Every Thursday, Kristin Fuller and others from the long-term base in Nicaragua head over to the Granada jail to share the life-giving power of God’s love and forgiveness.

Thursday morning is perhaps my favorite morning of the week since I have moved to Nicaragua.  It’s the morning when my team and I put on matching green shirts, pray together, and head over to the Granada jail for ministry.

This is my favorite ministry that I’ve joined in so far . . . and I hope this blog will explain why.

Each Thursday morning, we are allowed to enter the jail and meet in various ways with different groups of the inmates. Some of the men participate in small groups while others are offered worship and a message while still in their cells. The women on our team get to meet in a “small group” with the approximately 12 women inmates each week. 

During our time together we work through discipleship material to study and discuss the Scriptures. The women are engaged and eager to understand more. We also have a time for crafts, painting nails, and simply enjoying fellowship together.

We get to build relationships, we study about God’s grace, forgiveness, and love . . . but even more, we get to demonstrate it.

The reasons for their incarcerations are different. The seriousness of their charges varies. Some are guilty.  Some are innocent.

All are loved.

As I spent time with the Lord last Thursday morning, preparing my mind and heart to go to the jail, the lyrics from “You are More,” a song by Tenth Avenue North, came to mind. It’s a song about how we are more than our mistakes, sins, successes, and choices, about how what matters is what God did for us and not what we’ve done.

It’s a song that speaks of restoration and his great love for us. 

*Photo by camilleesue.

This is the message I want to remember in my everyday life, the posture with which I want to approach others. This is the message that I want these ladies to receive . . . not only through my words as we meet each week, but through my actions as well.

I am more than the choices that I’ve made and so are these women. God’s grace, forgiveness, and love are equally sufficient for all of us.

Living and serving with the Adventures Bridge in Nicaragua means that I also get to work alongside Jesse, who is an incredible example of God’s work of restoration. Jesse has a similar story – he too once served time in prison. Then he met Christ and now this man of God preaches the Gospel throughout Nicaragua. I believe he is a living example of where the men and women we currently work with in the jail could be if they believed in, accepted, and lived out God’s forgiveness and grace in their own lives.

Is God calling you to live the Gospel in another country? Click here to learn more about long-term missions with Adventures.