HOPE Visited Women Behind Bars

I never imagine how life would be behind bars and thick wall. Those women that I met this afternoon were strong enough to face the truth of their reality. They made their mistakes, paid their times and -hopefully- learn their lesson. Many of them were young and bright. I supposed they would be a succeed out there. Some of them were serving inside the jail. They never stop to spread the words of God and strengthen each other.

I was part of my community called HOPE. And today I got a huge responsibility to be a preacher. My first time in public. Well, what else to say beside I was very nervous. But thank God I did it good (according to what others said). I was talking about why problems come into our lives and what does God want from that.

When problems come, we tend to forget to ask, “What lesson that I will learn this time?”. We tend to ask God the same old question, “Why me?”

From my reflections (= reading bible, books, listen to others and my own thoughts), I can conclude some important points (read Hebrews 12: 5-11):

1. God wants us to be strong and tough. He will never let His children grow as cranky and moody generation who will never be able to work hard and will easily fall down.

2. God wants to mold our character according to His will. He wants us to be: humble, patient, strong and calm. It means that we should be wiser with every problem that we ever encounter. When we succeed at one stage of problem, we need to be humble and not to be proud, because He wants us to be a living witness that can help and pray for others who are dealing with the same problems.

3. God wants us to work hard with Him to solve the problems that we have. As human, we don’t really have the power to overcome everything, but in Him, we can do the impossible. We need to keep on praying and at the same time, keep doing out best!

We learn our lessons too today… that we should serve and help others no matter who they are, where they come from and what are their backgrounds. As long as they want to know Jesus, we can help them. Like those women behind bars, they still have the spirit of serving God. They deserve the chance…. as long as they want to change.

I pray that HOPE can bring a real hope for all of those women behind bars…