the first night i met mario was a thursday night bible study at we will go. he snuck in the door and sat on the back row, right by me. he was dirty, had on old dirt clothes and didn't smell very good. i was instantly curious about him. i asked a few of the other missionaries about him and was just told "he is a hard one." so i instantly became even more curious about him. that sunday at church he was there and i went up to him on the street and we had very small casual conversation. i started praying small for him but believing big. over the next few weeks when he would come by, we would have more small talk and then one day i got him. see, with those people that are hard to reach, you just have to find one thing that brings connection to them and when you get that, you get them. so my way of getting mario was - dominos. yes, all those domino games played at my grandparents growing up paid off. mario is the domino dominator. so we played dominos on the peace house porch. and i won, but really, mario let me win.
fast forward a few months and many more conversations, mario is in the hinds county detention center. for a while too. each person that lives here has a love for mario. even though years ago he tried to kill amy! he is part of our family and he is my friend. last week i had the honor to go visit him in jail. for the few days leading up to that i prayed a lot, trying to figure out what in the world do i say to someone that is in jail. how do i encourage them? the only thing the Lord said was "tell him about Paul." ummmm, ok, what do i tell him? "just tell him about Paul." ok, i don't know what to say but ok. when i walked into that tiny room and saw my friend i was soooooo happy! it was very hard to talk to him. you are separated by a very thick peice of plastic/glass with a small hole about the size of a soup can that has little holes in it (it is not like what you see on tv) and you can barely hear each other, then add in other people in there trying to talk to their friends too, it was very frustrating. so, we had our normal small talk and laughed and he asked about everyone here and even those on the street. then i shared with him about Paul. Paul spent most of his ministry in prison. mario - even though you are in jail you can still serve jesus and share him with others! that's all i knew to say. right there in front of me he spoke his conviction and his repentance and asked for forgivness. wow.
it doesn't matter why mario is in jail now. it doesn't matter that he was once in a gang and has done a lot of really bad things. it doesn't matter that his life has been one mistake after another. what matters is that jesus is meeting him right where he is - in jail. what matters is that jesus deems me worthy enough that i get to go see him in jail. what matters is that mario knows we love him and are not giving up on him. but what matters most is that he knows jesus loves him more and will never give up on him either.
when it was time for me to leave (we only got 30 minutes) mario said "i am really glad you came and i love you" then gave me a knuckles up against the glass. and that is a beautiful thing.
