“What will the day look like when we do get to go back to prison?” This has been the question at the front of my mind during the entire shutdown/quarantine time of 2020 and early 2021. Would they make us mask up in the outfield? Would they make us socially distance during the games? Would they only let the inmate team out or would we get to minister to the entire yard? Once we figure out the health crisis stuff, what would our team look like? Would our teammates want to come back? Would anyone still want to do this? What if they all found other things they wanted to do? Then what about lawmakers and prison officials? Would government officials keep prisons locked down? Will the state phases allow us to visit? These are things that I wondered as the calendar flipped over to 2021. While I wondered and tried to make sense of it all, God continued to be sovereign and faithful. In Genesis 18, Abraham and Sarah have doubts about whether or not God would deliver on His promise to give them a son. God responds in verse 14 by telling them, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”. In Ephesians 3, Paul tells the Ephesian church in verse 20, that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. We serve that same God and nothing is too hard for Him, including prison ministry!
While I pondered and wondered what would come next, God was already preparing and providing an opportunity for our team to visit three prisons in Florida. He then provided a team made up guys to go. We all shared the same eagerness to get back to what we love doing, sharing the Gospel on softball fields in prisons.
We all gathered together as a team near Atlanta and made the trip to Central Florida. After a long year of not being on a team and putting on a uniform, it was good to be on a bus with teammates, yukking it up with some of my best friends.
Our first visit was Polk CI on April 9th. We saw a pretty large crowd in the yard and behind the fence next to the field. We all had some rust to knock off since we hadn’t done this in a while but we won the morning game pretty easily. During the preaching time, my good friend Ed Mosely shared his testimony and the Gospel. Ed does a good job of explaining the severity of our sin and how it damaged our relationship with God, and, because He is a holy God, it called for a price to be paid. He then shared how Jesus died for our sins and how our faith in Him takes that penalty away from us. Ed demonstrates this by throwing a softball across the field. It makes for a really good illustration and is really impressive because Ed can throw a softball a long ways!
After the morning session, we went to a local BBQ restaurant. One of the things I missed the most about the ministry is getting to hang out with my teammates over a meal. We talked about things like our churches, our families, and our favorite professional sports. This isn’t anything new but it always refreshes my soul to spend time with these guys.
We returned for the afternoon session. We won again fairly easily. We played well again despite not getting any games in for over a year but we found out that the inmate team hadn’t had a whole of practice either. In fact, they picked the team based on an indoor kickball tournament!
During the afternoon session, Rodney Stewart shared his testimony of salvation and Jimmy Cochran shared the Gospel. Jimmy does a great job of sharing the Gospel clearly in the prison yards. While Jimmy was preaching, there was a yard callback for everyone but the team and umpires. This does happen sometimes and it stinks for the one speaking because they have to adjust their message on the fly so that people can hear the Gospel before they leave. Jimmy did a good job transitioning and while his message did not go as he had planned, it was good to hear one of my teammates sharing about our Lord again. We took the field again and finished the day winning another game against the inmate team.
When we got back to our rental house it was my job to share the team devotions. My devotion topic was “The Local Church”. I covered “What is the Church”, “Why Church is Essential”, and “What if we don’t feel like going to Church”. On a team our size, we had several different churches and church sizes represented. It was good share God’s Word and discuss it as a group of believers.
The next morning we visited Avon Park CI. I had been there before but not since 2013. We played well in the field. In fact, after not picking up a bat in 2020, I managed to have a 4 hit game! My teammate and roommate for the trip was Ronnie Kosovan. During the break in between games, he and I walked to the other end of the prison yard to hand out literature and talk to guys. We ran into a guy who believed in higher powers but didn’t necessarily believe in the God of the Bible. He believed that we should live in awe of the beauty of the earth and that everyone was either good or could be good. We were able to talk with him and share the Gospel. The man did not make a decision at that time, but I was very proud of Ronnie who very clearly explained that no one was good and that we need a Savior. We won again after the preaching time. It is a Saints tradition that we end every day by standing shoulder to shoulder and making a circle with the inmates around the pitcher’s mound. We tell them one last time that God loves them and that He loves them so much that He sent His Son to die for them and that they need to repent and believe.
This trip was a blessing on several fronts. I am thankful that God provided a place and time for us to serve again. I was so uncertain that this would happen, and it what was good to see God provide us with this trip. I have no clue what the rest of the year will look like. It appears that Florida will be open for us to make more visits, but despite the uncertainty, I know that God is in control and that He is good! I’m looking forward to our next trip whenever that may be!
