Ten years ago, touched by the need for Spanish-speaking volunteers in Arizona prisons, Maria Marin responded to a call from Prison Fellowship. But she still had some reservations. She remembers telling the Lord, “I will go willingly into the women’s prison, but please don’t send me to the men’s prison!”
After completing Prison Fellowship volunteer training, Maria began to minister to female inmates. But soon she heard about the need for volunteers to help with an Operation Starting Line in-prison evangelistic event, and she found herself on the yard of a men’s prison. There, she says, “One young gentleman approached us volunteers. He was a huge man, and he talked to us in Spanish, crying in front of us, ‘Sister, come and help us. We are Christians. We’re here. We need brothers and sisters to come and help us in the men’s prisons. We have a chaplain, but I’m the only translator!’”
The young prisoner’s tears stirred Maria, and, moving from reluctance to compassion, she began to teach Spanish-language seminars and Bible studies in men’s prisons—the one place she had asked God to not send her.
“I just fell in love with the [men’s] prison,” she says.
Here I Am, Send Someone Else
But as time went on and greater opportunities opened to her, Maria still held onto some reluctance. She didn’t want to be a leader.
“Ever since I started, I’ve been placed in positions of leadership. And I would say, ‘No, I would rather put anybody else to be a leader besides me. Please put someone else to be the leader!’”
Maria’s leadership crisis continued until, she says, she felt God speaking to her from Scripture. When she read 1 Samuel 8 in her personal Bible study time, she learned how the nation of Israel went to the prophet Samuel and demanded to be given a king, so that they could be like all the other nations around them. At first, Maria wanted to judge Israel harshly. How could they do that?, she thought. They have Jehovah as their leader! But then, Maria says, she felt the Lord telling her that by always seeking other volunteers to lead her, she, like Israel, was forgetting that she already had God as her guide.
A New Confidence
“From there on,” says Maria, “I stopped fighting for putting anybody else in front of me. I said to God, You be my guide, I will follow You, and You can do the work that You want to do.”
Today, Maria has become a leader and trainer for PF volunteers in Arizona. She feels confident, knowing that God is truly at the helm. And that perspective helps her deal with the challenges accompanying increased responsibility.
When she leads new volunteers into prison, for example, she reminds them that God bears ultimate responsibility for the schedule. Events at the prison might make it necessary for the volunteers to practice flexibility, but God still controls the situation.
“Don’t be alarmed if we get there and Jesus switches everything around, and we do something different,” Maria tells them. “He rules. He’s the Lord of the ministry”
Recognition of Jesus’ ultimate leadership also helps her handle problems with other volunteers that might arise from personality or denominational differences. If a problem comes up, she says, she simply brings it to “the leader.” She makes sure that her stance as a leader reflects biblical essentials and focuses on obeying God’s call to serve prisoners, rather than becoming embroiled in personality conflicts.
It also helps her to sort out God’s calling from among many dissenting voices that might discourage her in her ministry.
“Whenever the well-minded sisters or brothers approach us to tell us not to put ourselves in danger,” says Maria, “we have to go and ask Jesus if that’s from Him. I’ve been told many, many times why I shouldn’t do this. Every time I feel overwhelmed, I have to ask, Lord, do You want me to keep on going? He always lets me know that I’m in the path, and that He’s watching over me and leading me every step of the way.”