This past weekend Kelly and I attended a marriage conference in Chicago called “Weekend to Remember”. This is a fun event put on by Family Life Ministries. During one of the sessions we talked about forgiveness and how important a role this plays in marriage. (Most of my forgiveness talks with Kelly have involved watching a Cubs game or playing video games when I was supposed to be working on something else around the house!)
One of the speakers used an illustration about forgiveness from the book, The Hiding Place written by Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom. In the book she talked about meeting one of the concentration camp guards that she and her sister had encountered. She had the opportunity to share her story with a church in Munich. She talked about the need for forgiveness and that Jesus forgives and washes sins away. She saw the guard after the church service. He didn’t recognize her but he complemented her for her message and talked about how thankful he was that Jesus forgives since he had done so many terrible things as a guard. He then stuck his hand out to shake hands with her. Even after just speaking on forgiveness, she was angry at the sight of this man, and, initially, would not stick her hand out. Her book says:
“Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more?”
Ultimately, she shook the man’s hand realizing that she needed to obey the Lord and forgive the man.
Two weeks from today, 14 Missionary Athletes from the Saints Prison Ministry and I will be departing from Georgia, New Jersey, and Illinois to travel to four different prisons in Arizona to share the story of the Gospel and how Jesus so loved the world that He gave His life for them. Many of the inmates we will see have done some terrible crimes and will spend the rest of their lives behind bars in these prisons, yet there is hope for forgiveness in Jesus because He loved them enough to die for them.
That is the message we are taking to Arizona in two weeks and the message we will take to the prisons we visit here in Illinois this summer. Please keep us in prayer as we prepare for this exciting trip!
Here are a few other notes about our Arizona trip and our Illinois season:
The facilities that we will visit on this trip will all be Federal institutions in Phoenix and Tucson.
4/11- FCI Phoenix
4/12- USP Tucson
4/13- FCI and FPC Tucson
4/14- FCI Phoenix
We looking at potentially playing around 16 games and having 7 different times to share the Gospel.
I will be sharing the Gospel at FCI Phoenix on Friday, April 14th.
Our Illinois team once again has a full schedule! You can view it at http://tomgibson.me/?p=576
I will be posting updates on my blog, www.tomgibson.me .
I am very excited about this trip and I’m looking forward to sharing the Good News with the men in Arizona!
Thank you for all of the encouragement and prayer support throughout the years!
