JOY despite the prison she's in!

Let me tell you about one of yesterday's girls. I'll call her Joy, because she's a bubbling jar of it. She's a joy to be around. She exuberates laughter. She's playful. She wants to make you glad and go the extra mile in hopes to make you feel good. Her "joy" comes from the Lord!

Another girl in our group described her yesterday as "carbonated." She said she's like a carbonated drink. She always bubbly.

Now. How's that for a desciption?

"Joy" is in prison. She's a beautiful girl. She wants to be a hair dresser when she gets out. I hope she makes it. She's good at it. I love all of her different "doo"s when she walks in. She had a variety of jobs before she committed her crime. Her last one before being incarcerated was working in a sandwich shop in a hospital. She told us that all the nurses loved her. What she told me next verified that they did.

She was pregnant when convicted, and thus lived her months of pregnancy in prison. Once she went into labor, she was taken back to the hospital where she once worked. She was handcuffed to the bed (like prisoners are) in her toil of birthing the child that she had (what a sad way to come into this world). And yet, she told me, all of those nurses that knew her before came to see her and pray with her there! (What a way for a babe to be birthed onto this earth.... bathed in prayers with nurses who care!)

"The LORD hears the needy and does not despise His captive people." (Psalm 69:33)

(Katie, THANK YOU for praying for these girls!)