Prison Ministry is not for the Weak of Stomach- STAR Community Follow Up

 Starting a prison ministry softball team isn’t for the weak of stomach.  In fact, I am very, very careful about recommending it to anyone.  It is difficult to find guys who can balance sharing the Gospel well and playing competitive softball.  It is hard to find guys who are spiritually mature enough to minister behind bars and still want to play serious smash-mouth slow pitch softball!  Someday I will write a book about the experience of starting a team in Illinois and the blessings and challenges that were part of it.  The West Virginia team has played in a couple of short trips before, but, for the most part, they were made up of guys making their first, second, or third trip to prison.  There were a handful of similarities between their team that went out this weekend and the team that went in for our first visit in 2012.  There is so much that you have to learn about prison and leading a team to do this ministry well.  I look back on so many mistakes I made during the last 10 years of leading a team but I am also thankful for God’s mercies and that they are new each morning.  I will often tell people it takes 10 years experience to get 10 years experience; that is very true about prison ministry.  I was proud of the WV guys and they are a fun group to play softball with, but I am really proud of the way they took the ministry part of the weekend seriously.  I’m looking forward to traveling with them again and seeing them on Crusades for years to come!

Our last prison on the trip was STAR Community.  They were a unique transitional prison, meaning that there were more activities for the men that prepared them as they were getting close to returning to life outside of prison.  They also allowed the men to wear regular clothes which, once again, is a big help to them as they transition to a non-prison life.  

Our first game was a warm one!  We took the field against their team and had a good first inning.  Unfortunately, they came right back and scored several runs in their half of the inning.  Eventually, we started to pull away and won the game.  In between games, Jesse Lewis shared his story of how he came to meet Jesus.  Brian Davidson shared the Gospel with the men in the yard.  He preached from John 4 and used the account of the woman at the well during his message.  While we were collecting cards, I collected a card from a guy who indicated that he made a decision to follow Christ.  I was already in another conversation with another guy when he handed me his response card, and wasn’t able to follow up with him.

We started the second game and were hitting pretty well. It then started to rain, and rain a little harder, until finally, it was pouring.  The hot day had turned into a cold, rainy summer afternoon!  We went into the gym which was adjacent to the field.  During our time in the gym, we were able to circle up with the guys and hand out the MVP awards.  I was able to run back into the guy who marked that he made a decision to follow Christ on his response card.  We spent some time talking about why he made that decision.  It was cool to see God work that out.  If it had not rained, I may not have bumped back into this guy!

Overall on the day we handed out 117 Gospels of John and had 39 men indicate that they trusted Jesus that day!

Bleacher Preachers- Chillicothe CI

 

Chillicothe CI holds a dear place in my heart.  3,647 days earlier, I was on my first ever Saints trip and our 3rd stop of that trip was to Chillicothe.  I remember still being nervous but having so much fun playing softball and being part of a group who would tell people about the Lord.  That day 10 years ago was one of the prison visits that God used to show me the need for prison ministry and just how fun serving the Lord can be.  

When we arrived at the prison, there was a lady who was waiting in the parking lot who was waiting to see her son.  There were a few of us who took a few moments to pray with her.  This isn’t the first time that I’ve seen a parent waiting to visit a loved one.  For some reason it really hit me a little harder this time knowing how hard it would be for me as a parent if my kids were incarcerated. 

We were processed through security and made it out to the prison field.  I remembered the walk to the softball field from 10 years prior.  The prison is an older prison, and you have to walk by some of the older buildings on the way to the softball field.  

Several Saints teams have played at Chillicothe before and they have the reputation for having really good softball teams.  We started the first game and got down by a few runs and the game started to get out of hand early.  As a ballplayer, I was frustrated, but as a veteran of a few prison softball games, I was aware of the bigger picture of why we were there, too.  We had a young team and the Chillicothe team was just as good.  As the game came down to the last couple of innings, something interesting happened. We started to chip away at the lead and actually came all the way back to win the game!  We enjoyed the victory but went right into ministry mode.  During our ministry time, we will typically have a couple of guys who share their testimony and share the Gospel behind the microphone while the rest of the team will go around the rest of the prison yard and hand out literature and talk to the men that we see.  Todd Childers and I went to the bleachers in left field to make sure that part of the yard had been visited. This part of the yard was well out of the range of the sound system. While we were out there one of the men said he wasn't sure where he was with the Lord. I had a few moments to share the Gospel with not only him, but the entire section of bleachers. I didn't preach a message but I did walk through what the Gospel was and that he could know the Lord if he put his faith and repentance in Him. One of those men made a first time profession that day.  Please pray for him and the rest of that group in the bleachers!

After the ministry time, we played the second game.   After the game, we shook hands with the men and reminded them that God loves them and that what they do with Jesus will be the most important decision of their life.   

We then enjoyed a nice local BBQ meal as a team.  As we returned back from the hotel, we played a bus game.  We did a tournament bracket of the most famous people from our hometowns.  Most of the team was from the Huntington, WV area, so their entries were guys like Soupy Sales, Hal Greer, and Chuck Yeager.  I am from Peoria, IL so my entry was Jim Thome, but, in hindsight, I could have also said Richard Pryor.  We also had one guy from New Jersey whose hometown was the same hometown as the kid who played Smalls from “The Sandlot”.  As the debate and voting raged on, it came down to Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia) vs the kid who played Smalls, and, in a not-so-stunning upset, Wilt won…

That evening, Todd and I got to do more laundry so we went back to the laundromat and had some time to just talk while we did laundry.  Todd is about 15 years younger than I am, so it was fun sharing stories about what it was like to start a team and to share what I learned from starting the IL team.  We also talked about marriage and kids and once again, it was fun sharing what lessons I learned the hard way over the years.  

Overall on the day at Chillicothe CI, we handed out 164 Gospels of John and saw 19 men share that they trusted the Lord that day.   

The Player to be Named Later- Southeaster CI Follow Up

There is a baseball movie starring Kevin Costner, (and I won’t mention the title because it has a crummy rating and lots of inappropriate content) but in that movie Costner’s character gets traded to a minor league team.  When Costner’s character walks into his new team’s clubhouse, the pitching coach asks, “Who are you?”.  Costner replies, “I am the player to be named later.”

Since our Illinois team hasn’t had a game yet this year, I got to be a “Player to be named later” on the Ohio trip that was mostly made up of guys from West Virginia.  The West Virginia team was short players so they called in a few of us who didn’t have a season in our home state.  Brent Gerber and I made the drive from Illinois.  Brenden Hellyer made the trip from New Jersey and long-time, Saints veteran Wes Brown made the trip in from Pennsylvania.  

Once Brent and I picked up Brenden and Wes from the airport, we were on our way to meet up with the rest of the team and then head to Southeastern CI in Lancaster, OH.  

Our team struggled on the field for the first part of the game but we actually came roaring back before losing game 1.  

Adam Blankenship shared his testimony and Mark Napier shared the Gospel.  During the ministry time, I was down the left field line handing out Gospels of John.  I had an odd conversation with a guy who was glad that we were there but really didn’t have any interest in the Gospel.  These are always tough conversations.  He kind of zig-zagged around the conversation making excuses of why he really didn’t think that there was a God.  I ran into another guy who was a Jehovah’s Witness and believed some of the Gospel but ultimately clung to what he believed.  These were two tough conversations.  Not every conversation we have with an inmate results in them believing.  I often feel like a failure after those conversations but, we ultimately know that God is the one who is working in their hearts.  Our job is to be faithful in sharing the Gospel with those that we see.  

We came back and won the second game.  We then handed out MVP awards and Wes Brown concluded the day by summarizing why we came in and why it was important to follow Jesus Christ as Lord.  

Overall on the day we handed out 125 Gospels and saw 8 men indicate that they professed faith in the Lord.  

This is usually where I conclude the post, but, like any Saints trip, there are always some off-the-field highlights as well!

My job along with my roommate and rookie, West Virginia Missionary Athlete, Todd Childers was to do team laundry.  This job is usually hard enough when we have to collect laundry from the entire team and get it down to the front desk where the hotel attendant on duty will usually wash our clothes.  

Unfortunately, this hotel did not offer this service.  

On top of that, this hotel didn’t even have a guest washer and dryer either!

So Todd and I gathered up the laundry in two garbage bags that the person at the front desk gave us and we headed into town to do laundry at the local laundromat in Jackson, OH.  

One of the other veteran MA’s said that we could start the laundry in the machines and just pick them up after dinner.  That seemed like a reasonable idea.  I then had to call home and ask my wife how to run a laundromat washing machine because of course, as a 42 year old grown man, I have no idea on how to run one of these machines!  My beautiful, soft-spoken wife was very emphatic, that whatever I do, DO NOT LEAVE THE LAUNDRY UNATTENDED.  Over the course of 20 years of marriage, I have found out that my life usually works out better if I listen to my wife’s advice, so Todd and I planned to stay at the laundromat.  After running around and getting $20 worth of quarters and some laundry detergent and after a few timer settings, we got the laundry clean!  It could have probably spent a little extra time in the dryer ….but it was clean!  Since we were late to dinner, I had my longtime IL teammate Brent Gerber order my food for me and I was happy to show up just in time for dinner after doing the laundry!

There was a small ice cream place nearby our hotel and we enjoyed some ice cream as a team before handing out laundry.