Visit to Malawi - Tuesday, June 14
Our camp court was originally planned for Tuesday, June 14 at Maula Prison. A camp court is a court proceeding that is held in the prison. Judges, court staff, prosecutors, paralegals and defense attorneys are present to hear bail applications for those who have been remanded to prison, but have not yet had a trial. In addition to the camp court, we planned to have members of our group's medical team hold a clinic in Maula for this day. As the camp court was postponed, we needed another plan for the day. We decided to continue with the medical clinic with our justice team spending the day at the prison worshiping and reviewing cases for fine payments and bail applications.
We hosted a worship service in the morning with the men. God's presence was palpable. After worship, we broke up into small groups to hear the prisoner's stories. We learned about their lives, how they ended up in prison, what prison life is like, what God has done in their life while in prison and what they plan to do upon their release. I was amazed that the majority of the men I met with were thankful for their time in prison. They said they were "sick" or not living a good lives before going to prison, but now their lives have been changed because they found Christ.
We worked on cases and worshiped with the women in the afternoon. While we were on the women's side of the prison, two of our team members met with women who had children with them in prison to find out about their cases. This is how our team learned about Lucy and her three year old daughter, Unity.
Accordingly to Lucy, a mob justice incident occurred at the police station near her village. This resulted in the police going to her village and arresting her and Unity. Lucy claimed that Unity was in the hospital receiving a blood transfusion when the mob justice incident occurred. We did not know it at the time, but Lucy's case would become a focal point of our work. And, God would make the impossible possible.