Prison Ministry
Today I had the beautiful opportunity to fellowship at a local prison here in Sierra Leone. The group consisted of me, two other nurses, a mercy ships minister, a local chaplain working with Mercy Ships, and a local pastor who has been involved in the prison ministry. We drove approx 1 hour from the ship our of town to where the prison was located. The drive itself was a nice way of seeing more of Sierra Leone without walking on the street.
Once we arrived at the prison, we were greeted by the prison pastor who guided us through their security metal gates and then we handed over our phones, no phones allowed! The prison itself was a big open "courtyard" with high concrete walls. There were maybe 3 concrete buildings I could see? 2 concrete blocks for housing inmates and then the building we used during worship. But majority of inmates were free to roam about the grounds and I believe there may have only been 10 inmates that were actually incarcerated behind bars. Unfortunately, the prison itself was overcrowded. Apparently it was meant to house approx 100 inmates, and currently they had 330+....one of the barriers pertaining to this overcrowding is that sometimes inmates get sentenced to do time AND fined. Even if they finish their time, but haven't paid the fine, they are kept and are not released. And being the primary caretakers of their families, a lot of times the families don't have the resources to pay...usually equivalent to $45 USD...
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| Stock photo of what the facility "kinda" looked like from outside |
I don't want to get too political on this blog, as there are a lot more layers to this "judicial" system than I will go into here...but if you'd like to know, you can reach out to me personally.
But back to the service...I would say we easily had 30+ inmates attend the service. It started off with songs, a prayer, a welcoming and a short message from Pastor Emmauel from the prison, and then our minister Koffi from Mercy Ships provided a scripture and lesson from Job. Literacy rates in people over 15yrs old in Sierra Leone have increased significantly, from 33% in 2004 to 48% in 2018 (according to Macrotrends.net). And while this is trending upward, many people still don't know how to read or write. When the pastor would say to open your bibles to Job, many of the inmates would open their scriptures to different pages and different sections. It was clear from my standpoint, that many of them probably couldn't read or write. But it didn't make any difference in the service. They were attentive. They were humble. They were earnestly seeking Jesus. I felt the spirit there; in that small, open window, concrete walls, plank seating, dirt floor, no roof building, than I had in other places of religion and worship throughout the world. Irrelevant that they couldn't read or write. Their devotion was felt. After a few more songs, some inmates shared their stories and bear witness to their testimonies. Hearing their remarkable stories and sharing their hope and vision for their lives really put mine into prospective. Its so easy to get caught up in societies "values" that you can lose your own. I am so grateful for my life. I'm grateful for my loving family and fiance. I am grateful for my health and education. I am grateful for all my friends and lovely donors who support me. I am grateful for you, whoever you are, reading this and following along so I can share these people's wonderful country and life and stories.
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