Day 5 in Honduras: Visiting Jesus

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Matthew 25:35-40

I had never been to a prison before, but for some reason I was not in the least bit afraid. As we walked around the compound and looked into the eyes of the inmates, the only thing I could do was smile. It didn't occur to me until afterwards that the thought never even crossed my mind that those men were possibly criminals. I never once looked a person and thought to myself, oh, i wonder what he did to get here. God enabled me to see those people through His eyes. I saw them as my fellow human beings, my brothers. Like Matthew 25:35-40 says, Jesus is present in the prisons. And I believe I saw Him there.

The first thing we did was enter the prison and chapel and start singing until we drew a small crowd into the building. Then, for an hour, we took turns leading songs, praying together, and even preaching through a translator. At the end, we mingled with the men and got to know them a little bit.

The highlight of my day occured when our group gave one precious man a Bible. With pen in hand, he went around to everyone on our team, asking us to underline our favorite Bible verses in his brand new Bible. When that man gets to John 10:10 in his Bible reading, he will find it underlined with my name handwritten beside it.

Once again, God overwhelmed me with the power of his light today. The prison is a dark place to go, but not too dark for the light of God's presence. Our team brought the light of God's love into that dark place through songs of praise, words of encouragement, and the speaking (and underlining) of God's Word!