Christmas in Jail

A Strange Place To Find Peace on Earth

Christmas in Jail

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When the Mexican teenager walked into the county jail, he was understandably nervous.

The nineteen-year-old, baby-faced Hispanic youth had never been in jail before and he had no idea what to expect. Would he be robbed, assaulted, raped? The other prisoners looked at him with suspicion. They distrusted anyone who did not share their anger, paranoia, and mindless destructiveness.

Eliasar Salazar Zamora had reason to fear them. He was a simple boy from a small mountain town in Mexico who didn’t even speak English. After a few days passed and the terror in his eyes subsided, I approached him. I decided to teach Zamora enough English to survive in jail. He grinned when he sensed that I was going to help him. I made flash cards of the alphabet out of toilet paper. He was an eager student and learned the entire alphabet in just two days. But he still didn’t have…

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Comments (Join the discussion)

  1. Paul's avatar
    Paul

    yes even prisoners are God’s children

  2. ebuck7's avatar
    ebuck7

    I was in prison for 4 years religion is very important but sometimes abused.

  3. sofia's avatar
    sofia

    I was tearful after reading this article. Now I became more interested to do jail volunteer.

  4. graciousness's avatar
    graciousness

    God is everywhere. And Jesus can find his way into our hearts when we make way for him. He is not limited by our environment- prison, kitchen or even in the toilet.

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