A great adventure begins with the courage to take a single step.

A great adventure begins with the courage to take a single step. 

Walking on the beach with my sisters after a long day working in a prison.

We were already tired from a long day of traveling when we arrived at Miami International Airport with a rented van FULL of boxes and luggage, but since we had a late flight, our day was just starting! It is actually a long story, but God gave us great favor with a manager over baggage who really cared about the work that we are doing and figured things out so we could check through a lot of extra bags at no extra cost. It was amazing! God is so good. We were able to bring everything that different companies had donated to us as gifts for prisoners, orphans, homeless and people in great need. 

Unloading from the van. Yes all those carts behind my brother are ours!

It is amazing how in just one flight you enter a whole different world, literally, the third world.  It is summer here in Uruguay and really hot. The place we had to stay in was really small (especially since our luggage and boxes took up half of it:) but we are a very close family and were all excited to be at the turn of a new chapter and the beginning of a great adventure.

I had already been in contact with the office that runs the prisons in Montevideo and they organized four prisons in one week. Our first prison was a women's prison, way out in the middle of no where. It is actually an abandoned hospital and looked like a condemned building. Seriously, it was like something you would see in a World War2 movie after a town was bombed. 
Because they get practically NO visitors or events here, the guards at the main gate had no idea how to go about letting us in. First they sent us to the back of the prison where there was an overgrown fence guarded by the army who had no keys to it and no way to let us in. Then when we returned they finally called the main office and arranged for us to get in. The court where we where to perform on was locked by a separate lock which no one could find the key for. After about 30min, they found the key but the lock would still not open since it was so rusted. It was like no one cared at all about these women and they were just hidden away and forgotten of by society. My brother had tools and WD40 so we were able to eventually get the lock open. 

We ended up having a beautiful time, doing multiply performances and reaching the whole prison. Some of the women where really touched and extremely grateful. This one beautiful young women had gone to a university and was into photography when a guy asked if she would be interested in traveling to Brazil to film a documentary. She was thrilled since she could never afford a trip like that on here own. She had no idea that they planted drugs in her suitcase and then set her up to take the fall of a drug smuggling ring. Now she was here in this cursed place. I was so happy to have some special little things to give these women and bring them hope.

The prisons are usually always very far from the city center in the middle of no where which is tough since gas here is over 6 dollars a gallon! Everything in this country is so expensive that even the locals have a really hard time affording the basic necessities. Actually a number of the men and women that are in prison are here because they got into running drugs to make enough money to support their families.  Anyway, on our way to a maximum security prison that was a long drive from where we were staying, a very severe tropical storm hit. The wind and the rain were so intense that water was being driven into the van windows and we had to turn back and reschedule. We saw lightning and thunder clouds like we never had before. 

My little brother suddenly started limping.....

Our next prison was large, more like a little city. We were part way into our presentation and were performing the Brazilian art of capoeira when my youngest brother, David, suddenly pulled up and started limping off. When I saw his face I knew something was very wrong because he would not stop for any type of miner injury. We iced his leg and got him in a chair while we finished sharing with the prisoners and said goodbye. They sent us to a hospital down town and we had to wait a while in the emergency room.  David had torn his achilles tendon and had to have a full leg cast put on. It was scary looking around at the poor conditions of a third world hospital but I know that He is in Gods hands. It is going to be really tough traveling in our van and living in small quarters. 

David is very athletic,  full of energy and he and I often go running  and exploring together so it makes me really sad to see my little brother trying to get around on crutches. When I had my accident a few years ago, besides the pain, it was really hard to deal with not being able to do everything I wanted to and having to spend time in a wheel chair but through it all I learned a lot and my character grew. I know that in the end the Lord will work this to my brothers good. If in suffering, we choose humility instead of self pity or bitterness, we can find a "place" that gives us an advantage because God dwells with the humble and says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit...". 

To those that are lowly in spirit, light can be found in darkness. Hope can be found in a hopeless situation and even in the worst storm, a rainbow can appear. God will hear the broken of spirit. 

We were at the hospital late into the night and had had a performance scheduled at a prison early the next morning. We talked about canceling it since we were all really tired, worn down and would have to try to adjust all our dances and theater acts since David could not participate. But in the end we decided to go ahead with it knowing the Father would meet us with His grace and David said there was no way we were canceling on his account. These prisoners have nothing and no one and we have this one chance to give them something and bring them a "rainbow" in all their suffering. 

This prison is the largest and worse in Uruguay and we did a number of presentations to reach different sections. The only area we could perform at was in the direct burning sun. We had a shade screen but  opted to let the prisoners use it so they would not be uncomfortable but enjoy what we were doing for them. 

   My brother and I performing Irish dance.

By the power of Gods love, we were able to have a great effect on these men. We were supposed to only get an hour with each group but it turned into two hours and the men just sat there when we were done and would not leave. They were hanging on our every word and many were in tears. One man told me that we brought him what he never had in prison, "Alegria" (meaning joy and is the theme of a magic routine we do). When we were in the States my brother David got a company to donate some really cool hats that we use as special gifts. This one young man said since he was a kid he had wished that he could own a hat like that and when David gave him one it was like he just got a car. One man had been in prison with a short sentence when one night he was attacked and stabbed three times. He fought back and shoved his attacker against a wall which accidentally killed the man. Now he has a seven year sentence. 

I read a story about a man that was in this prison. His cousin hated him, so he lied to the cops, got false witnesses and accused him of stealing motorcycle parts. In his first month in prison he kept thinking surely someone would find out he was innocent and release him, but after a year it hit him...he was in prison. "The prison is a horror" he wrote, "It stole my youth and there is no justice".  He wrote that he did not think he would survive prison since every few days there were fights and riots and the food is a lost in edible. 

It is hard for me to describe to you the horrible injustice that prisoners face especially if someone has lived a comfortable life style and has not really known suffering or dealt with injustice. When we were in the States I called a company to ask if they would consider donating some little air fresheners for these guys to put by there bed and give a little relief to the horrible stench they face. The manager replied in a most condescending tone that he would never help or give something to someone in prison. It kind of took me back, but then again I guess I understand why many have a negative, "they get what they deserve", attitude towards prisoners.  I know that many do deserve punishment and many have done great harm since I have often worked with the victims of crime,  but imagine yourself in your weakest moment or in a moment of rage and anger. Anyone of us could find ourselves in a situation where the consequences where more than we could bare.

One man was too injured and week to come down so he watched from behind bars. When we were done he threw down a swan that he had made out of paper as a gift. I will always remember when I tried to toss up a shirt to him, seeing just his hand stick out and try to catch what I was throwing him. 

I know this is getting too long so to sum up it was a great privilege and I know that the Father used us to bring His love into a dark place. So many prisoners remembered our names and specific things we had done when we were here last year. All though there was not time to perform in all the patios, we were able to give them new pamphlets to read and beautiful pictures we had brought to put in their cells(one is a window looking out at a mountain that gives the illusion of it being right out their door). We were also able to give many of them a tin survival blanket and they were so very grateful for them and said that it is very cold in the cement cells even in the summer. I am extremely grateful to the company that donated them to me and showed such kindness and generosity. I pray that God would repay the individual that chose to care. Even a few of the guards said that they get very cold in the late shifts and since they were too embarrassed to ask me for a blanket, they asked a prisoner to ask me for them.  When we were at the hospital a man who was now free, recognized us from being in this prison when we were here last year and said it really impacted his life.

We have also been having an effect with the crowds down town, in the city center and on the boardwalks and beaches. After a long day in the prisons we headed to the city center to perform at a busy square. I don't know how my parents do it some times, even when they are absolutely exhausted and drained from the sun they still find more to give. 

There are many tourists from other countries as well as the locals and we try to put a seed in their heart and show them that there is something beyond just surviving, working a job,  going to school and beyond the here and now. Life is so much more than living for ourselves. We each have the power to love, to care to touch another life and this power is a responsibility, Jesus said, "Whatever you do to the least of  My brothers, you do to Me...(Mt.25:35)" Many homeless on the down town streets were very grateful for a survival blanket and one man told me he could use it as a way to find a clean spot on the dirty street as well as keep him warm. 

Check out this long looong trailer! Just one of the cool things you see on Latin American roads that fall into my, "Laugh or cry sites that scare the heck out of you while driving through Latin America". They had a separate motor for the back axels. 

So I'll sign off for now and leave you with a sequence of pictures I took of one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. Every day God paints His "magic" in the sky and shows how great His love is, it's just up to us to stop running long enough to see it.  

May God bless you.