Youth Prison: Round One

Today we went to the youth prison which holds 42 boys and 3 girls. A lot of these youth were in gangs and have done some pretty bad things so I didn't really know what to expect or how God was going to move. At first we introduced ourselves and then we played games, it's amazing how the simpleness of playing rock, paper, and scissors and heads up 7 up can liven up a room and break the ice between a group of people. It was ridiculously fun! After that I went up to share some of my faith story and I was so nervous/scared because I have been learning so much about being vulnerable and open with people and this was huge and my team leader had just asked me in the ride there to share and so I wasn't prepared at all. All of these youth grew up Buddhist and had never heard of Jesus and His love and I was not comfortable. But I started speaking anyways and what do you know? The Holy Spirit took over and I shared openly about the hard things in my life and where God was/is during my past and the present. They were so receptive of it and willing to listen to me, it was awesome. My teammate Kaci then stood up and shared about Jesus and His love and as I was sitting listening to her, looking at these kids with a big Buddha behind us I realized how amazing God's love is and how amazing it is He chose someone like me to tell people about Him. As uncomfortable as I am being open with my faith story and sharing the gospel sometimes, God isn't going to let my words fall to the ground because He wants to move and He wants to use me to do it. As Kaci was telling them about how our Father loves them and us for who we are and we don't have to bring anything to the table you could feel the Holy Spirit in the room loving on these kids. It was incredible. It was so different from anything they have ever heard, this love which is free and never-ending. We planted a seed today, I know that with all my heart and I can wait to go back and just love on these kids and let them know Jesus loves them as they are and they don't have to bring anything and He'll take them in with all their baggage because how else will His light shine through if we don't have cracks?