Nov. 25 - Anyone for fresh Tilapia?

 Ministry Partners,

Well, today went quite different than we planned. 

We left early from Kampala at 7:15 with a familiar downpour of rain. We drove about an hour in the direction of our first prison and stopped for breakfast at Alfred's Doctor friends place for breakfast. I thought he would be busy with patients but he came personally to see that we had  great breakfast and visited for some time.

 

When we arrived at noon at the first prison we were told that most of the prisoners we already out in the fields and could  we come from 3 to 5. Alfred called the second prison O.C. to find out if we could do the earlier and they said no but come from 6pm to 7:30. Both of those requests are MORE than unusual and unheard of.  In all my years of doing prison ministry NO ONE enters a prison before 10am or after 4pm. 

Because we had time we traveled to Masaka to find rooms for the next 4 night. We will do many prisons in the area during the next 4 days. We were fortunate as the Lord provided rooms at a fully booked hotel because two people had checked out. The guys are not next door as I prefer but just down the hall a few room away. After sitting and resting for a few minutes it was off to return to our 3 o'clock prison appointment.

We traveled close to Lake Victoria so of course there were sellers of fresh Tilapia along side the road, actually stepping in the roadway in front of the van to get you to buy their. People buy them and tie the fish on the back or front of the car. Not sure how that works in he very hot weather here.

  We had to wait a bit for all the prisoners to return but they had a room for us. Even tough it was not raining it was nice to be inside. The 120 prisoners listened so intently as well as the O.C. and I noticed two middle aged Mus... men setting at the very back. Oh how pleased I was when every single prisoner and the O.C. stood and prayed to accept Jesus as their Savior. Then one of the Mus.... men removed his cap. Jesus truly had the victory at this prison today. We were outside and two very young prisoners carried our things out to the van when Alfred asked them if he could take a photo of the three of us and they said yes. They came next to me and we all put our arms around each other and then they put their faces next to mine.        OH, WHAT A DARLING PHOTO! I will have to use it on one of my newsletters.

Then it was time to head out to the second prison but as we were heading down the main road/highway I head such a loud bang I thought it was a gunshot. Then slowly pulled the van off the road and got out of the van. He and Alfred went to the front and lifted the hood as steam came pouring out. The radiator cap had blown off and we lost all the water and coolant. Aaron hailed a motorbike and off he went returning about 45 min. later with a mechanic and a new radiator cap while Alfred emptied almost all the bottled  water we had into the radiator.  God's wonderful provision was that at 6 at night Aaron was able to find what was need to get us going again. Alfred said it must have really made Satan angry seeing two Mus... accept Jesus as their Savior!  

It was to late to make it to the prison so Alfred called the O.C. and told her of our situation and a very new, different schedule was set for tomorrow. We leave at 6am to be at the first prison at 6:30 to hold our crusade before thy have breakfast. Then go back to the hotel to rest followed by the second prison that is  from 2-4  and the third close by prison is from 4-6.    

I have never held three prison crusades in one day before so please pray for me.

It is 10pm and I have yet to bathe and 5:30 wake-up comes early.

That none would be lost,

Arlene