I cannot post any pictures, as I was not allowed to take a camera inside the prison, but I hope I can paint a picture through words.
We spend time with these women who are from all over Europe and other countries and they are in such amazing need. All of them are there for drug trafficking and some are only 19 years old. We spent time praying with them, talking about life, how they came to know the Lord or what their relationship is with God and how they are doing. Two stories really stand out.
Happyness (that is her spelling) is from South Africa, of the tribe of Zulu. She is this beautiful and large African woman that loves the Lord and was caught carrying drugs in and out of her store where she sold purses. She left behind her boyfriend and twins, who will turn five the first week of August. She is expected to be released in one year and she is very ready to return home and marry her boyfriend of 7 years, who is also the father of her twins. She loves the Lord so much and was so excited to see us and share time with us. We talked about her life and what she is going to do once she gets out.
Switching gears, I don't even know the woman's name, but she was from Holland and was probably 50. Her husband works for the mafia and is a millionaire in Holland. She has ties with the government and all the way up the chain of command and usually she does not run the drugs herself. However, she needed the cash and decided to take 3,000 kilos or about 7,000 pounds into Argentina. She was busted and has been thrown in this prison where she was diagnosed with brain and liver cancer. She will not let the doctors here touch her, not that I could blame her, and she has about one more month to live unless she can get to her doctors in Switzerland. Her husband has offered to pay 2 million euros, or about 2.8 million dollars, to Argentine authorities to release her but they refuse to let her go. She is scheduled to be released in four months, but as she told me today, "I would rather go back to my country alive, not in a suitcase." She does not know the Lord, but comes to the meetings.
The prison itself: Cold - the heater does not work in the gym, which is where we were. They intentionally build the prisons so no window gets direct sunlight. The only light radiates from the faces of the women that know the Lord and know their hope is in something much greater than the cold walls.
When it is time to feed the women, the prisoners hand out a basket, the guards put in as much food as they want and give it back to the prisoners. It should be noted that 30 or 40 prisoners will be put into one cell and they will have to share the basket of food. If you do not get enough, well, that's just tough and you will have to buy more from the prison, which is possible, as long as you have money.
Rats run rampant and the bathrooms are rarely cleaned. On the personal hygiene front, 30 percent of all the prisoners have full blown Aids or are HIV positive.
We also went to a place called SACDEM, where they work with prisoners. The head of it, Daniel, is amazing. Here is his testimony, "Many of us have things in our past that we want to run away from and never think about again. Daniel Ruffinatti has spent the last 22 years of his life facing his past head on. He uses his experiences to bless others who struggle with the same circumstances in which he once found himself. When Daniel was a young man, he became involved in the federal police force in Argentina. At that time, Argentina was in the midst of a military dictatorship and the police were trained to be involved in the corrupt and violent activities of the government. This quickly began to affect Daniel's personality and led him into a life of crime and violence—not only within the force, but in his own personal life, as well. Daniel was soon diagnosed as "paranoid schizophrenic" and placed on a list of the 100 most dangerous criminals in Argentina due to his mental illness and his capacity to commit crimes. Daniel was placed in a prison for criminals with mental illness where he was locked in a small dark cell. His only clothing was a straitjacket. He states, "I lived like an animal and did not even recognize my own family." While Daniel was in prison, another inmate who was sight-impaired asked Daniel to read the Bible to him. When they read Deuteronomy chapter four, the two men felt God's presence. After that day, the other man did not want to continue reading, but Daniel finished the Bible on his own in twenty days! From then on, Daniel's life changed dramatically. God had shown him that God is never far from us. We don't need to cross the seas to reach God's presence. Even in Daniel's dark cell, God was with him. Although he was physically in chains, Daniel felt freedom through Christ. His personality and his behavior changed, and God healed his mind. He was released from prison into a mental hospital, but the psychiatrists there said he had no symptoms of mental illness. Within two months, Daniel was a completely free man. Daniel did not run away from his past. Instead, he followed God's call for him to return to the prisons and mental hospitals to share Christ's love and mercy. For over 22 years, he has been doing just that. He and his wife, María Elena, created SACDEM, an outreach ministry for the mentally ill and the detained. They serve as pastors. Their church, however, does not have four walls; it has hundreds. Their church is the prison. Their church is the psychiatric hospital. Often, when we find ourselves in hard times, we feel as if we are in a dark pit and there is no way out. But Christ offers us hope and gives us freedom inside. Though we may be surrounded by difficulty, God provides us with light at the end of the tunnel. Daniel encouraged his listeners to show God's hope and light to each other and to pray to God asking God to use their lives and their hands to be the hands of Christ, lifting others out of that pit and showing them that God is near."
What is amazing is how the government treats the mentally here: They medicate the heck out of them, leave them in fece-ridden beds and then let them rot. Most of them spend 20-40 years there and are so sick, they will never leave. This is a different prison from the one we visited today and we only saw a movie and I had tears streaming down my face. The workers at SACDEM love the Lord so much and truly loving the unlovable. The government pays no attention to this group of society, as they are not a political priority because of their inability to vote. In addition, Argentina does not have anything even remotely resembling the ACLU or another human rights organization. However, these people are important in the eyes of God and they are truly loved by the workers at SACDEM.
We had the privelege of working with a private school while in B.A. and were able to teach the kids a very American game: Baseball! They loved it and had such a good time playing. We also spent time with these first and seventh graders in their English Class. They fell in love with us, just as we did with them. You can never underestimate the power of a huge, smile or word of encouragement.
