As our team prepared to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in one of Kenya’s largest prisons, Kibos Maximum Security Prison for the condemned in Kisumu, where 800 men reside. Many milled about the main prison yard. Some were curious, some were expectant, some were disinterested.
Here we were, 12 white people form America, allowed to enter this place of darkness to bring the light and freedom and good news of Jesus to these condemned men. As I stood with my interpreter and began to share this message of freedom and hope, I noted with interest the ways that the men gathered. The equatorial sun was brutal, yet there was a group of about 35 believers that got as close to us as allowable and sat in the direct sun; there was the other group of 50 or so believers who wanted to be close, just not that close, so they gathered in a tight group under the sparse shade of a mimosa tree; there were the curious all around who, in single file,hugged the walls of the huge prison yard in the 2 feet of shade provided by the walls during midday; there were those who stood in the doorways of their cell blocks peering out at us; and then there were those who went about their business of daily survival moving here and there completely disinterested in the words of hope and freedom.
How close that is to the world we live in as believers. There are those sold-out followers of Jesus who will sit in the brutal heat of the noonday sun to be close to the Word of God; there are also those Christians who love Jesus, but would prefer to stay in the comfort of the shade; there are those curious onlookers watching from a distance around the walls or from their “cell blocks”; and then there are those going about the business of commerce and survival in the prison of their life, oblivious of the eternal message of hope, freedom and deliverance that is being preached all around them.
May we as followers of Jesus take this Good News into all the dark places of our world so that those in the shadows, those in the cell blocks, those in the shade, and those blinded by their busy-ness may one day come into the Light and see the Saviour!
