A couple of posts ago, I talked about the four things that we always face during a Saints day. One of them is the fact that we minister inside of prisons and nothing else runs quite like a prison! We arrived on time but had to wait a long time to get in. There is nothing we could do to expedite our way in. This was a combination of frustrating and relief. It is frustrating that we lost yard time with the men we went to see. There was also time for us to have a few moments to hang out one last time as a team before we returned to “normal life” in places like Peoria, Hainesport, and Woodstock. My appreciation for God’s sovereignty has increased as I get older and spend more time with the Lord. He ordained that time and allowed us to wait. Maybe He protected us from something going on behind the fences or maybe He wanted us to have that last 60 minutes of fellowship. No matter what, it was nice to take our game faces off for a little bit before getting the call to go in.
We had a good Sunday morning visit to Zephyrhills CI to close out the trip. We played one game in the morning and won pretty easily but had a ton of fun in the process.
Chris Onken shared his testimony about getting right with the Lord on a church missions trip and Wayne Errig shared the Gospel in front of a small crowd. Wayne preached from John 18 and talked about while we are all sinners and have all messed up, Jesus led a perfect life and is the only perfect sacrifice for our sins.
This trip has been a blessing and it has been tough not to be emotional at times. I have had teammates on this trip with whom I have served with several times. Some were with me on my first ever trip to Ohio in 2011. It has been nice to serve with guys who have never before been on a Crusade. It has been cool to see them use their love of the game and love of Jesus to tell people about Him in prison.
During our 4 day Crusade, we handed out 439 Gospels of John and saw 10 men make professions of faith in Jesus Christ.
Please pray for three different groups that we ministered to this week:
*Those 10 men who made decisions to follow the Lord- Pray that God brings Godly people in to their lives and that He helps them to grow.
*Those who were already believers- Pray that God brings encouragement. I heard a few different times during the trip about how hard it is to be a Christian in prison. Pray that God gives them peace and encouragement.
*Those who heard the Word- Pray that God works in the hearts of these men and that He draws them towards Him. Pray that others will come behind us and water where we have planted.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me this year and over the last several years. I have been blessed to do this and I can’t wait to go back!
