At one point during a sports team’s five-hour visit to a prison during their Brazil mission trip, they saw 11 guards walk one manacled prisoner down a corridor lined with peeling gray-green walls on one side.
BELO – At one point during a sports team’s five-hour visit to a prison during their Brazil mission trip, they saw 11 guards walk one manacled prisoner down a corridor lined with peeling gray-green walls on one side.
He was not among the 40 or so prisoners outfitted in red prison garb and black flip-flops invited by prison officials to participate in two hours of sports in a courtyard surrounded by two decks of cells – each 8×8, each holding two to four inmates. This two hours was to be the prisoners only recreation time all week.
“It [the Americans’ visit] helps the prisoners get along with each other better,” said Luciana A. Bettini Romero, public affairs coordinator.
Each year the Brazil mission team is permitted into several prisons. Jimmy LaGrassa of Fort Worth, Texas, and Keith White of Highland New Iberia were coaches for the seven-member team of female athletes. (No male athletes had signed up for the Brazil mission trip.)
“I was petrified,” said middle-aged Kathy Smith of Marietta, Ga., after she heard Sunday what she would be doing as part of the sports team. “A woman? In physical contact with hardened criminals?”
The team started by teaching the Brazilians – several of whom removed their flip-flops – basketball skills and drills. That opened the door, LaGrassa said. After a game of basketball, the sport switched to soccer, which Brazilians master as children, from years of kicking cans, plastic jugs or whatever in makeshift games. Soccer built a bridge, LaGrassa said.
Near the end of the two hours, Jesus walked over that bridge.
The sports team gathered the prisoners into a semi-circle and with the Word of God and the testimony of a player, shared the gospel with the men. Most bowed their heads respectfully. More than half prayed to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
And that’s not all. One long and lanky prisoner expressed his thanks to a team member. He had never before played basketball, but his 14-year-old son has started. Now he has something to talk about with his son, he said.
“We sweat together and build relationships,” LaGrassa said. “We’re here for a reason, to share Jesus.”
About the same number of red-suited men with the Brazilian equivalent of the initials for “Louisiana Department of Corrections” on their backs made professions of faith in the afternoon session.