I keep the following bible verse thumbtacked to my wall by my desk.
Philippians 4:8- Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
The last few years have brought forth all kinds of discouragement. I’m sure that most anyone reading this has been discouraged about our nation, pandemics, parenting, marriage, work, and not but not least, Chicago sports teams. Ok, maybe that doesn’t belong in this group but it is discouraging nonetheless!
I often try and think on this verse when I am discouraged. One praise that I can think of that I can apply to this verse is the way God has used teammates to encourage and exhort me over the years. I really appreciate the way God has supplied Godly men into my life through this ministry. We had such a wide range of teammates on this trip. Some guys were making their first Saints trip while some were on the ground when I made my first trip in 2011. This was one of my favorite set of teammates on a Crusade
While on this trip, I was reminded that one of the good things I can think about is my Saints teammates. It is cool to think about the way God has brought other Godly men into my life not only to make me a better person, but to help me love Him more. I’m glad that God gave us Phillippians 4:8 and good teammates!
Our day three journey includes two different prisons. Pendleton CF and Correctional Industrial Facility.
The Pendleton CF building is an older building but it has a very historical look. When you try and imagine what a prison would look like in a movie, this building would probably meet most of your expectations. The prison yard has the same historical look with concrete walls all the way around the prison yard.
We actually visited Pendleton in 2018 and actually made it all the way out to the prison yard but we were not able to have a typical yardtime ministry with the men because of an incident earlier in the day.
Pendleton had a pretty good softball team. Unfortunately, we did not play very well and we lost game one.
In between games, Bruce Buri shared his testimony. Bruce is a Missionary Athlete from Wisconsin and helps run the Brother Bob’s Outreach prison ministry in the greater Milwaukee area. During Bruce’s testimony time he shared about the loss of his wife to cancer. He shared about his relationship with Christ was something that he could take comfort in during such a devastating time. He also stressed how his wife knew the Lord and how that gave him joy through a very difficult trial. This is always a powerful story to hear and I appreciate that Bruce reminds the men about the urgency to make a decision about the Lord. After Bruce’s testimony, Jimmy Cochran shared the Gospel. I really appreciated the message that Jimmy shared with the men using the Gospel of John. We then played another game and unfortunately suffered another loss from another good team at Pendleton.
Overall during our morning at Pendleton, we handed out 60 Gospels and saw 6 men make professions of faith!
We then took a break for lunch and got some Wendy’s nearby the prison. Do other athletes eat Baconators in between sporting events? Probably not, but, the fast food meals in between games are always a fun time to hit the off button, enjoy some laughs, and just relax for a quick moment.
After lunch we went to the Correctional Industrial Facility. We had about an hour wait before our game started. There were a few dogs out on the yard with some of the inmates. There are a few different programs out in several different prisons that I have visited that save dogs from euthanasia and allows them to live in the prison and learn some basic obdience. The dogs are usually eventually available for outside adoption at some point. I am an animal person and I really enjoyed hanging out with the dogs while talking to the guys in the yard.
We played our first game and won our first game. This was a very close game against a pretty good team. Usually by this point in the trip, everyone is tired and pretty much everyone has some sort of injury but we were able to hold on and win the game.
In between games, Bruce shared his testimony again and I shared the Gospel. I preached from the passages in John 11 and John 12 talking about Caiphas and Mary. Caiphas hated Jesus because He was in Caiphas’ way while Mary devoted everything she had to Jesus. I made the point that if we want to follow Jesus, we need to be devoted to Him with everything we have.
After the ministry time, we played another really competitive game and won!
During our time at CIF, we handed out 30 Gospels of John and had 5 men indicate that they trusted the Lord.
When we returned to the hotel, we did our evening devotion. The topic was “What Kind of Sacrifice is required to be God’s kind of servant?”
I used a few excerpts from Donald Whitney’s book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life”. In chapter 7 of his book, Whitney uses an illustration of a recruiting poster for the Pony Express:
“Wanted-Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”
We discussed a few passages of Scripture where we see that following Jesus is a life of sacrifice. One of the cool parts was that we could take a look at how we need to sacrifice as believers, members of the Saints Prison Ministry, and members of our local churches.
After our devotions, we enjoyed a fun meal at a local BBQ restaurant. There is usually a BBQ stop on each trip and this one certainly did not disappoint!
During the meal, Tom Carberry worked out a trade in our fantasy baseball league. Tom was there for our first Illinois visit in 2012 and has been a dear friend ever since.
It was a joy to serve the Lord on a Friday in the two prisons we visited!
