Prisoners Set Free!

Prisons are scary. They're filled with bad people. They might hurt me if I look at them or move the wrong way. These were the immediate, hasty assumptions that flooded my mind when I heard we'd be visiting the women's prison…then especially when I heard we'd also be going to the men's maximum security prison. As I walked into the prison, though, my worries were put to rest as I realized that these inmates are real people who just made a mistake at some point in their life (just like we all do).
We visited the women first, and it was not at all like I expected. There were smiling, welcoming faces, small children running around, and chairs lined up for us to sit on. Women are allowed to have their children live with them up until they turn 4, then they must go live in a home so they can attend school. 
When these women sang to us, there was such a joy in the air that I almost forgot we were in a prison. As we handed out soap and other toiletries, the women looked at the items as if they were gold, and gave their most heartfelt, "Asante sana!" (thank you very much). 
After we handed out a few necessities, the pastor told us to go interact with the women. I stood there awkardly for several minutes, then finally walked over to a couple of children, thinking, 'sure, I can handle small kids, I'll just go sit with them'. But sitting next to these children was a young woman and somehow I mustered up the courage to just start talking to her…and guess what? She started talking back! 
Belinda is 21 years old and lives in the prison with her 2 year old son, Leon. The whereabouts of Leon's father are unknown; this seems to be a very common theme here in Kenya. Belinda was never able to finish high school due to lack of tuition funds, but still has dreams to own her own hair salon: "I'm a businesswoman," she says. She wants to be able to send her only son to school and give him the life she never had. Even though Belinda is in a seemingly hopeless environment, she has kept a strong hope throughout her stay in the prison. "Without hope, you will never survive in this place," she tells me. 
I thought about asking Belinda what she did to get in prison, but then it hit me: It doesn't matter. I'm not here to judge people according to their actions, but instead to just love them no matter what. When we repent to Christ of our sins, He doesn't go through a list of all the "bad stuff" we've done moments later; He just loves us. When we get past ourselves and love on the person in front of us, that's ministry; that's the Gospel.
Belinda wasn't scary or intimidating or a bad person at all. She's a genuine woman who just wants to make a good life for her and her son. She's still so young and full of hope so strong it motivates me to stop complaining or thinking so much about myself. 
You might be wondering how the men's prison went…the place where men who typically have 20 years to life reside. Pastor Simon came there to baptize what I expected to be just a few men, but over 60 inmates showed up with willing hearts and eager faces. This was a true celebration of new life for them; they sang and clapped and danced around. They rejoiced for the men who went into the water with an old life and emerged a new person. Sure, some of these men looked very tough, but once they got dunked into that water, they came back up with grins as big, innocent, and sincere as children.
After about an hour of baptisms, a celebration worship service ensued. Despite the high electric walls and the armed guards that surrounded us, I saw that these men were not in fact bound; there was freedom within these prison walls. The men praised the Lord with all their hearts and clung to Him for the hope they knew only He can bring. Isaiah 54:10 says,

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
 

Though most people would see these men and women as having nothing-being stripped of everything from the outside world-they actually have the only thing that truly matters; a relationship with Christ. When everyone else shunned them for their past mistakes, Christ remained there for them…with open, loving arms. 

How amazing and unfailing is His love for us… the love that frees even the most captive.