Today we visited USP Tucson. We went in with the schedule of four games and one speaking time.
We lost the first game but rallied back to win the second game. Both games were relatively competitive, so that helped us keep the crowd engaged.
Our setup was a little different as we weren’t allowed to preach on the field but we were allowed to share the Gospel in the chapel. We had a really nice chapel service. Longtime Saints veteran, Rob Fogel, shared his testimony about how he came to know Jesus. Joey Foster shared the Gospel with the men in the room.
After our normal sharing time, we had an opportunity for some of the inmates to share their testimonies about what God was doing in their lives. It was nice and encouraging to hear how inmates acknowledged Jesus as their Savior and how he was working in their lives. After a couple of inmates spoke, Doug Metzger shared his testimony again. Doug talked about how wonderful it is that God is the God who forgives and shows grace. He talked about how we should remember God’s grace when we feel guilty about the sin that we struggle with. This is a powerful message to share with these men. Several of these guys feel awful about what they have done, but God still finds them valuable and wants them to repent and follow Him.
After our lunch we played two more games. We won the first game and lost the second game. We weren’t able to share the Gospel again, but we were able to pray with them again and talk to them as we were leaving.
Overall on the day, we handed out over 100 Gospels of John and saw 16 men make decisions to follow Jesus.
Just like everyone else needs to, the men in these facilities need to repent and follow Jesus, but one common theme I heard today was that several men I talked to today were very lonely and were grateful that we took a day to come and visit them. I had one man repeat a statistic that I have heard before: After seven years, an inmate’s family typically will not write, call, or visit.
This particular inmate was thrilled to get a birthday card from the Saints. My specific prayer request for today would be that God would comfort those who feel lonely and that He would bring people into these guys lives who can mentor and disciple them.
