God did some great things on our recent trip to Pontiac CC! After a really long and cold winter, it was nice to put a baseball uniform on and get on a bus with my teammates to go and play softball and share the Gospel in a prison yard. After meeting for a gourmet McDonald’s breakfast, we departed for Pontiac Correctional Center. We made good time and arrived at the prison and began the process of getting through security. During the first session we played two games against a combination of four different teams. Sometimes we play teams that are in the prison leagues, sometimes we play an All-Star team made up of 12 of the best guys in the prison, and sometimes we play against the first 40 guys to sign up for that particular event and that is what happened during our visit! We won both games pretty easily. During our ministry time, Brent Gerber shared his testimony. Brent’s story includes a very rough stretch as a young adult before coming to know the Lord and the prison audience identified with his story. Ben Morrow shared the Gospel and used the passage from Luke 15 about the prodigal son. Ben did a really good job of telling the inmates about what a loving Father He is and just how far his forgiveness reaches.
While we waited for the count to clear, we had about an hour to hang out as a team in a large classroom with several tables. These times are sometimes frustrating because you are stuck in a room for what seems to be half of the day but I was glad to see several of our guys picking up conversations and relationships from where we left off in October of last year. These conversations will often include stories about parenting, work, the Bible, and sports. Some of these conversations are serious but most of them will end up being us making fun of each other!
We enjoyed a brief lunch that included prison grilled cheese sandwiches, sloppy joes, and tomato soup. We took the field again that afternoon and won a couple of more games.
Overall on the day we handed out 191 Gospels and we had 21 men indicate on our response cards that they decided to follow Jesus. Despite the limited time that we had, several of our guys followed up with men who marked that they accepted Christ.
We got huddle up with the men one more time to recognize the umpires and the MVP’s on the day before getting back on the bus and driving home. This is the part of the story where the bus blows out a tire but the bus not only survived but actually thrived during the trip! That is a huge praise from the trip.
This Saturday we head to Southwestern Correctional Center in East St. Louis. This will the first time a Saints Prison Ministry team has ever visited there. Please keep those men in prayer as I am sharing the Gospel during one of the sessions. Please also keep the men at the prison in prayer as I am not planning on losing to a team that close to St. Louis!
Thank you again for all of the support and prayer!
