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We went to prison yesterday. A bunch of us from the children’s home in Oaxaca, Mexico. Pablo is in charge of our prison and rehab center ministry and he set the whole thing up. His wife, Niche went. She has been a part of the children’s home since it started, over 20 years ago.

My wife, Anita, went. She teaches preschool here at the mission, but used to be the kitchen supervisor and makes a mean pot of spaghetti, which she did as part of a special meal that we gave to the prisoners.

David played his guitar, sang and preached. I think of him as the kid who went from worst to first. He spent many years at FFHM’s home for needy children, and was considered by all the staff as the worst kid here. Always misbehaving and getting into trouble. That was until the Lord got a hold of him and changed him completely. He has a gift for music and for sharing the Gospel, and was the first kid from here to go to a Bible college in the United States. He is now pastor of a church in Oaxaca and preached to the incarcerated men about the greatest gift to the world, Jesus.

Victor and his wife joined the group. Victor’s mom was a staff member for a few years, and him and his sister spent their formative years growing up here. He is involved with a church and led a few games which the prisoners enjoyed immensely.

The prisoners all have mental challenges and live in the psychiatric ward at the prison. Their families have abandoned them and they have no one who really cares about them except Pablo, who faithfully meets with them and ministers to them once a week. He also organizes outreaches like the one we all went to yesterday, which opens our minds and hearts to the tragic situation that these men, made in God’s image, find themselves in. Our team tried to help meet some of their physical, mental and spiritual needs by singing with them, feeding them a nice meal, playing games on the basketball court with them, giving them a gift bag with candy, socks and toiletries, and presenting them with the good news that God gave his only son for them. To love them, save them, bring the light to them and adopt them as his own.

When David was preaching, he mentioned the fact that there are a lot of people in the world who do not live behind bars, but yet are in prison. Prisons of addictions, greed, worry, stress, depression and anxiety. God loves everybody; those behind iron bars in a prison, and those living in emotional, psychological, and dependency prisons. He loves them and gave himself for them.

This Advent season, I think all Believers should visit someone in prison. It would be a real eye opener if all Christians could go and make a difference to an incarcerated man or women living behind concrete walls topped with razor wire. But most Jesus followers don’t really feel like they have the time or inclination or spiritual gift to do that. But all Jesus followers know someone living in a self imposed prison and wouldn’t it be nice to share the Good News with them that Jesus came to set the captives free (Luke 4:18). We all can be God’s hands and feet and mouth, and by reaching out to those in “prison”, we will be doing it to Jesus.

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A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes…and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent. Dietrich Bonhoeffer