Prison play by play

So I always am trying to give everyone back in the States at least a little idea of life here in Uganda. And I realized I have said some things about the prison, but have not done it any justice by way of letting you know how it all goes down when we go there. Taking pictures there is a big no,no so you'll have to settle for my descriptions.

Julie (my translator and one who has been doing prison ministry since it began) and I head out at around 12:45 Tuesday afternoons. We drive over some lovely Ugandan roads (sarcasm emphasized) and reach a big gate where an ascari (guard) has to let us in and we drive through and on this long road we drive past different crops, some houses of people who live on the prison land, Lake Victoria is to our right and different herds of cows and goats are being herded. We reach where our prison is at (the condemned section) and we go and use a knocker on this HUGE door, seriously you look up at it and your heart sinks, someone looks at you through a little flap in the door and then they let you in. We check in with the guards there, drop off our keys, and sometimes they have to check our bags, and then we head to meet the ladies. In the condemned womens section, there are only about 9 ladies there right now, these are all ladies who have been accused of some have admitted to crimes such as murder. We enter into their part of the prison and if we're lucky they let us inside a room where they have a big mat on the floor. The ladies come and rush up to greet you with a special hug where it's kind of like how the french greet but with hugs instead of kissing. You take off your shoes and go and sit down on a mattress on the floor and then after some chit-chat we stand up and do some worship. I will tell you one thing, there are few things on earth as awesome and the worship you hear in Ugandan prisons, it is so full of joy when there is no obvious thing to be joyful about. We then sit down and I teach. Right now we're going through the stories in the book of Genesis in a quasi expository fashion. After the teaching we rock some coloring pages since many of them have never really colored before and it's a good release for them and then we head out at about 3.

It is seriously one of the highlights of my week, I think because it's just so different from everything else I do or ever thought I'd be doing. They're all awesome ladies and this Tuesday I think God opened new doors for us to get closer. I'm truly just so amazed that God has blessed me with such an awesome opportunity.