The travel log for the blog today comes from Gary's records in March as they continued their visit in Honduras. Take note of the way God used the very graduation ceremony to reach those inside the prison walls!
On Thursday Evening, we visited
the prison of Tela. This was a relatively new prison with the program, and new to us
this time . Our volunteer Francisco has been coming here for about 4
months and has already got a group of about 80 men participating. The original
chapel room was only about 15 by 20 and with the implementation of the Prison
Fellowship “The Prisoner’s Journey” and OMS’s “Train & Multiply” program,
the meetings have outgrown their chapel!
For the
“graduation” program on this night when we visited, there were approximately 75
graduates. There were about sixty graduating from TPJ and fifteen inmate
leaders graduating from the Train & Multiply Program and being prepared to
take this to the other inmates within the month.
The total
attendance at the meeting, held in the open air yard of the prison, was approximately 150-160 people. There was seating for approximately
75-80 and then standing around the walls and the remaining open area there
were approximately another 50-60 individuals, and THEN there were others who were
watching from the windows of their cells that looked out on the yard from both
the first and second stories.
It is of
note that among those graduating from the program were 15 women from the women’s prison there at Tela. These women and fifteen of the other
graduates are the inside leaders who will be teaching the program to other
inmates in the weeks to come. This is an example of Train & Multiply
at its best. Even when none of the outside volunteers is able to get in
to the prison on any given week, the program continues and the Gospel is spread
to more and more individuals and leaders from within the prison population.
Friday morning, March 9, we left the hotel at 6:00AM and began another trek down the
shore and then up into the mountains to visit the prison at Yoro. This is
another smaller regional prison where Pastor Francisco has been able to begin
the program and 25-30 inmate leaders were graduated including two or three
women from the local women’s prison at Yoro. Again, we overflowed the
chapel and there were dozens of other people who were not yet involved with the
program who were gathered around the open air chapel, two or three deep.
While the attendance in the chapel was probably approximately 50-60, there were
an additional 50+ standing outside the chapel for the entire graduation and encouragement
service.
Following
our departure from Yoro, we drove until 7:00PM in order to return to San Pedro
Sula where we spent the night. Departure in the morning is for 7:30AM and
we are off bright and early to Puerto Corte’s on the Gulf of Honduras where
there is yet another of the regional prison centers here in Honduras.
