Rejoicing no matter what

OK for all you wondering “Wait I thought she was gone...” yes I am still in Europe, but we are a train right now and I have something that I want to post… and this will get Chrystal off my back for not posting recently. Lol
A couple days ago, we were in Rome and saw the Caesar Shuffle as my mom likes to call it (Coliseum, Forum ruins, and Pantheon) and while all of these were awesome and wonderful something else sticks out in my mind. My mom had heard that there was a prison near the Coliseum that supposedly Paul and Peter had been kept in, and she really wanted to see it. To be honest, I wasn’t that excited about seeing a prison but we all figured why not?! Well this was not just any prison… she was right it was where Peter and Paul had been kept at one point. Now I am not sure when or what the story is there because I can’t find the story in my New Testament (I hate it when I wanna find something and cant!!! It is MOST annoying when I can’t find something just because I don’t have the right materials lol) But I am going to try my best to describe the prison to you, my reason for doing so I will explain at the end.
The entire prison is underground; basically it’s a very large hole in the ground. In the time of the Romans prisoners were lowered into it on a rope through a hole in the top that is probably only wide enough for my mom or I to get through. (now a door has been dug in from the side so you can walk in) It is about 30 feet from the top of the (for lack of a better word) cave to the floor. So imagine being lowered into this pitch black hole and you cant see the bottom. Once you reach the floor there is a set of stairs carved in so you can reach the bottom level. This bottom room is maybe 18 ft wide and not tall enough for my dad and Erik to stand. Here tons of prisoners would be kept (its not sure how many but lets just say it wouldn’t meet the Geneva Conventions standards) and chained to a pole. It was in a prison like this that Peter and Paul sang and praised God.
While we were actually in the prison I didn’t think too much about it, but as the day went on and I looked back at pictures it struck me how completely depressing it must have been to be imprisoned there. There is literally NO way out! Unless someone pulls you out. Yet… Peter and Paul REJOICED! They were chained to a stone pole in literally a hole in the ground after being beaten with no light, food, or way of escape and they rejoiced!!!
I say all this to point out that no matter how bad we think things are we will probably NEVER have to suffer like that… so how can I possibly ever complain or not trust God to take care of me when he took care of Paul and Peter in such HORRIBLE conditions?
I will stop writing my book now… Hope ya’ll are doing well!
Kristin Hanson

P.S. Chrystal or Rachel if i made any grammatical or spellings errors please fix them for me I dont have time now... thank you dears