Unintended Consequences

Today Shaun Groves from http://www.shaungroves.com/ asked bloggers to write about some 'unintended consequences' and share on our own blog.


I guess mine would be my jail ministry. I go to the jail every week on Wednesday evening here in my local county.


My husband has done jail ministry for about 8 years now. Six years ago we moved to a different city and he started going to the jail in our county. He was the only male and there were no women going into the womens pods. He asked me if I would go. I said that I would go, just until some other women came along and took over. See, I had visited the jail in our former county once and did not feel that was where God was calling me (honestly, I was just being lazy and selfish with my time).


So...I go to the jail by myself for a few months. One night we had a guest speaker come and give her testimony to the ladies. That night before we go in I tell my husband "this will be my last night going" and to myself I am thinking "unless God forces me to do something different" and we head in. While Susan was giving her testimony I sat down at a table with some of the ladies and across from me was this beautiful, sweet woman. I asked her name and how she came to know who Jesus was. She started telling me the story of her salvation. She was in prison in Georgia and was a Muslim. She asked for a Koran and they staff of the prison was trying to get her one but it was taking a little while. Well, some ladies that did prison ministry there suggested to her she read the Old Testament. She agreed and they gave her a Bible. While she was reading the Old Testament she had the strongest desire to head on over to the New Testament. So, she did and started reading John. While reading that she came to know who Jesus is. She talked to some of the other inmates who were Christians and they explained to her more. At night in this prison, the ladies would take the water our of their toilets so they could talk to the bunks below and above them. (Don't judge or be grossed out...prison life is totally different than life on the outside. Desperate times call for desperate measures) Well, one night she was talking to the Christian inmates through the toilet about God and they told her how to become a Christian. I have been friends with her for almost 5 years now and she is one of the strongest Christian women I know. She is actually still in prison in Virginia but is due to get out in 2 months. (Please pray for her when she gets out. The adjustment the inmates have to make from prison life to life on the outside is HUGE). Well, when she told me this story I was just blown away but what a difference those prison ministry women made in my friends life by just a small suggestion, in love.


I have been in prison ministry for five years now and I am completely amazed by God! The best friends I have are the women I do this ministry with. We get to go in there and love some amazing girls and women who have made the wrong choices. We get to share about God and even watch His amazing work! We get to worship, pray and study with women that a lot of people consider worthless. I am here to tell you that they are not worthless. God is doing an amazing work in their lives and in the jail that we go to! I am waiting for revival any day. :)


So, my unintended consequence is my most precious friendships friendships (the my fellow ministry ladies and the inmates), my growth in my relationship with God through this ministry and the blessings that I get to see every time I enter through those doors and they lock behind me. I went in only willing to go to help my husband and I have stayed because God has shown me that is one of the places that He is.