Ridgell's Originals

I am back from Honduras and what a great trip. We baptized 27 in all and so it was exciting and exhausting at the same time. I will share more but today I want to talk about the Juvenile prison. They were just getting a ministry started last year and one couple (and he is an ex-prisoner himself) committed to work in this minstry every Saturday. Last year I preached there and when we were giving out New Testaments I got pinned against the wall, the rest of the team had left and the only thing that kept me being mobbed was the fact that I could throw New Testaments to these teenagers at light speed.

This year we went into where they live. We gave out New Testaments again and two gospel tracts I had written. I was inspired and heart broken at the same time. They live in one large room with no furniture at all. Mattresses line they walls with not one inch of space between them. I have been in a lot of rough places during my years in ministy, but this was the most inhumane place I have ever seen. They stink was unbelievable and these young men were living in conditions that are hard to fathom. But they wanted their Bible, they listened as gospel was preached, and they read along in the tracts.

We baptized nineteen of them in a concrete tank that was itself very nasty. But I think it was the scars so many of these kids carried that got to me. I can only imagine the scars inside. But they are now washed clean. Will they all stay faithful? I don't know. Satan is powerful in that place, but I am sure the retention rate of kids raised in church is anything to brag about...so I will pray for them and look forward to hearing how they do.

The warden did allow two people to go back in on Sunday and let these new brothers have their first communion. The two evangelists who went in said it was incredibly touching.

More to come later.