Prison Ministry

We’ve been assigned to various ministries for the next half a year.. I’ve been assigned to the Prison ministry and Youth Ministry. For Prison Ministry, we are currently working with the Sisters of the Holy Eucharist to provide Restorative formation to inmates at Manila’s Maximum Security Prision. The aim of this formation is to ‘restore’ the dignity of the prisoners and also to share Christ with them. The prison we visit is quite different from what we usually know of a prison. The prison compound itself is like a mini village housing more than 15000 inmates. The prisoners can ‘make their own living’ within the village by buying and selling items for daily living and to visitors. What saddened me was the extremely poor living conditions for these inmates. For me, it is also learning to share Jesus in the prison and to see Christ’s face in these inmates no matter what they have been convicted for.