Zambia Report #4 - Tuesday

Central Prison Visit

Today we visited Central Prison where they have over 1,000 inmates.  We had to wait out in the hot sun for almost an hour while they checked our paper work.  While waiting, we saw inmates come and go and met many people.  Once we got inside, we were given a yellow visitor’s jacket and we had to leave everything we had, like bags and phones, with the guards at the desk, and we were only allowed to bring in our Bibles.

After all the security and documentation checks, we waked into the prison and were just surrounded by what looked liked a sea of men.  The inmates had looks of anger, rage and despair on their faces.  Many men just laid on the ground with blank expressions because they had just given up on life.  When we came to the end of walking, we sat down on a small wooden bench in the hot sun and waited for the administration to gather the men together.

As we waited, one of the guards came over to me and told me that it was about to be lunchtime so I only had fifteen minutes to speak to the men and then we all had to leave.  I turned to Rev. Kalinsky and said. “It only took about 20 seconds to say “Let there be light in the Bible and it was,” so fifteen minutes is enough time.”

I preached on the bones from Ezekiel’s graveyard coming together.  God was going to take the dead, dry, scattered, broken, abandoned lives and send a word that would cause everything to come back together.  As I preached, inmates cried, screamed out, shouted.  God was delivering men and setting them free as I was preaching.  The inmates are supposed to sit still and be quiet while someone is teaching, but this time the Holy Ghost was moving and it spread over those inmates like a wild fire!  Inmates were crying out to Jesus, jumping, shouting, and dancing!  Their liberation had come; their victory had come.  God was giving them another chance.

The next thing I knew, the power of God had swept through that entire prison.  It touched administration in their offices, and they had to come out and join the meeting.  It even flowed over the wall and down the road to the women’s prison and we got reports that they were shouting and praising God as the Holy Ghost moved on them.

As God kept moving, over 1,000 men are being touched by God!  When I gave the altar call, all I could see were hands everywhere.  Hundreds asked Jesus in their hearts and then we held hands and prayed together and the power of God shook that place.  Some men were falling to the ground under the power of God while others lifted their hands to Heaven with eyes full of tears and just kept crying out to God.  One man, who served another god, threw down his hat and sobbed and accepted Jesus as his personal Savior!  A great transformation has taken place in this prison today.  God walked though this place!

When it was time to go, the inmates kept coming up to me just wanting to be touched.  Others pressed through the crowd just to touch my clothes.  They had been touched by the power of God!  I kept trying to move towards the door and many of the men formed a line so I could touch every head on my way out.

Once we left the prison, the guards said they have never experienced anything like this before.  They said, “We have never seen all of the inmates so moved by the power of God.  We were all touched and changed today because you came with the word of God!”

God bless you & Thank you for praying
Rev. Sanchez