The lost wallet and the joy of Christmas

This week I and the rest of the staff of CCJinja have had the blessing of bringing the message of the birth of Jesus to the men and women in the Jinja prisons. It has been a fun, spiritually blessed three days of music, drama and preaching. The blessing for me this year has been in giving over the leadership role to either Steven or Simon at the prisons the serve. They did a fantastic job as well as Julie and Richard and all the young people who take part.

Today was our last presentation for remand and women's prison but after bringing all the equipment in setting it up I left to go load up 650 lbs. of rice back at the church. When I arrived I noticed my wallet was missing. My pocket had been picked or I had been careless and lost it. How foolish I felt and then came the anger at the man who stole it and the embarassment of having to tell the Officer in Charge. The only solution was to physically search all 600 men. It was going to ruin The Christmas Program.

Then I realized that my wallet can't ruin the joy of the sharing of the gospel. It is a minor incovenience to lose a driving permit. But it is loss of tragic proportions to keep others from coming to Jesus. And that is what I was in danger of doing to others because of myselfishness and desire to get that wallet back. I asked God to forget about the wallet and just bring peace, joy hope and love to the men. God changed my outlook and the day was a success! The inmates responded with enthusiasm people got saved and the prisoners were happy.

God was going to do that anyway but He let me see the joy that I was losing. He Knew what was true worth and He brought it! Salvation through His son, Jesus!

I hope you have a joyful Christmas with Jesus in your heart. For true joy is only found in Him!

Jesse

By the way, I did get my wallet back. The chief of boma (ranking officer in the barracks) was told where to find it and the OC gave it to me before I left the prison. Seems it was my heart that was harder to find than my wallet.