Fruit in the prison

Written by Carly Brown

Four years ago when we started ministering in the prison here in Santa Cruz we met a young woman. She was wanting to practice her English and I was struggling to learn Spanish. Due to my lack of language a lot of my ministry in the prison in the beginning was giving food and trying my best to love people. So many of our friends inside the prison just want a friend, to know someone cares for them. So many of our friends have been so deeply abused, rejected and broken that they need to see what this love is we are talking about. For four years I have known this young woman was on God’s heart even when I didn’t see much change in her. When quarantine hit she went through some really rough moments and was really humbled. She felt the need to confess to us her mistakes and there was a softening that Holy Spirit was doing in her heart. Recently our team has focused a lot more on sharing the gospel: the full gospel of repentance and death to sin and resurrection life in baptism and being filled with Holy Spirit. We shared the gospel with our friend and after 2 weeks and talking with her she decided she wanted to die to her old self and live for JESUS!!! She realized she was still bound to her sin and had not died to her old life. In a snack shack in the prison she wept and repented of her sins and in a week we will baptize her and pray for her to be filled with Holy Spirit in power. We can never give up on people, some take years and some are ready in a moment. We must trust Holy Spirit and simply keep loving people and obeying God. We may never see some come to Jesus, but we do it for him. He is worthy of it all.