Ministry Partners,
It is hard to believe that it is Christmas day but I am so happy that I will be spending it with my team sharing the Gospel in 2 prisons today. My best Christmas present ever!
On our way to Fort Portal we saw our first African animals along side the road, a family of baboons.
On the drive there as we passed through each village there were groups of people cutting up huge portions of meat with a machete, meat for the Christmas dinner. I written and talked about the amount of meat of every kind being displayed in the open to be sold in chunks but these appeared to ll be beef.
It was a short drive to the first prison this morning, Fort Portal Men's Prison with 1,700 prisoners. As we arrived a few prisoners were outside doing the beef butchering. Later we saw them carrying the beef heads through the area where we were speaking, nothing to be wasted. Seeing that many prisoners all gathered and seated in such a small area was almost a bit overwhelming as in larger places most are seated but some a milling around and some are nearby cooking. I can't help myself it is so much fun to see and hear their surprise when I start shaking some of their hands. Today for the very first time ever one prisoner would not acknowledge me or let me shake his hand and yet a couple of prisoners came a knelt in front of me, such a humbling thing, one asked that I would pray for him.
Today when I told them how old I am Alfred asked the prisoners if anyone was older. Prisoners at the back on the right hand side brought a man forward who said he was 85 and I greeted him with a hand shake. Then prisoners in the right side brought one forward who said he was 83, I shook his hand and gave him a hug. Oh my, the other prisoners erupted in applause, they thought it was great that "the old folks had met".😊
The Holy Spirit again did a powerful work in the hearts of these prisoners as most responded to each invitation. But the woman O.C. came in and said we would need to go so we were not able to get any testimonies today as we finished a little after noon.
We then drove around the corner to the Fort Portal Women's prison with 97 women. I must say I have a special heart for the women and it was a wonderful final Christmas gift from the Savior to be able to spend Christmas Day afternoon with them. Hearing them boldly sing to welcome us and then boldly pray at each invitation was so special. When the O.C. arrived she gave her permission for us to bring in the gifts (crochet caps) for the 10 children. The first child picked one but found it was too small so I picked one for her and put it on her, I then got a special treat as the mothers sent each child up to me and allowed me to fit them with a cap. I got a special blessing as none of the children screamed at seeing a mzungu (white person) for the first time.
WHAT A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS DAY.
Alfred asked around and got a recommendation for somewhere to stay and the place was not only nice but offered a Christmas Buffet. We have a set amount for meals but the buffet was only a tiny bit more and after all today was Christmas. We settled in our rooms about 3 and decided to go eat combining our lunch and dinner, The salad table was wonderful, I had a small second spoonful of the wonderful tuna salad and although Alfred liked the yam soup I thought the vegetable Minestrone soup was great. They had some local foods but even the guys went for other foods today, fish portions, beef stroganoff , goat on a stick and more. The fruit table also had cake. Alfred said it was nice to see me eat since I have only eaten a few PP&J sandwiches and bananas in the last two days since there was nothing on the menus that I knew I could eat and keep down. Well, tonight I made up for it!
I had to get a new phone and I have had SOME trouble with it as it keeps locking up on Whats App. Tonight is the second time Alfred has had to work on it and my computer to get them paired for about 2 hours. He finally got them working so I hope it holds throughout the rest of the trip.
It's only 8 o'clock but I am so tired, time to bathe and go to bed.
I can't say it enough, Thank you for faithfully praying for us nd for leaving comments, those are such an encouragement to us.
That none would be lost,
Arlene
What an amazing Christmas you had - even a buffet dinner. That was a treat, I'm sure. The best part was, new names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We had 9 people for Christmas dinner - none of them have family here, so we were their family. The sweet gal from Kenya was here, with her two children. One man we had never met before, but he is a psychologist at our local clinic, with no family here. We had a wonderful time.
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