Cowboy up ... convict style:)

So this weekend I got to go to the Angola rodeo! It was really great! 1st of all if you have never been to Angola it is super pretty!! It was really a day filled with beautiful creation and sweet little houses in the country because Amanda's dad took us down all these back roads to get there, which some people may not have thought was that great because we were a little late, but I found it quite lovely, and we walked in right as they were starting the 1st event!! Ya know sometimes things don't go as planned, but sometimes the day can be even greater because of it (one lesson of the day:) )

Moving along. It was kind of crazy that we were in a penitentiary or something like that (excuse the spelling) where over 5000 (Ashley correct me if I am wrong) men who have done some pretty bad things live. It just amazes me that they make this work. A few thousand people come onto the grounds and 5000 inmates and we get to have a good time together ( I mean of course they weren't all out there and we didn't like hang out with them in the stands lol but maybe you can kind of get my point).

As you enter the campus, there is a quote that says something about entering a place where you are coming into to a place where the past is the past and there are new and better things ahead (Ok so that was a runon sent, a major paraphrase, and my interpretation all together, whew maybe you can make something of it). I just loved this sweet quote, whatever it did say, because it was evident that that is what they wanted this place to be. A place to help these men change and to put the past behind them and work through whatever brought them to Angola, so they could start a new. As we walked around the crafts that they make, it was so great to see all that they do and through their art, how they really were trying to change. And every man I saw, I just wanted to know their story, just know what brought them there and how they had changed and what caused them to change. It was fun to see them having fun too.

Yes I know these are some bad guys with a bad past, but forgiveness and mercy are not reserved for the "small" sins and the people who have it all together or relatively together ... The beauty of our Saviour. He doesn't love these men any less for what they have done. He hurts because of it, but He loves them and longs for them to come to Him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMX6geenSBM&feature=related

Here was one of my favorite parts of the actual show... they are monkeys rounding up sheep on the backs of border collies. They are miniature cowboys:) (This video isn't from the show but they are the same monkeys and they did the same thing. We weren't allowed to bring cameras)