Prison visit!

On Thursday we went into one of the prisons here in Mexico City. It was quite the ordeal. The guy that was coming to help us get there, had some instructions to give us...... All jewelry had to come of, rings, earring etc... then we couldn't have any blue, black, grey or beige colored clothing. A lot of us had to run back to change =). Then we took taxis to get there, it was quite the ride. But we finally got there.

We had to wait in line to get in, and then when we did the door was locked, bolted behind us. Registration and then we got patted down and our purses got searched. Then they let us into the place where we would be. We were told not to look at the inmates, not to have eye contact with them and not to give them anything when they asked for it.

The session we came to was an open place with fence of course, it was where they had Mess. There were about 14-15 men there, the older ones. But some of them were 50. Mary and I was in a team, we talked a bit with the guys and then took their blood pressure. Most of them had high blood pressure. One, can't say his name, had been a believer for a long time - and he spent most of his time in prayer and to teach other about the Word. He got tears in his eyes and said he was so blessed by us coming in there and serve them in this manner. I was touched by him as well, you could see Jesus in his face.

I had a little opportunity to talk with one of the guards, and he said that here are 2500 men in this prison and 148 women. They are mainly Mexicans, but a few from Honduras and Cuba. He told me that there were fights daily, and even that morning when we came there was a fight that broke out - a person got stabbed. If the injury is not severe, they treat them in clinic at the hospital, but if severe they take them to the hospital.

Then we went over to the women’s section. There were 4 women pregnant, and 4 women with children. These were the women that we were told to minister to. We took their blood pressure, and ministered to them also. Some of them spoke English so that was a big help. One of the ladies had her baby 15 days ago, and was in a lot of pain while breastfeeding. We were able to teach her a good breastfeeding position, cuz the baby was not getting enough food and she wanted to give formula. You could see on her face that she was in lesser pain, it was so amazing.

I do hope that we'll be able to go back into prison and visit them again, you could see that it was an encouragement to them.

That same morning a friend of mine sent me a message on facebook saying, You are not the hope, but the hope you have in you, you bring to the hopeless. We all got very encouraged by that word, and really felt that God was giving these people hope.