my ukraijna...

outside the prison hospital, downtown lviv

When Ben wrote us that we'd be doing some prison ministry, I got nervous. It wasn't that I was scared of the inmates, but I wasn't sure if I could take seeing human beings in that setting, regardless of what they've done. With "bad people," I often think of them as babies, and wonder what happened in their lives that they made such terrible choices, how the original sin that's in all of us happened to manifest in extreme ways...anyway...

The prison/juvenile delinquent home for young buys (ages 7-13?) was fine. When we gave them stuffed animals they pressed their faces in the fur and stared into their glass eyes. We played soccer and frisbee and learned each other's names. The Ukrainian guys and Ben go there pretty frequently.

Then we went to the prison hospital. It was a little chaotic at the beginning, we were trying to help Halia (the pastor's wife) make up bags of food (sweet crackers, candy, tea, garlic--it has a lot of vitamin c) and then we realized we were actually going to go room to room and talk to the prisoners. The first few rooms were women's, so Sceava (the youth group leader) told us girls to go in first. As one of the men from their church was telling the women about Jesus' death and resurrection, Sceava whispered that when he was done I should share something. I said a little something about what Jesus Christ means to me as a woman, and it was one of those moments when you know know know that the Lord is speaking through you. Two women knelt on the cold floor and gave their lives to Christ. Kristy told us later that many of those in the prison hospital die there. In one of the rooms, a young blonde man stood out from the rest. Not only was he smiling, but his face seemed to almost radiate. He'd become a Christian before and the guys from church knew him well. He was in for murder.

At the bigger boys' prison, some of the Ukrainian men preached, Tomas told the story of how he came to Christ, and Marketa challenged the boys--and the guards--to take a step towards God (that girl has the gift of evangelism). Seven boys came to the front and prayed out loud to receive Christ. Sceava had teddy bears for those that had birthdays that month and even the older boys rubbed their faces in the bears' fur. The guys from their church also go to this prison regularly.

I haven't totally put this together yet, but I've been thinking about Maslow's heirarchy of needs and Christians. I think that we can get so wrapped up in our existential, self actualizing issues that we can miss the call of Christ to feed the hungry, comfort the downcast, preach the gospel. And that we can get so sophisticated that the power of God to transform the "worst" people and the "worst" situation seems like foolish naivete. Maybe that should be: "I can get..."

Serving in this way fed deep parts of my soul that have been neglected for years. Serving in this way humbled me.