I was in prison and did you visit me?

Matthijs has been visiting Dutch citizens in prisons for awhile now. This has always felt like a good thing for him to do, but not something for me. He's asked me about it a few times, but my answer has been no. I'll make it possible for you to travel to do this, but I have enough on my plate already. 

On Good Friday, I went to a service where they offered a variation of "the complaints of God." It includes quotes the text from Matthew 25, which asks where were you when I was hungry, sick, in prison. And I have mostly ignored the 'in prison' part of it, because who did I know in prison? 

And well, it felt like a nudge from the Spirit this time to say, um, well, actually there's that woman in Matthijs' region that he hasn't been able to visit. So I do know know at least one person who needs a visit and I am one of the few people I know who is uniquely qualified to visit (qualified in the sense of being a Dutch speaker living in this region who has pastoral training). And there was a sense that if I can help, shouldn't I? So I reached out to the organization that Matthijs works with to let them know that I was willing to visit women in prison in Canada or nearby. 

This request to visit only women is a bit odd, but not atypical of me. One of the things that I was doing on Sabbatical was to continue to understand how being autistic affects my life. Interestingly enough, a study/podcast on Christianity on the spectrum highlighted that pastors who are autistic tend to do well when we focus on certain niches (like I do with campus ministry). So just because I'm a pastor and have gifts for pastoral care for young adults and folks connected to the university does not mean that I'm good at pastoral care for all people, and it's okay for me to recognize my current limitations. 

Most prisoners are men, so I figured my willingness to visit women in prison meant that I was helping but also not signing up to do too much. However, as what feels a bit like the Spirit laughing at me (or at least a verification of that initial nudge), in Canada there are a number of Dutch women in prison who are interested in a prison visit. So this is the beginning of a new experience in ministry for me. I pray that I might listen well and share God's hope with people's lives who are differently complicanted than mine.