Rain does some funny things to affect baseball games. Most of the time it is a bad thing to see the umpire call the ground crew out to cover the field. In the case of the 2016 Chicago Cubs, the rain delay happened at the perfect moment and the Cubs came out of the rain delay and won the World Series!
When we woke up Saturday morning, we knew we would be facing a rain delay of some sort. It had poured the night before. We figured that wiffleball could be a possibility. When we arrived at the prison, we eventually made our way out to the prison softball field which was as expected, underwater!
Fortunately, this story did not end with wiffleball or even worse, a cancellation. The yard was big enough that there was a big enough grassy area for us to play. We lost the first game 9-8. The inmate team got a walkoff hit in the last inning.
During the game, I met another Chicago Cubs fan in the yard. He tried to test me if I was really a Cubs fan and wanted to see if I knew the words to “Hey Hey Holy Mackerel (The Cubs are on their Way)”. In one of the most fun things I have ever done in prison ministry, I sang the entire song with my fellow Cubs fan. This man said that he knew the Lord we both shared our concern for the inner city of Chicago and Peoria.
After the frist game, we started our ministry time. My Illinois teammate, Nick Sauder shared his testimony of how he met the Lord. I had the opportunity to share the Gospel. I preached from John 11:46-12:8.. This is the same message that I got to share in [Name of Florida Prison]. This is the passage about the Caiaphas, the Jewish leader and Mary, the sister of Lazarus. Caiaphas plots to kill Jesus because Jesus is in his way. Mary worships and honors Jesus by washing His feet with her hair and by using an entire bottle of a really expensive perfume to anoint Jesus’ feet. I contrasted both lives and challenged those in prison yard, what are you going to do with Jesus? Are you a Caiaphas or are you a Mary? Are you someone who views Jesus as in your way or are you all in on putting your faith in Jesus?
After the sharing time, we played another game and won a lopsided game.
During our trip to the South Florida Reception Center, we handed out close to 100 Gospels of John and saw 8 men indicate that they put their faith in Jesus Christ.
We then loaded back on the bus and headed to Everglades CI.
Playing in two facilities in the same day isn’t necessarily hard, but it does mess you physically and mentally. Physically, you just left everything on the field in prison #1 but the expectation of prison #2 is that you are fresh and ready to leave everything on the field again. It is also challenging mentally to try and manage the fatigue and provide the same level of engagement for another audience. As much of a joy as it is to share the Gospel and talk to people about the Lord, it can be mentally fatiguing but God has us there for a reason and we know it’s our job to be faithful in serving Him!
Unfortunately, we had trouble scoring runs and took a tough 16-4 loss. During the sharing time, some of my teammates and I got to visit the other side of the prison yard and meet some guys and hand out some literature. After we handed out literature, I got to sit in and play some drums with the band who was practicing next to the yard! Getting a chance to sit in and play with the prison band is always one of my favorite things to do that has nothing to do with the ministry mission statement!
During the 2nd game, it began to rain pretty hard. We were actually able to stay out in the yard and finish a game of “one pitch” until they called yard. Several guys got really dirty but we had a lot of fun!
Overall during our time at Everglades CI we had 12 men indicate that they made a decision to follow the Lord!
After our trip to Everglades CI we got cleaned up and enjoyed a nice team meal in Miami.
Despite the rain, the Lord was good to us today! Tomorrow we head to the DeSoto Annex!
