Ever visited a prison?

I know, it has been already 3 weeks that I’ve been to Santa Cruz, but I still want to dedicate one entry to the prison. For me, it wasn’t the first time in Palmasola (the prison of Santa Cruz... also see German Wikipedia). In 2003, I didn’t really know where I was going. All I knew was that the group wanted to visit the two churches in the prison with the missionaries Jenny and Heidi and that they had - obviously - survived previous visits. Since I love new experiences I said I would join them.

Everybody more or less knows how prisons are supposed to look like. Well, whatever image you have in your mind, Bolivian prisons are different. Pretty different. The picture shows the view over the part for men from the top of the church building. Yeah, it looks like a town within some fences and it doesn’t only look like it, that’s exactly what it is. It’s just a pretty dangerous town. There are pubs, a soccer field, churches, shops... You can buy and sell, play soccer or just hang around. To get in there, you either have to deal with some drugs or you have to pass a lot of check points where they search your bags, take your passports and stamp and paint your arm. This year I held the record with 5 different stamps/signs on my right arm because I wasn’t on the list they had sent there in advance. Green, blue, red, black… really nice and colorful. Just not very healthy for a white blouse on a hot day… So why did I go through all this trouble? Palmasola isn’t the safest place for a young woman! In fact, it’s the most dangerous prison in Bolivia. The police just guard the fences and might go in to get dead bodies out…

My first visit changed my curiosity into something I can’t really explain. It is this feeling when you know that you are a blessing to others but you are blessed so much yourself and humbled at the same time! It was incredible. There we were, in this town within fences, full of people I wouldn’t like to meet during day-time on the street and the faces of the brothers and sisters in the churches were beaming when they where talking about Jesus. Their stories where heartbreaking. Tragedy and joy so close together. Some of them acknowledged that they would have never found Jesus anywhere else, but what impressed me the most was that they were really waiting for Jesus to come back. I mean it’s not surprising that you’re desperately waiting for Jesus to return, knowing that you still have about 10, 15 or even more years left, but it showed me how comfortable I am on this planet earth. Am I waiting for Jesus to come back at all? Or just every now and then for 10 minutes?

This year there was a young man I will call José. 21, 5^th semester of some management career and he just landed in prison two months ago. He was a normal young student who actually didn’t drink much and wasn’t a jail candidate at all, but one night he got drunk and didn’t really know anymore what he was doing. He got angry with his best friend… and stabbed him. His friend died… I thought of the story of Ben Carson (don’t know if you ever heard of him… world famous pediatric neurosurgeon who almost stabbed his best friend being angry, too – but the belt buckle saved his friend’s life and Ben from going to jail). For José, the story ended differently... When he was telling his testimony, his voice broke. He couldn’t go on anymore. He still can’t believe what he did... but he is starting to understand what Jesus did for him. I talked to him a bit and he asked me if I had a bible for him. I had already met people in that prison who were asking me for money, but when José asked me for a bible, I spontaneously promised him to get him one and give it to Jenny before leaving Santa Cruz. On Sunday, I used my hours before flying back to Cochabamba to find a nice bible with concordance and to write him a letter. I’m praying that this bible will be a blessing for him and show him the way to a worthwhile life – even if he will have to pass a part of it in prison.

Then there was… let’s call him Jorge. I met him for the third time this year. He is the church leader in the part for men and he already impressed me when I met him for the first time in 2003. His face displays a peace… just incredible when you consider where he has lived for the past 8 years! He is one of these people you would trust your life even after only knowing him for a very short time. He’s in there for drugs… like most of the women and many men. I might see him again since he has three more years and I plan to visit the prison once more before I leave in August. It might be even scarier without my German friends, but when Jesus is talking about his true children he says: “For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.“ (Matthew 25:35+36)

I’ve experienced what it means to these prisoners that there are people out there who didn’t forget about them, who were willing to take the risk to visit them. That’s what makes me going back! If you get a chance to visit a prison – do it! And expect to be blessed!

Love,
maria

PS: I will return to blogging more frequently!