Prison...& more! Patrick

Hey Family,

At 7:00 am we arrived at the prison here in Goma. So far this country has been all new experiences. Standing out in front of this prison I understand some things are universal. Prisons will always look some what the same & for me feel somewhat the same. This one was no different. If you know, you know & if you don't, praise God. So Mike, Camille & I are greeted by some men out front & in a few moments there is rattling coming from behind the heavy steel door, it swings open & we begin to file in. This is strange for me I have never voluntarily entered a facility like this & never expected to be able to walk back out in a few hours. The Lord put prison ministry on my heart a long time ago. The anxiety I am feeling is over come by the realization that God is working through me, & that I am equipped & ready for the challenge. I have brought my sword to the battle , I have put on the armor & I all ready know who wins.The truth rings through my mind, "All things work out for the good of those that love God & are called according to his purpose"... I am on fire. I expected to be scared, I'm not. This is nothing like when I have seen visitors & Pastors come to prison, usually they come through a safe & secured passage & are escorted by correctional officers. We walked through a door right on to the yard. This "high security" facility was built to imprison 300 men, as we squeeze our way, face to face with the inmates, through the press of the 600 men who live here I realize there are no towers, no guards with mini 14s, it is us & the inmates. who I will later be informed have been left to govern themselves. I am more & more pumped up with each step. By the time we can hear the worship music coming from the room we are headed to I am ready to explode. We walk in & it is dark, the only light is the sun shining through the bars high on the wall, coming in from outside. As my eyes adjust I realize there are approx 300 guys in a room built for 100. Walking very carefully so as not to step on people sitting on the floor we make our way across the room & sit. The worship is amazing, passionate, genuine...tribal. I am moved. The time has come, I stand, these are my peeps, I understand them. I begin to tell them my testimony... & I ignite. It's on like Donkey Kong. This feels so awesome, natural. These guys were more than listening, they were receiving, they were passionately responding. We were all in the middle of a blessing experience & we realized it. So the Lord let me spit fire for a few min.s & then it was time to go. Afterwards we were taken on a "tour" of the facility. Man after man called out my name as we walked by, there is a language barrier but no other words were needed. The Lord is building bridges, changing lives, saving souls.

In the after noon we went with Camille to one of the radio stations he supports & is broadcast on.
Camille gave them a VERY nice new Dell to use for recording, editing, whatever. Very cool, they hooked it it up & it was super fast, nice ...

Next we went to a youth function at the AOG church & I was asked to speak again. I gave my testimony & afterwards we opened it up for question & answer. It was awesome the questions were well thought out & very challenging.

As it turns out Camille has a little Honda motorcycle but he doesn't know how to ride it.this eve we fired it up & Now he is a rider...cool huh?

I'm out.

P