Every time I visit 'Jan' in prison I just stand in
amazement on how big our God is. How mighty He is and always the reminder
and confirmation that God is in control at every single place on earth.
What amazes me the most is that one can experience God’s hand in the smallest
of things where we tend to look for Him at the bigger events?
Last week 'Jan' appeared in court for reviewing his case
again after he appealed on his initial sentence of 22 years. He’s
sentence has been reduced by 5 years – praise God for that – and he already
served two and a half years. Therefore he has twelve and a half years of
life in prison left. When 'Jan' shared this “good news” with me on the
phone while looking at each other through the double thick glass panels, I could
not help but to notice the joy in his face and voice. There were tears of
joy in his eyes and in my heart I could felt the joy within myself as
well.
On my way back while my thoughts were running through the emotions of the two day visit of 20 minutes per day, I realized how important and significant “time” for the inmates are. Here, 'Jan' - full of joy because he was granted 5 years off from his original sentence but still has 12 years left is such a wonderful day and feeling for him. I realized that 5 years for them is like 1 year or less for us. It is closer to the end for them – new life – new beginnings. But for we, maybe tomorrow is the end for us – we don’t know. I realized that we seriously have to embrace and enjoy in the glory of God every moment of our life. Every day and every second of our life for our “true freedom” is when God comes to fetch us. Yes we are free in god now . . . but I think you know what I mean.
The other good news is that the Thai Government is
planning to have a big amnesty year for the inmates. Apparently, once
every 5 years or so a big amnesty comes through for inmates. How the
amnesty is determined we don’t know. 'Jan' is just praying that he’s name
will be on the list of amnesty granted . . . . But 'Jan' also knows that it is
God’s will that he must focus on and not he’s own.
Yes he committed a crime and he is paying, according to the law of the country, for the mistake he has made. But now, 'Jan' has been chosen by God to build His church inside the prison and to hear the testimonies of what God is doing is just awesome. 'Jan' is just walking in obedience to God’s calling for Him and that is good enough for now.
'Jan' is a A+ Theological student from a Bible College in South Africa in spite of he’s limited resource material and circumstances inside . . . but he looks up to the heavens and know that he’s help comes from Heaven.
Martyn Crompton and Gerrit Booyens joined me on Monday to
visit 'Jan'. Martyn is from Leeds, England
and is helping at Christ Church Bangkok where Gerrit is the administrator of
the church. It was truly a wonderful and
blessed day and we all could felt the presence of the Lord during our visit.
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