMINATE the 355 pavers!! |
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| Bob enjoying getting his hands dirty as he removes the dirt pile |
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| Nick, Tyler, and I cleaned up the dirt pile and moved it to the backyard |
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| Ann, Bob, Amanda, & Darbi painting while the other guys removed dirt |
The jail where we visited today was about 30 minutes away from Dorie's and we were required to wear long pants (the ladies had to wear skirts), no cameras, cell phones, anything with the exception of your actual passport; NO COPIES were permitted. We were dropped off at the prison, and then we had to walk past the men's prison and through security guards manning large weapons as well as having the pleasure to get patted down twice before entering. When they looked over our papers and gave permission for entrance, we were finally able to enter the prison. The prison we went to had 8 different sections of women and was considered a prison for the 13 gang. Due to overflow, there were 35 members of the 18 gang who were placed into 3 isolation cells with roughly 12 women. The cell size was about that of a rug in our guest house which is 12' x 8'. The women are stuck in this cell all day, every day except for about an hour once a week. During this time we were able to meet with a group of 12 women to participate in a craft. We created a stuffed dog that had to be sewn, stuffed and then glued to a plastic cup (that had fabric glued around it) for a container to hold pencils, pens, scissors, etc. You may or may not know this about me . . . but sewing is not a strength of mine. I sat across from Bob and we were joined by two ladies, Eslee and Claudia. Bob and I tried our best to communicate with the two ladies but we were very limited with our Spanish! We introduced ourselves, ages, and also talked about the English and Spanish names for various items including chairs, tables, etc. etc. Even though we lacked in "espanol," we were able to give facial or hand expressions to communicate. Both ladies were great at getting a thread through a needle and they were more than willing to assist both of us! They had nervous laughs and even told us, through the help of a translator, that we were guapo (handsome!). Also with the help of a translator, we were able to learn about the two of them and their stories. Eslee is a 19-year-old mother of one whose boyfriend is an active gang member. She is in jail for false gun charges because the police raided a house she was sleeping in for the night because it had running water and her home did not. She was unable to bribe the police and was sent to jail. She has been 3 months and could potentially be in jail for 3 years pending her upcoming sentence hearing. Claudia is 26 and is in jail for extortion. She has a husband who is an active gang member as well and admitted to putting a gun in peoples' faces and demanding all money or she'd threaten to blow their face off. Even while sitting in prison at a table with these two, it was hard to make the connection of these young woman and the crimes they had seen and or committed. Following the conclusion of the craft, Erin, one of our team members, gave a small devotion about her favorite verse (James 1:2-8) followed by Ashley adding more comments and sharing the gospel. We concluded our time with the 18 gang members by praying for each table Korean style again. Many of them were brought to tears, including Eslee and Claudia. Besides the two at Bob's and my table, one other girl stood out; her name was Rebecca and she was waiting for her sentence and is accused of triple homicide. In essence, Ashley let us know that she's a hit-person for the 18 gang. When we asked her what she wanted prayer for, she just dropped her head and said nothing. She did say that when we're trying to get close to God is when the devil makes it as hard as possible. It was a powerful statement. Ashley finally convinced her to pray for her family and the other inmates and we had a nice group Korean style prayer. We wrapped things up and started to say our goodbyes and I felt compelled to tell Rebecca, with Ashley's help of course, that she needs to know that in God's eyes, all sins are exactly equal, so every person in this room has sinned against God whether it was stealing, lying, whatever it may be. She thanked me for my words and told us that God would bless us all. It was very moving.
After the women headed back to their cell, we had about 10 minutes to hand out homemade quilts made by members of group leader Ann's home church to ladies in prison who had children in with them. In these prisons, women can have their children in with them under the age of 4. At this age, they need to be removed from prison and given to a family member or up for adoption. Some of them end up at Dorie's Promise. The woman were very grateful, as everyone in this beautiful country has been, to see us and for the gifts. We even got to hold the babies as well! We walked into their cell areas and it was one small concrete room with a curtain door and bunk beds. Better than the ghetto but still the cold reality of jail. After about 3 hours of being in prison, we headed home. On our way out we met and thanked the warden and I was hit on by another inmate . . . what a confidence booster ;)!!
When we got home we ate some chicken in a nice sauce with cucumber salad, rolls, potatoes, and a slice of an apple cake. It was a great meal. After dinner, we headed down to spend some time with the kids at Dorie's Promise before heading back to the guest house for reflections. Bob and I visited the little ones as they were in their cribs and ready for bed . . . they looked so cute in their PJs!!! However, they definitely did NOT want to be put down when it was time to go or switch to another child!
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| Bob & Neyali |
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| Lester cracking a smile . . . a far cry from his traditional classic look |
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| Bob & Baby Max |
My reflection high was ministering to and spending time with the inmates and seeing God's presence with those confines. The low point was realizing that as we were leaving, we could see the arms of the ladies we just had crafts with waving through little openings through the bars of their small cell and just realizing that they won't get out again until NEXT Monday when I'll be home and back in the states. Also it was difficult to actually see the "slop" they're forced to eat unless someone who visits brings them food from the outside. Bob and I even gave our two ladies a dollar each to hopefully get some better food this week. We didn't have even bills to give them more which was unfortunate. The slop is literally like any Jail-themed movie you've ever seen and it was quite appalling to see it happening today in 2010. It was very sad and an image forever imprinted on my brain. I'm feeling like God is pushing me to inquire about prison ministries in the United States. I've seen DeeGene McMartin's testimonies and talked with both him and his wife Linda about the time they've spent in prison and experiencing it for the first time has provided new insight to these old and previous thoughts. Tomorrow we will visit an actual woman's prison where they have been sentenced for x amount of years. Time for bed at 10:20 . . . This week I've gone to bed anywhere from 9:30-11 . . . it's by far the earliest I've gone to bed since high school but I'm exhausted each and every time!
