2017 Lake Erie Crusade- Day 1 and 2

 (Note:  Written on 7/14/17 and posted on 7/24/17)

 

Today was my day one of the Crusade however, it was day two for the team.  I was in Chicago, IL as our team took the field  at Richland CI in Mansfield, OH.  They split the two games and saw 12 men make decisions to follow the Lord.  That was a first for me to miss a day but in the grand scheme of things I am grateful that our team was able to play and minister while I was trying to figure out if I was going to fly to Pittsburgh, Akron, Columbus, or Dayton.  I had two flights get cancelled due to the thunderstorm that came through Chicago as well as one other cancel because of a faulty air conditioner on the plane.  Thankfully, I was able to finally get a late flight to Akron.  To top off the lousy day of travel, the taxi I was riding in got stuck on the interstate due to an accident!  Finally, I was able to arrive at the hotel and was able to get a solid night of sleep!

This morning, I woke up and got the Saints uniform on and headed to breakfast.  It was exciting to see a bunch of friends I have made in the ministry over the years. It was also great to see a few Saints that I had never met.  This team is primarily made up of Saints from the Pennsylvania team with a few from New Jersey, Georgia, and of course me from Illinois.  Every Saints group is unique yet the common bond of having a relationship with Jesus makes us instant allies and brothers as we seek to minister in prison. 

After breakfast we had a very good and insightful devotion time.  After devotions were over, we loaded up the vans and headed to Conneaut, Ohio and Lake Erie CI for an afternoon double-header. 

It had rained all night and the administration had contacted us to make sure that we were still going to arrive and play despite the rainy conditions. We never cancel for weather and let them know that we will play in any condition.  The inmates did a great job of preparing the field.  Almost every place that we go to has an inmate grounds crew that prepares the field for the games between us and the inmate teams.  They always take a great deal of pride in making the field look great and professional.  

We led the first game early and went back and forth with them before the Lake Erie team pulled away and defeated us. Butch Smith shared his testimony of how Jesus came into his life despite a rather rebellious childhood.  Mark DiBendetto shared the Gospel with the men on the yard. While the sharing time was happening, I was able to get out on the yard and hand out Gospels of John with PA Missionary Athlete Ted Schnitzel. We handed several dozen Gospels and had a couple of good conversations first with a man who had come to know the Lord in prison.  We talked with another man who said he was Muslim but he let us know how much he appreciated us being there.  He told us that he liked that we were trying to do good, just like his religion.  This is a tough thing to respond back on because the guy really likes good things and things that make for peace.  He had found something that he felt made his life more peaceful, and it is hard to tell someone that being good isn’t good enough.  God tells us in His Word that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one comes to Father except by Him. I did answer back with that and he gave me the cliche’, “man, I’m totally cool with what you believe, because we both believe good things!”  We had to get moving quickly because the next game was starting soon after that but I really regret not being able to share the Gospel with him in a much clearer fashion.  It is sometimes hard to find the avenue to push back and interject thoughts into a conversation with someone who really is happy with where they are or set in their ways.  Pray for me that I would find future boldness, wisdom, and answers on how to appropriately lead conversations like that back to the Gospel.

We lost game two when the prison team got a walk off base hit to score the winning run in the last inning.  Losing stinks no matter what, but watching an inmate win a game on a walk off hit and get celebrated by his teammates is always an enjoyable thing to see.

Overall on the day at Lake Erie CI, we handed out several hundred Gospels and saw 11 men make a decision to repent and follow Jesus.

We loaded up the vans and headed to Trumbull CI for two games.  We won the first game and had a solid ministry time.  During the speaking time, I was able to hand out Gospels down the right field line.  I had a good time talking with someone who had indicated on his response card that he had trusted Jesus.  I talked with him and made sure that he understood the commitment that being a follower Jesus was. He let me know that he understood that he was a sinner and that he needed to repent and follow Jesus.  This was very reassuring to hear. Sometimes guys will indicate that they want to be saved but still don’t understand what that means.  I will often get things like, “Well, I just know that I needed a change in my life or “I really need this because I need to try and bet a better person” and while that may be true, sometimes guys won’t understand that Jesus is looking for repentance and for us to die to ourselves.  I agree that these men need a change, but the real change is similar to what we see in Acts chapter 2 where people were cut to the heart when they heard the Gospel and they knew that their life had to take a 180 degree turn from where it was.  I am thankful that this young man understood that a relationship with Jesus is an all-in decison.  

We lost the 2nd game, and it wasn’t pretty.  Our team was low on manpower and youth, and it didn’t take long for us to wear down and really struggle in the 2nd half of the day.  

After the game was over, we went to Applebees for a late night meal (We actually went without eating from 8 am until 9 pm!).  Eating with teammates is always fun as we will viciously make fun of one another while having some of the most genuine conversations and while eating chicken wings and cheeseburgers!

Tomorrow we are heading to Grafton, OH to visit the prison camp and main unit!

2017 Lake Erie Crusade- Day 3

 (Note: written on 7/15/17 and posted on 7/24/17)

One of my favorite memories of growing up was being 13 & 14 years old and working on fly balls with my dad in the horse pasture behind our house.  My dad would work construction all day in the Midwest sun and humidity and then come home and hit fly balls to me before dinner.  I had actually gotten to a point where I could run down each fly ball pretty regularly and was a decent outfielder in my pony league days.  Unfortunately, after pony league, my baseball career ended on the last day of Limestone Freshman tryouts on February 16th, 1994.  Since then, I have spent most of my softball career in the infield either at 3rd, 2nd, or at catcher.  I have no doubt the 13 year old Tom Gibson could have run down the ball that contributed to the reason we lost the game at Grafton that I am about to describe, but that kid in the horse pasture would have never believed that 25 years later, the love of the game of baseball would have intersected with telling men in prison about Jesus.

Today we woke up and loaded up the bus at 7:30 and made the 45 minute drive to Grafton.  We had time to play one full game and do our Gospel presentation.  I try to share more information about the ministry than I do the games, but this one, unfortunately, warrants some play by play time!  I got to start the game in right field.  This is a rare thing for me to do especially with the Saints.  I have played a few times just to help out some with worn out outfielders, but that is not my usual spot.  During the game we went back and forth with the inmate team but they had control of the game early on and had about a 4 run lead going into the 6th inning.  I led off the inning with a walk and we rallied for 8 runs that inning.  They didn’t score and then we didn’t score before they came to bat in the 7th.  I don’t remember the exact details but they got a runner or two on base before they hit a hit fly ball to me that I was able to get under but not catch.  That allowed a couple of runs to score and unfortunately, we lost the game. That is a crummy feeling, and I really felt bad running back off the field, past another inmate walk off celebration, to get back to our bench so I could hand out literature with my teammates.  I had a really good time handing out literature down the left field line with Rob Fogel.  Rob is one of the most genuine guys in the ministry and it was so fun not only to watch him interact with the men on the yard but it was fun to sit with him and listen to him talk about the history of the ministry, business, and life in general.

After the game we were able to get a quick lunch at the Circle K gas station down the street from the prison (Circle K chili dog + bag of Doritos + one of the huge aluminum cans of Arnold Palmer tea/lemonade= lunch of champions).  After lunch, we headed into the main unit for a later afternoon double-header.  While warming up, I was introduced to an inmate wearing a St. Louis Cardinals t-shirt.  I had my Chicago Cubs wristbands on and proceeded to give him a hard time about his Cardinals shirt.  He let me know that he was actually a Cincinnati Reds fan but his team that he played on in prison was called the Cardinals.  I shook his hand and spent a few minutes talking to him before proceeding to give him a (good natured) hard time about being a Reds fan!  We both played first base that game and each inning we left notes in the dirt for each other such as:  “Go Cubs” and then we cross out Cubs and put “Go Reds!”.  I came back with “Cubs Win!” and then he would write “Cubs When?”.  That was a lot of fun.  (I stole this idea from watching Mark Grace do this with Larry Walker one time during a Cubs-Rockies game in the 90s)

We had trouble keeping up with them on the field as they hit several home runs.  Our ministry time went really well.  Rob Fogel shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord and Rob Brown shared the Gospel.  During the ministry time, I was able to talk down the right field line with an inmate who already was a believer and had plans to start a Bible study in his dorm.  I had time to pray with him and encourage him to be the salt and the light in prison.  It is always really encouraging to see men in prison view their surroundings as their mission field.

During the 2nd game we really got off to a sluggish start on the softball end of things.  We actually picked up an inmate to pinch run for some of our walking wounded.  Between innings, I asked him where he was at with Jesus, and he told me that he and Jesus had their own thing going on.  I asked him what that meant, and he basically let me know that he believed in Him and that he was trying to be a better person.  This opened up a door to a really solid conversation about who Jesus really was and about how there is no amount of good that any of us can do to make up for our sins that we have committed.  The good outweighs my bad philosophy is so prominent in not only prison culture but also in our American culture.  This is a lie from the enemy and is not found anywhere in the Bible.  To be empathetic, it does make sense from a certain standpoint as we view our worldly relationships through that lens.  Someone may have done something to hurt us or make our lives difficult, but, if that person makes up for it by righting the wrong or getting better about whatever flaw that tended to offend us, we may tend to accept the new behavior and not judge them for their bad behavior.  God takes our sin so much more seriously and He has every right to since He is God.  God is a perfect judge and He has to punish sin, but, while we were still sinners, God made a way for His Son to take our punishment.  I was able to talk about this with this guy, and, while he didn’t make a choice to repent and follow Jesus, he did seriously listen to what I had to say.  I forgot this young man’s name, but please pray that God gets a hold of his heart and allows him to see the Gospel for what it really is!

After the game, we huddled up and talked behind the vans.  Somebody brought up the guy in the Cardinals shirt again because they also had a conversation with him and heard his story about how he ended up there.  He had told one of our guys that he had come to know Jesus before going to prison.  He had committed a crime in his past and was never caught.  Since he was now a believer, he was so convicted by the crime he had done that he turned himself in.  That was a really powerful thing to hear.  The Gospel does some incredible things!

After the games we had time to get cleaned up and go out for some ribs, chicken, and fish.  The razzing and teasing that goes on during some of these meals would rival some of the most popular comedy movies today as we tried to come up with new nicknames for our teammates.

Tomorrow we are of to Marion, Ohio to visit North Central Correctional Camp and Main Units.  Please keep us in prayer as EVERYONE at this point is banged up and worn out from the softball games!

2017 Lake Erie Crusade- Day 4

 (Note: Written on 7/15/17 and posted on 7/24/17)

Day 4 of a Saints Crusade is always tough but it is so important that we show up to each prison as if we made the entire trip just for them.  I had something give out in my elbow/shoulder/bicep yesterday while making a throw from the outfield.  Throwing, hitting, and even brushing my teeth this morning was quite painful.  If you go up and down the roster, everyone has something similar going on.  Whether it is a knee or a hamstring, everyone is banged up at this point, but taking a day off because of an injury really isn’t an option.  Could more physical preparation help?  Could we have done more with younger recruiting?  Would more guys help?  The answer to all of those questions is probably yes, but on trips like this it doesn’t matter.  We are here for the men on the other side of the walls have been looking forward to seeing the outside ministry team.  Guys will be lined up on the field to play softball and listen to us share the Gospel.  Today is most certainly not the day to mail it in and quit!

We arrived at the camp at North Central Correctional Center early.  This was a pretty big facility for a camp team, and we saw a few hundred men come out just to watch our game and spend some time out in the prison yard on a warm Saturday morning.  We played pretty well on the field, but, at the end of the day, they outslugged us.  It was satisfying that we didn’t let the physical fatigue or poor play on the field beat us, we just got beat by a good hitting team.  We broke in between innings to do our ministry time.  I hung out near a pavilion behind the field and handed out literature to guys as they came and left the yard.  I did have a good chance to talk to a guy who was excited that we were there and told me how he just completed a Bible study on how to be a better father and how he was looking forward to applying that when he got out.

After we completed the game and huddled up with the men, we enjoyed another Circle K gas station lunch and yet another chili dog!

After lunch we headed for North Central Correctional Center so we could play two games against the main unit.  When we arrived, we were greeted by a team in full uniform, and they were playing on a beautiful, well-kept field.  Typically when we play an inmate team, they are either in their prison uniform or sweatpants and t-shirts.  Today’s team looked like they were ready to play in a weekend softball tournament.  They also looked extremely sharp taking infield before the game.  This may have been the best on the field prison team I have seen in my six years of doing this.  This really had all of the ingredients for us to get destroyed on the field.  In the first inning we gave up quite a few runs.  We chipped away a little bit as the game progressed but they had won fairly easily.  When the game started, it was just us and the prison team, as the game progressed, hundreds of men were let out into the prison yard.  The prison softball field was gated off from the rest of the yard but the correctional officers in charge that day led us out to hand out literature.  We gave out several hundred Gospels of John.  I didn’t really have time to have too many one on one conversations because I was handing out literature at such a fast pace.  Since we were near Cleveland, most of the inmate population were Indians/Cavaliers/Browns fans and I was able to talk to a bunch of guys in the bleachers about that one time that Michael Jordan killed the Cavs in 1989.  I got a few laughs but apparently that wound hasn’t healed yet!

We got back on the field for game two and actually got the lead early in the game.  We kept playing well and actually had one really solid offensive inning where we really put the game away.  If we had played that team 10 times, we probably would have gone 2-8 but it was a really wonderful feeling to steal a win from a real good prison team with a really banged up Saints team!

After the game, we got cleaned up at the hotel and enjoyed some pizza and wings in the hotel breakfast room before having our devotional time.  This was a really solid time and this would be our last devotional time of the trip.  Spending time sharpening iron with this group was so good.  We had a large range of guys, from younger guys to empty nesters, and everything in between.  We had an individual who discussed how his walk with Jesus was impacting his relationship with his grandkids and we had another guy who was talking about how his walk with Christ was going to impact his upcoming wedding.  We do these trips for the benefit of the inmates and to obey our Lord when he says go into all of the world, but it is such a blessing to hang out with such Godly men for a week.  Tomorrow is the last day of the trip as we visit Ohio State Penitentiary.  Please keep us in prayer that we finish strong!

2017 Lake Erie Crusade- Day 5

 (Note:  Written on 7/16/17 and published on 7/24/17)

For whatever reason, day five of the trip is always the earliest.  We have to be awake earlier than normal.  We have to run down our uniforms from the laundry guy early.  We have to make sure we are not only packed for the day but that we are packed for the trip home. There is a tension between loving what we do (traveling by bus and getting to play softball while telling others about Christ), and wanting to be home and seeing your family.  Today meant enjoying the last day of our missions trip but also meant being home to see my family!

We arrived at 8 am at Ohio State Penitentiary.  The team we played was a younger team but they weren’t near the level of competition that we played yesterday.  I got another start in right field which didn’t go too badly.  We put up 30 runs and won the first game.  During the ministry time, Duane Adler (affectionately know to his teammates as Du-Du), shared his testimony of how he came to know Jesus as his Savior and the impact that made on his upcoming marriage.  I talked about the recent trip to Louisiana State Penitentiary and seeing the actual electric chair that was used.  I shared that to tell them about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross.   (You can read my message that I shared here)

It is always a blessing to share the Gospel in prison.  I am not a great speaker but I have gotten a little better over the years but I really do count it a privilege to talk about Jesus to these men.  We saw 8 men make decisions to follow Jesus and we handed out a few dozen Gospels.

The second game didn’t go quite as well and the inmate team really hit much better and won the second game.  We made the last out of the game and we had to fight the urge to focus on travel plans, airline itineraries, and bus routes because we still had to shake hands and circle up with the guys on the yard one last time.  We had to leave pretty quickly because their yard time had been called early.

The staff at the prison purchased some Pizza Hut pizza for us and it was fun eating pizza in the prison chapel/assembly area.

It wasn’t long before we were finally en route to Pittsburgh to catch a plane back to Chicago and then ultimately, Peoria.

 

This was a great trip that I really hadn’t planned on going on.  I was so blessed to meet so many new friends and be around men who really put the faith in action.

Thank you again to everyone who prayed and supported this trip.  I am so blessed to get to do this!

2017 Lake Erie Crusade- Prologue

 (Written on 7/13/17)

I love jury duty. I know most people loathe it and are frustrated by anything involving the government but it is one of my favorite things to do. I have only been summoned twice and I have never been picked for a jury but I still love it. It is basically a one week study hall where I can read in peace, write with no distractions, and play on my phone without ignoring my family and frustrating my wife. A typical Gibson week is usually filled with activities and busy things to do around the house so those quiet free time breaks are such a blessing when they do happen!

I say all of that as I sit at the Chicago Cubs Bar and Grill in O’Hare airport watching a thunderstorm cancel not only my flight, but several flights throughout the airport. I do have a rebooked flight that should get me to Ohio later today just in time for today’s prison visit to Richland Correctional Institution (please pray that this rain lets up so I can like actually do this whole prison ministry thing and not just be a big talker!). I am looking forward to a couple hours of free time to get my mind and heart in order to talk to the men that I will see this weekend.

The last couple of times I have had the opportunity to speak in prison, I have brought up the recent prison visit to Angola, Louisiana. This is the largest prison in the United States and is pretty unique as it has a huge farm, a Bible College on site, and a biannual rodeo that the inmates participate in (so far the Illinois inmates said they would rather stick to softball instead of having a rodeo!). One day during our stay, we visited the museum by the front gate of the facility. It was interesting to see the history of this prison. At the end of the tour, there is wooden chair that was used as the electric chair for capital punishment. (My first thought was to get a selfie while sitting in the chair, but my teammates took my phone away and said that would be disrespectful and stupid! Props to good teammates!) It was rather sobering to look at the chair and realize that people had died sitting there. I also thought about the capital punishment that Jesus had to endure on the cross for the sin that Tom Gibson and all of mankind has committed or will ever commit.

I am in the book of Matthew for my morning devotions (when people lead with the topic of where they are at in their devotions, I always think to myself that they just made that up and that they really bailed on their yearly Bible reading plan halfway through Leviticus in February!). In Matthew 26, Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prays to His Father three times pleading with Him to find another way other than the cruxifiction that he was about to endure. He knew that He was going to have His Father’s wrath poured out on Him for the sins of the world. The Bible says that He was sorrowful even to the point of death. The book of Luke records this by saying that Jesus bled from his forehead while he prayed. When I think of Jesus I don’t often think of Him like this. I think of Him confidently talking to the Pharisees and compassionately preaching to the crowds about how no one could come to the Father but by Him. It is hard to see distressed Jesus in my mind but the Bible records it and shows the fact about how seriously God takes sin. God is a perfect judge and He has to punish sin. I often use the illustration that if I steal a TV from Best Buy, I am not going to make it very far and that I will undoubtedly face a judge who will sentence me for that crime. If that judge lets me go by saying, “You’re free to go, just don’t let it happen again…”, he would not be a fair judge.

God is the perfect judge and the Bible says that we all have sinned and deserve judgement for the sins we have committed. I know that there will be several inmates (as well as people who read this) who think that is crazy to think that a loving God could ever punish people with hell. The real part that doesn’t make sense is John 3:16 when we are reminded that God loved us so much that He sent His son to die in our place. As a parent, that hits hard as I can’t imagine taking the hand of one of my kids and leading them to that chair in Angola so that they could take the punishment of an inmate at that prison. Watching them crying so hard that their foreheads are bleeding, begging for another way is gut wrenching. That is a disturbing thought but that is the reality of what God did for us.

This is the message that we will be sharing in Ohio this week. There are men there who know that they have messed up. They are told daily that they have messed and that they are bad. God’s Word says that these men are so valuable that He sent His son to die for them. I want to tell them about the gift of salvation that Jesus offers to those who repent and follow Him.

Please keep this trip in prayer that God will draw these men to Him! The logistics of the trip are off to a rough start so please keep our team in prayer as we are going to meet up in Ohio at some point.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed and supported this trip. This is cliché but I really am blessed to combine softball with ministering with men in prison!

I am looking forward to keeping everyone updated this week!

Lake Erie Crusade Starts Wednesday!

 I am really looking forward to traveling to Ohio this week to take part of what will be my 12th Crusade with the Saints Prison Ministry.

Here is the itinerary for this trip:

July 12-  Richland CI (This is in the same complex where they filmed Shawshank Redemption!)

July 13-  Lake Erie CI and Trumbull CI

July 14-  Grafton CI Camp and Main Prison

July 15-  North Central CC Camp and North Central CC Main

July 16-  Ohio State Penitentiary

 

I will be trying to post regular updates every night about how each day is going!

Benny the Jet and 30 Minutes at a Picnic Table

 I am so tempted to start this post talking about one of the softball games we played this weekend.

I mean, REALLY TEMPTED.

Instead, I am reminded about how we use softball as a tool to go to prison and share the Gospel with men that live there.  It is such a unique tool because we reach quite a few men that normally wouldn’t have anything to do with a “church” or “chapel service”.  A model Saints day consists of us interacting with the men while playing a competitive softball game (did I mention that I REALLY want to talk about that game this weekend!?!?!) before breaking into a ministry time where a couple of guys share their testimony and the Gospel with the men that came out to play and watch the game.  While that is going on, the rest of our team will head out to other parts of the prison yard and hand out Gospels of John and have discussions with the men.  Saturday, we were blessed with a day just like that, and our men executed it beautifully.

God has been so good to our team over the years.  We have been blessed with so many men who are excited to share the Gospel on prison softball fields throughout the Midwest.  Yesterday’s visit to Pittsfield and Jacksonville was a reminder of how blessed I was to be surrounded by such men.  We woke up early, loaded up, and headed for Pittsfield before 6 am.  We had some dynamite conversations during the trip on topics such as angels, creation, and spiritual gifts (there will be a future blog post/”Inside the Mind of Gibby” article on conversations that happen while traveling so please stay tuned!).  Once we arrived at Pittsfield, we played and won a good solid competitive game.  A really good team victory. During our ministry time, Joe Isbell told the men in attendance how God got a hold of his heart as a young man and how it changed his marriage.  Robert Cook shared the Gospel and preached from John 11:40-44.  We won another good solid game afterwards.  Once again, softball is just a tool, but I am really proud of how hard our team has worked to get to a point that we are a very good softball team that doesn’t quit!

Neither of those games are the game I am wanting to tell you about!

After the games were over we loaded back up and headed down the road to Jacksonville Correctional Center.  Overall on the day at Pittsfield we saw 9 men indicate that they wanted to follow Jesus and we handed out 84 Gospels of John.

Upon arriving in Jacksonville, we left our gloves and bats in the vehicles, because, just like the two previous years, we would be playing 16″ Chicago style softball.  No gloves, just bare hands!

We lost the first game 6-4 but played much more competitively than the previous year.  In between games, Jesse Miller shared how he came to know Jesus as his Savior as a young adult and the impact that following Jesus has had on his family.  I shared the Gospel from Matthew 26 and John 3.  I was really excited to share the Gospel with the men there.  While I was speaking, a long freight train was going through town just beyond the fences.  If only Johnny Cash had been there to sing a song!

On to the final game-the game I can’t wait to talk about!  Finally, the final game of the day.  The inmates wanted us to be the home team and we took the field and promptly made several errors trying to catch the oversized ball.  By the time the dust settled, we were down 10-0 in the first inning!  The inmates were having fun, but our team had the opportunity to choose to roll over or not quit.  Our defense stepped up, and we slowly chipped away until it was 10-8.  They had one more big inning and made it 14-8. We battled back to make it 14-12 going into the last inning.  We made two quick outs and it appeared that the game was over.  Robert Cook walked.  I hit a single to left.  Ben Morrow hit a single to left that scored Cookie making it 14-13.  Derek Leith hit another single that scored me making it 14-14, then Ben got stuck between 3rd and home.  They ran at him throwing the ball back and forth before Ben saw that no one was covering home.  Ben sprinted home (Ben is one of the few guys who can sprint!) winning the game on a walk off run down!  We all high fived and hugged the men as we lined up after game.

After our closing time, we had the opportunity to hang out with them for about 30 minutes while count cleared.  This was one of my favorite times in the last few years of ministry.  We all sat around at the picnic tables in the prison yard pavilion.  I talked to a man about what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus and he told me about what life was like in prison and how he was looking forward to going home in the next few months.  The rest of our team had really good conversations with men at those picnic tables as well.  Our last few prison visits have seen us have only a limited time to spend with the inmates before they are sent back to their dorms or houses.  It was so refreshing to have that time to spend with them and just hang out.

Overall on the day at Jacksonville we had 14 men indicate that they trusted Jesus as their Savior and we handed out another 176 Gospels to the prison yard.

Our next visit as the Illinois team will be August 5 at Illinois River CC (Canton).  We are looking forward to hitting the field and sharing the Gospel in Canton for the first time in a long time!

I will be heading to Ohio this Wednesday to go on a Crusade with the Pennsylvania team.  I will be posting about that soon as well!

Thank you for all of the prayer support so far in 2017!  I am looking forward to the 2nd half of our ministry season!

My Goodbye to Turkey Bowl

 1 Corinthians 9:19-23– For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

 

Dear Turkey Bowl participants, referees, fans, and friends,

 

Calvary Baptist Bible Church and I have formally made the decision that 2016 was our final Turkey Bowl for the foreseeable future.  It was most certainly a difficult decision after 14 years, but, after much prayer and consideration, we feel it is the right decision at this time.  I have put together a few explanations leading up to our decision but I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on what a blessing the Turkey Bowl has been to me.

When I started the Turkey Bowl as a naive 23 year old, my goal was that we would host a football tournament, people would hear the Gospel, and flag football players would flood our church on Sunday mornings!  When I walked off the field in November, as a still pretty naive 37 year old, I knew that we had obeyed Jesus by telling fields full of flag football players about Him; that was more important than packing our building on Sunday mornings.

I am thankful for years of volunteers from Calvary who poured time, energy, money, and talent into the Turkey Bowl.  There are countless stories of volunteers from church hauling personal gas grills, chili roasters, lawnmowers, and snow removal equipment to church at a moments notice to serve our community.  There are also countless hours our church spent in prayer over Turkey Bowl.  There are several people who have also poured so much into mentoring me.  There are too many people to list but thank you to Corky Schumacher, Garry Geer, and Dan Hurn for spending so many hours serving and mentoring me each Turkey Bowl weekend.

I am thankful for the friendships I made over the years with the referees.  There are too many people to mention without leaving someone out but I am thankful that Mike Anderson, Bob Graf, and Glen Thompson showed up that second year and were brave enough to come back and invite several referee buddies to join them the following years!  I am thankful for the opportunity to befriend so many players over the years.  I am also thrilled to see so many make a decision to follow Jesus as their Savior and watch them grow in Him over the years.

I am thankful that God used Turkey Bowl as a means of providing several players for the Saints Prison Ministry team that we started in 2012.  I was introduced to Brent Gerber, Jeremy Test, Kurt Hand, Ben Morrow, and Jeremy Haab at Turkey Bowl and I now travel several times each summer with them to share the Gospel on prison softball fields across Illinois!

I am thankful that God provided me the most patient wife on the planet.  The secret to the success of Turkey Bowl was that Kelly was really the assistant Turkey Bowl coordinator and spent countless hours running to the store for supplies, sorting flags, and covering in the kitchen during times they needed help.

I am thankful that God grew me in so many areas through the happy and the tough moments.  God really impressed upon my heart that He loved each man who stepped on that field enough that He gave His own Son that He might save them.  That message was so much more important than all of the other details that went into this tournament.

This has been a difficult decision and I have struggled to make that decision the last couple of years.  Despite not doing Turkey Bowl, our church will still be a church that loves our community and will share the hope of the Gospel with Peoria.

Thank you again for the friendships and the blessings you all have been!

Thanks,

Tom Gibson

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why stop Turkey Bowl?

     My standpoint–  After 14 years of coordinating Turkey Bowl my simple answer is: I’m ready to do something else and share the Gospel through other means.  To go into further depth, my children are now involved in several school activities that overlap with the planning and the weekend of Turkey Bowl.  I have a few other ministry commitments that take my time and make it difficult to do Turkey Bowl to the best of my ability.

     The Church’s standpoint–  Our church has supported this faithfully year after year but there is no one in the congregation who feels they would like to responsibility to run the whole tournament.

But wasn’t this a big fundraiser for the church?

It has never been a fundraiser.  In fact, the team fees only covered a partial amount of the cost of the tournament.  The church covered anything to do with ministry (food, literature, etc), and the team fees covered the tournament costs, (lights, referees, etc)

Was Turkey Bowl no longer well received?

We have built up a pretty solid reputation, so I am pretty confident that we were still well received.  We have noticed a decline in teams the last couple of years but we also noticed a decline in teams in other flag football leagues.  It might just be a phase in the sport, but that really didn’t play into our decision.

Was it because the players and referees fight and argue?

No, but I won’t miss that aspect of Turkey Bowl weekend! 

But why are you letting us know now?

We felt it was appropriate to get this out early.  Perhaps another ministry or organization will run their own flag football tournament this fall and they will now have time to plan.  I would prefer they call it something other than Turkey Bowl, but we most certainly don’t have any legal rights to that name.

So, after all these years do we finally understand how the pass interference penalty works?

Nope

Will the church ever consider bringing it back?

Good question.  We will most certainly never say never!

Inside the Mind of Gibby- The Wheels on the Bus Go...

Last summer the ministry purchased a 1996 Ford 26 passenger bus for our team. It wasn’t beautiful, but one of the greatest selling points of the bus was that it had new brakes and new tires. We knew the AC needed work, but we had a bus! The IL Saints had been carpooling to prison for years and this bus would give us the opportunity to finally travel together in one vehicle where we could laugh, cry, and fellowship together! 

We battled the AC issues all summer and even had someone try to steal it from the church parking lot. After a few trips to the shop, however, we finally were able to take it to last year’s visit to Pontiac CC. We enjoyed the ride the whole way up and had a fantastic Saints day in the prison. On the way back we were having a great time of fellowship heading back to Peoria. With our season now over, I totally checked out of coach mode and was able to just be Gibby for the ride home. We picked a pizza place in Bloomington where we would stop to celebrate our season before getting home on time to watch game 1 of the NLCS between the Cubs and Dodgers. Our team was laughing and telling stories about the day in the prison. The scene was what we had imagined the day we purchased the bus! 

Suddenly the bus began to shake violently and we heard the tire make a sound against the bus. The next thing that had happened was the floorboard underneath Papa Ray Koonce began to be torn up and chunks of plywood were flying everywhere! Once we got to the side of the road we realized that the tread had come off one of the “new” tires. We were able to limp to the Bloomington Farm and Fleet to get the bad tire replaced. We made it home safely just in time to watch the bottom of the 1st inning of the Cubs game. 

Fast Forward 6 months... The bus is repaired and is looking good. The floor is solid and we make our way once again to Pontiac CC. We were on our way back, making really good time, as we passed the Towanda exit of I-55. Like an IDIOT I yell, "Hey! That's where we broke down last time!" 

Five minutes later... The bus began to shake, and then vibrate a little harder. Immediately we knew what was going on and moved to the side of the road before anything happened to the bus. Sure enough, the tread had begun to come off another tire. We got out of the bus, just like we had 6 months ago, and laid on the ground to attempt deflating the bad rear tire (bus has dual back wheels) so that it would not do the ‘chopping up the bus thing’ like the last bad tire did. Fortunately, we were once again nearby the Bloomington Farm and Fleet so we could make another unplanned visit there. So instead of being home at our scheduled time, we enjoyed (?) browsing through farm equipment, Wrangler jeans, and livestock feed. After an hour or so we were back on the road and arrived safely back home. 

I took the bus back to our local Farm and Fleet the next week, told them what I wanted, and then walked over to Culver’s for some ice cream. After about an hour, I walked back and asked the guy how much longer it was going to take. He replied that he wasn’t sure what to do with it since all of the tires still looked new. Realizing that the bus and its antics were about to cost me another couple of hours of waiting room time, I deployed all of the patience that I could find and told him the story about the two trips to Pontiac, all about the flying plywood, all about sitting on the side of I-55 watching cars fly by while we tried to deflate a self-destructing tire. He then agreed that was the best course of action and got them changed out! 

P.S. If anyone reading this is thinking about stealing the bus, please email me at tgibson62@gmail.com so I can make sure you don't change your mind; I can make sure you have everything you need to successfully make it out of the church parking lot!