My Bible reading schedule placed me in the book of Isaiah, so on the morning of our second day on the train I read these verses from Isaiah 61:1-3:
"The spirit of the LORD God is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of
the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."
Many will recognize these verses, as I did, as the passage of Scripture that Jesus read when he initiated his public ministry in his hometown synagogue. These words describe not only his mission, but the heart of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is the very reason Christ came.
“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:
for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matt 1:21
When I read those verses penned by Isaiah I laid the Bible in my lap and tearfully petitioned God again to hasten this day for our daughter.
In one sense I have been grateful that our daughter was sent to prison three years ago. Even though she was living in another country and didn’t tell us many details of the kind of life she was leading, we knew that she was on a fast track to destruction. When she was eventually arrested and sentenced to seven years in a Dominican prison, her train was de-railed, so to speak, and was forced to look at herself and her future in a different light.
Foreign prisons have a way of stripping away arrogance and it wasn’t long before she came to grips with God’s claim on her life. Today, her testimony is “I was sent to prison to find my freedom.” So, yes, I am grateful that God in his mercy loved our daughter enough to arrange circumstances to prepare her heart to receive an eternal pardon. As we have visited her in the prison over the last couple of years, we have watched the Spirit give her “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Praise God that today she is literally a tree “of righteousness, the planting of the Lord” and that God has been truly glorified. However, as her parents, we have also been praying for the physical deliverance of our daughter from prison.
In the Dominican Republic it is customary for prisoners to be available for parole when half of their sentence has been served. If a prisoner has modeled good behavior, has the promise of a stable job waiting for her, and a “garante” to be released into the custody of, she can appear before the judge. At this time she will request to serve the rest of her sentence out of prison but staying in the country as she reports to a parole officer once a month. Sometimes it is difficult for a foreigner to come up with the requirements for parole since there may be no contacts or family in the DR.
As we have prayed for the prison doors to be opened over the last three years, God placed on our hearts the desire to move to the DR. In time, the Lord provided a job opportunity for us and we are now working and living in a city three hours away from where our daughter is imprisoned. We are praying that the judge will see our compassion and commitment and release a certain foreign prisoner into our custody.
The end of January marked the time when our daughter served half of her sentence so she submitted all the required paper work to the judge --- and then we waited. By the way, the accumulation and submission of this necessary mountain of paper work was a miracle in itself. We had to gather notarized (and translated) copies of everything from school contracts to birth certificates, from apartment rental agreements to utility bills that we’ve paid.
The most baffling part of this for me was to picture how a foreign prisoner could get an offer of a job … which was one of the requirements for her release. Who would want to hire an ex-con who is a foreigner and whom they may have never met? It seemed very illogical to expect that. This was a lesson in faith for me. God in his grace has given her several people who have indicated an interest in hiring her.
“But … our (daughters) dealt proudly and hardened their necks, and
hearkened not to thy commandments, … but thou art a God ready to
pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and forsookest them not.” Nehemiah 9:16,17
Recently we have heard that her papers were received and were in order, and that the judge has set the court date for March 5th. If everybody shows up on time (which can be a major problem in this country) then our daughter will present her case and the judge will make a decision.
When the Lord told Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint a king to replace Saul, he did not tell Samuel that it was the shepherd boy David until the very last moment. God had one more lesson to teach this aged man of God:
“For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” I Samuel 16:7
Likewise, I realize that the Lord has led us here to the DR for more reasons than to provide a safe-house for our daughter in her transition to a “normal” life. God has many lessons to teach my wife and me on our way to “Bethlehem,” so I don’t know if this will work out as we planned. We are taking one day at a time. But right now we are fervently praying that on March 5th God will “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”
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