After four years, I’m going back to the prison. Unlike the previous experience of entering the prison as a part of my work and treating the inmates as clients, this time I went in as God’s ambassador and representative in bringing God’s love to them. Prison ministry is not something that I expected when I first planned in coming to Montreal. I did not search for it but it has found me. Years ago when I first stepped into prisons, I told myself how wonderful it would be if I can go in freely to share of God though I had no idea what it would be like. I still remember once I was sharing the gospel on the streets and met a guy who just came out of prison whom I managed to share a bit about Christ to. However, when I went to visit him with the contact details he left with me, I could not locate him. Funny how all these things came back to me in this foreign land.
Canadian prison is not that different from the Australian prisons. Located at the outskirts of the city with a vast land, wired fence, secured doors and guards are all what I am familiar with. A new realization for me is the prison chapel which is a wonderful place where the inmates gathered with God’s servants. A place where as we sat there before God, there is no such thing as ‘us’ and ‘them’ and together we praised God, together we worshipped God and together we read the bible. Like any of the small gathering, people are free to ask questions and share of their thoughts, experiences and of what God has impressed upon their hearts on the bible passage we read. My first prison ministry experience is like the discovery of a new land revealing the part of society that not many people would see or experience. Each of the inmates presents potentially a person who could be greatly used by God as His servant wherever they are. Thank God for the experience and opportunity to serve Him.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not- to mollify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
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