March 6, 2015

Chiang Mai, Thailand

It’s Friday once again. It’s become a favorite day for Wiley and I as it’s the day we go to prison!

As visitors that is. Today’s visit with “young Ali”, was very moving to me. In the short 10 weeks that I have been visiting Ali, I have seen him grow spiritually by leaps and bounds. In January, he was on the fence between his Muslin beliefs as he was raised, and Christianity. When he left Pakistan, he met a young woman from the Philippines who was a Christian. She became Ali’s girlfriend. I’m not sure how Ali found himself in Thailand, but it was here that he was convicted of on-line hacking into a bank. He’s been in Chiang Mai’s Men’s Prison for the past seven months. An older prison inmate Ali/Paul, around 45 years old, also from Pakistan, has mentored young Ali and spoke to him of Christ.

This prison ministry is over thirty years old. Thanks to one woman by the name of Kathryn. She is a Missionary, originally from New Zealand but has lived in Thailand for close to forty years. She acts as liaison between the foreign prisoners and the legal system of which she has become nothing shy of an expert. Kathryn is a God-send for these foreign prisoners. The seeds of prayer and good works that she and her small and ever-changing team has sewn, has now been seeing a harvest of souls. It’s actually quite clear, that for some of these men, it took incarceration and the loss of their freedom to find peace for their searching souls and confidence through the leading of The Holy Spirit to guide them the rest of their lives. This is what I see in young Ali! He prays that he will be strong to hold fast to The Lord when he is free. He told me today, that it is easier to cling to this new Christian faith while “protected” inside the prison. But, to be outside – free and subject to temptations… that will be the test.

Young Ali, has asked me to re-name him. He would like to have a Christian name, a Biblical name. His birth name is Mohammed Ali. There are several “Ali’s” in prison, so I have nicknamed him “young Ali”, as he is only 22 years old. Today, Ali shared with me a telephone conversation that he had with his Pakistani father. His father told him that if he chooses the Bible over the Koran, that it would be the last conversation that he would have with his son. This is serious. Two Christian Pakistani men from our church have told me that Ali should not return to his hometown as Ali’s life would be in danger.

Young Ali is looking to me as his spiritual “mama.” He’s making a stand for Christ. He is a new creature in Christ – born again. Yes, he should have a new Christian name. The pressure I feel is tremendous! What name will this be? How much prayer and reading is required for such an honored task?

Oh, Lord… help me.

Never, did I see this as something that I would be doing… visiting men in prison in Thailand – wow!      Step out… be available… The Lord can take you places that you could never dream up on your own!