"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor.  
He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners."  
Isaiah 61 : 1-2
The Prison Ministry
Prison Transport for up to 25 kids!
In stark contrast to the prison system in Scotland, in
Bolivia, if a man is sent to prison, his family is allowed
to move into the prison with him!  In the men's prison
there are around 200 inmates and many of them have
their wives and children living with them inside the
prison.

Some of these families have nowhere else to live
since the main breadwinner is in jail and the mother
has to care for the children, but other families just
choose to live in the prison, often because the father
doesn't want to be lonely and away from his family.

The law actually states that only children under the
age of 6 are allowed to live inside the prison and only
if both parents are in jail, so most of the children are
not technically meant to be living there, but it's a
countrywide problem in all prisons and no one seems
to be able to do anything about it, which is frustrating,
but God's timing is perfect and we need to trust that in
His time, He'll put an end to children living in jail.
There are around 40 children in the men's prison,
between the ages of 3 and 16, who are involved in
the "Freedom Kids" programme .  They come out of
the prison for classes twice a week, on Tuesdays
and Thursdays.  We are now also working in the
woman's prison, where there is a small number of
children living there with their mothers. They come
to classes, along with ex-prison kids from the area
near the prison on Mondays and Wednesdays

They also have their health and dental care
provided for them at the Totai health centre and
we are in the process of trying to ensure that all
the children have birth certificates and are
enrolled in school. We are now not using the truck
to transport but children and have a rented
mini-bus instead which accomodated more
children and is safer.

Visitation with the families is an important part of
the work, as cooperation from parents is vital to be
able to really help the kids and also the family as a
whole.
The twice weekly classes are an important time to get to know the children, talk with them and
share the gospel message with them.  They sing songs, listen to bible lessons, learn memory
verses, watch bible story cartoons, colour in, do crafts, play games and finish with juice and
biscuits!
The Men's Prison in Trinidad-Beni
The bus that brings the kids from the prison to the
classes
June 2004
June 2006
" I was in prison and you came to visit
me" Matthew 25 : 36
The Vasquez Alvarado children have been in the men's prison for over 2 year now and as you can see from the
photos, the 4 children are now 5!  There are many babies being born to prisoners on a regular basis, and the
mother usually leaves the prison to go to the hospital to have her baby and then arrives back to the prison with a
2-day old baby.  It's hard to think of these tiny babies and how they're starting out their lives, but although the
situation of chilren living in prison is far from perfect, it opens up doors for us to take the gospel into jail and to
reach children and families for the Lord.  This particular family has been involved in the freedom kids ministry for 2
years now and are the most enthusiastic family in the kids club and little Paula (5 years old) is a star at learning her
memory verses!  Their mum and the baby also come along to church with us quite often and we have built up a
good relationship with the family, which we hope we will be able to continue when they leave the prison, but more
importantly, we hope that our testimony will be honouring to God and that He will use us for his glory and change
lives and families.