Quick picture of the area outside the prison

Diane found this one photograph of El Progreso - the area outside the prison where they park - and thought she could share after the post on Friday.

Just to clarify, they are not permitted to take photographs inside the prison - at least not that prison. Others in their party have permission and they often get usable photographs later on. That's one of the reasons that you may see a lot of pictures of Gary and Diane's time with their hosts at lunches or downtime but much fewer pictures of the actual work they are doing inside the prisons.

We also don't get to see any photographic evidence of the difficult traveling that they do. A snapped photo here and there doesn't do much justice to the hours of road travel they do to reach these prisons. And don't be fooled. This is not like a few hours on the turnpike. This is Latin America and travel is much rougher. And my mom is rather famous for her car sickness. She brings a long plenty of motion sickness medicine but unfortunately has to leave the travel cushion at home. Maybe Gary can film some video next time to give us an idea of what travel is like.

Gary and Diane's comfort with their work does not in any way come from it's ease. It comes from a supernatural work that God is doing in them to give them what they need to do the work. Keep praying everyone. It's about to get pretty amazing.

A View into El Progreso Prison from Diane

I have said previously that El Progreso is the worst prison for conditions that we have seen so far. And that fact was still true on this last trip. But I realized as we drove back the dirt road to get there, that as the community goes, so goes the prison in that community. That had not been so apparent on previous trips. It was there but I did not make the connection. This city seems to be quite poverty stricken. Even the nicer homes were in much need of repair. Upon going into the prison we came on construction both inside and out. That adds to the turmoil that you feel before you even go in. The repairs may make things better inside in the future, but now it is just a mess. It was very difficult to even walk to the meeting room. We had to navigate holes and mud and trenches and loose grating. You had to be very careful where you walked for fear of falling.

But in spite of these awful conditions or maybe because of them, the Lord is doing a mighty work there! These men are very dedicated to the Train and Multiply Program and to spreading the Gospel. They thanked us for coming and wanted to shake our hands. The leader of their group spoke a few words then Herasmo gave a short message. Gary also spoke and told them how happy we were about how well they were doing with the program. He said we bring blessings from the United States and prayers. Then more hand shaking and blessings followed. While we were shaking hands, one man came up to us and was telling us something about his wife (wife was the only word we understood). Then when he knew were were not understanding anything else, he went to get another inmate who spoke English. The man told us that this inmate had a wife who was pregnant and needed a test. He was asking for money so that she could have the test. It was sad and a little frustrating. We told him we would pray that the Lord would provide the necessary money for the test. I guess that is the reason they don't want us to take money or anything else in with us. 

There is always a story, some may be true and some may not, but we certainly would be tempted to try to help in whatever way we could. It is a very discouraging place to visit - on the surface. But there is also the Spirit of the Lord working in these men and they are "rich" in love for Him. They really do believe this world is not their home. It is always a blessing for us to visit to witness what The Lord is doing in El Progreso.