Kent and Priscilla also donated clothing, shoes and jewelry for the girls to start a boutique. As a result of this assistance and the Word of God they brought to Belize, nearly 40 girls have graduated from the programs.
A New Door of Ministry
The Lord opened effective doors of ministry all over the world, and Kent and Priscilla never hesitated to go through them. They stayed busy, which is why Kent got off the phone when someone started talking to him about prison ministry. He had enough to do with what God had put on his plate—or so he thought.
As soon as he hung up the phone, Kent heard the Lord say, 'When I was in prison, you came to visit Me.'
Picking up the phone, Kent called the man back.
“Hey, brother,” he said, “I perceived that you wanted me to take the leadership training program into prison. Is that what you were asking? If so, I just need to know the next step.”
Kent and Priscilla stood outside the maximum security prison, looking up. They’d driven by, seeing it from a distance. Up close, it looked bigger. More intimidating. There were guard towers. Guards with guns. Constantine wire. Although the prison was in Texas, it reminded them of Alcatraz.
Priscilla’s heart felt like a jackhammer in her chest. She’d followed Kent all around the world, including into the mountains of Kenya. Sensing her hesitation, the Holy Spirit spoke.
'Your greatest blessing is on the other side of your obedience.'
“As we went into the prison,” Priscilla recalls, “I kept repeating those words under my breath. ‘My greatest blessing is on the other side of my obedience.’ I can’t describe what happened to my heart when we went inside. Most of those young men were our sons’ ages. If one of my sons was there, I would hope someone would reach out to him.
“I listened to their stories. A lot of them had no parental figures. Many were raised in homes filled with drug addictions. Some of them came from war with scars you can’t see on the outside. Most of them were dealing with traumas, PTSD and anger-management issues.
New Chances
“I don’t ignore that there are consequences to sin. But I also know that the love of God gives second, third and fourth chances or more to people who want to turn their lives around. The first thing we do is love them. We let God’s love shine through us.
“We found our niche ministering to incarcerated veterans. So many have become hardened because they’ve been rejected and forgotten. These men made a commitment to serve our country so that we could be free. They made tremendous sacrifices, not knowing if they would even come home. They made wrong choices, but that doesn’t make them bad people. It just makes them human, like the rest of us.
20 : BVOV
