prison ministry

Saturday I went with a group of 16 or 17 women from the ship to visit the women's prison in Freetown. The prison ministry alternates every other week between the women's and men's prisons. I really didn't know what to expect, but we all had a good time! We did a Bible lesson, sang some praise songs with the inmates, and then worked on crafts/activity pages and just spent time with them for a couple of hours. It was fun getting to know the inmates, even though we couldn't understand each other very well. The women I sat with enjoyed making fun of my miserable attempts at speaking Krio. ;-) I'm not sure exactly what the inmates were in prison for, but we were told that it's often for debt or financial issues. One of the ladies was trying to explain to my friend Rachael why she was there, but because of the language barrier she couldn't find the right words. Rachael told her "It doesn't matter, I'll be your friend anyway" and the lady almost started crying.

Traffic was terrible on the way back to the ship on Saturday - we drove down lots of little streets full of pot-holes for about an hour and a half. I think that during all the bouncing up and down I injured my neck, because for the past 3 days my neck has been hurting more and more and getting really stiff. Right now I can barely turn my head, and I've had a throbbing headache all day. Please, please pray for it to get better soon! My shift on the ward was hard to handle today, with energetic kids climbing up my legs and squealing in my ears - I just kept getting tenser and tenser until I took a break, ran down the hall to my cabin and cried for about 10 minutes. Then I had a cup of tea and was able to get through the rest of my shift. But I've called in sick for tomorrow, and will probably go to the crew clinic in the morning. I'd really appreciate your prayers right now.