Alabama Crusade Starts Today!

 Dear friends and family,

Later today I am flying to Georgia, en route to Alabama as we will be visiting several prisons in Alabama this week. This will be my 16th Crusade over the last 8 years. Please keep our team in prayer as we share the Gospel and play softball this week.

Here are a few very specific prayer requests for our team:

Traveling Mercies– There are 14 men going on this trip from all over the place! We have guys traveling from New Jersey, Georgia, Mississippi, Wisconsin of course Peoria, IL! We will also spend quite a bit of time traveling by bus. I did volunteer to use our Illinois bus but was told no in so many words (Actually, no is what they really told me several, several times…)

Please pray that transportation won’t be a hindrance to sharing the Gospel this week!

Team Unity– This is going to be a fun group to be around this week but we will be spending several days together! Please pray that fellowship will be sweet and moral will be high as we serve together. This is a veteran group of Saints and this will be solid group to hang with all week on and off the field!

It’s Going to be HOT!- We are oh so close to breaking out the hooded Chicago Bears sweatshirts and pumpkin spice coffees but it supposed to be hot in Alabama. We are going to play softball no matter what so please pray for safety for us and the inmates!

Team Performance– The results of the games aren’t important but it is critical that we play well and that we earn the respect of the inmates. If we play well and earn their respect, they will be more likely to stick around and listen to us share the Gospel.

Please pray for tired arms and legs as we go further into the week.

Speakers– Pray for the Missionary Athletes who will be sharing their testimonies of how they met Jesus and for the Missionary Athletes who will be sharing the Gospel. On a side note, I will be sharing the team devotions this week.

Families– Each of the 14 Missionary Athletes are leaving a family at home so they can minister. Please pray for all of the wives and moms who have to brave work and kids by themselves. I’m very thankful for the support that I have from home on these trips!

Inmates– Most importantly, pray for the men that we will encounter as they are the purpose of this trip. Pray that they hear the Gospel and will see a need in their lives to follow Jesus!

Please keep checking my Facebook page for updates throughout the week.

Thank you in advance for the prayer support and for all of the encouragement many of you have been over the last several years! I’m looking forward to sharing the stories from this week!

Inside the Mind of Gibby- A Wife’s Thoughts

 Here at “Inside the Mind of Gibby,” we enjoy opening fan mail. There are often some nice notes encouraging us to keep telling the stories of sharing the Gospel in prison, as well as some less than nice notes from prison food service workers letting me know that they do not appreciate my criticism of prison food. But, one of the biggest requests we get, is to introduce my wife Kelly and hear her thoughts on the ministry.

Hello, Saints friends! I’m Kelly, chief editor and comedy guinea pig for “Inside the Mind of Gibby.” Even though I miss commas and can’t always tame the run-on sentences in his articles, Tom has asked me to contribute my thoughts on being the spouse of a Saints missionary athlete. While I’ve certainly not been a part of The Saints ministry as long as other spouses have, I would like to share some things that I’ve learned, things that have surprised me, and things that I would be ok NOT knowing about being married to a Saint…maybe.

While I’m not the one who is sharing the Good News in the yard, stretching a single into a double, or trusting my life to a questionable source of transportation, I have acquired some unique skills on The Saints home front. Does this stack of Spanish Gospels of John have 20 or only 19? I can tell by looking from across the room. Are the holes in the knees of Tom’s baseball pants fixable? Don’t look closely at my stitching, but you bet they are! Where are the batting gloves located at the local sporting goods store? I can even find them in Hawaii during football season.

In addition to skills, Saints spouses are almost guaranteed weekly and sometimes daily surprises. If you’re one who enjoys online shopping and who glows with the sight of packages delivered to your door, you will love being the spouse of a coach! Don’t be discouraged if the large UPS and FedEx boxes on your doorstep are filled with support envelopes and baseball pants, though. You may also be surprised to learn (from a husband who slides a lot) that you have all the tools to be a pedologist. My laundry room has soil samples from Georgia clay to Indiana topsoil. If you would like tips on removing said Georgia clay from light-colored baseball pants, contact Susan Zeidler for her secret weapon!

• If it seems I’m making being a Saint spouse too good to be true, I’ll include some insider information to balance my thoughts:
• If you have a husband who is happy to eat anything you cook, encourage him to not attend a crusade with Hugh Dwyer. Nothing you make will ever compare to the “fantastic eats” Hugh will find for the crusade teams.
• I’m pretty sure overnight hotel stays on Saints crusades are pretty much the equivalent to a bunch of 5th graders having a sleepover.
• If your spouse is a Saints coach, just resign yourself to the reality that you won’t have a meaningful conversation the day before a visit as his or her phone will be blowing up with texts and emails.

Washing baseball uniforms is a pain (whoever is talking Tom into sliding so much needs to knock it off!) The bus is frightening. The stories are entertaining. There is nothing quite as fun, however, as saying “My husband is going to prison this weekend!”