The last day of the trip is always bittersweet. After 5 days of softball, you are just ready to be home and get some rest. At the same time, it is tough to leave behind the mission field of prison and the team that you have spent so much time with. The whole point of doing something like this is to minister to the guys in the prisons and share the Gospel. At the same time, there were several of us (if not all of us) who were able to use this as a much needed men’s retreat with fellow brothers in the Lord. It was great to battle on the field as a team. It was great to see each other share the Gospel not only in prison but also in the team hotel, restaurants, and gas stations. It was great to laugh with each other during the down times. It was sobering to know that other guys faced struggles in their own walks with the Lord too and that we could comfort each other not with our wisdom but pointing each other back to the Gospel and to the Lord who loves us. There is nothing like seeing your family and getting back to our church families but it is most certainly bittersweet leaving a special group like this behind.
Heritage Trail is another privately run prison that has been operated by the GEO group since 2014. The buildings are quite a bit older and I did a little bit of research and found that it was once the Indiana Boys School, a correctional facility for adolescent boys.
The softball field was actually a tranquil setting. The field was mostly grass but it was surrounded by trees and some old brick buildings
We had a lot of fun with the teams we saw. The games were somewhat competitive but we won them both. We had quite a bit of friendly trash talk during the games which made it a lot of fun.
In between games Jimmy Cochran shared his testimony and the Gospel. Jimmy was able to share about his special needs daughter. Jimmy did a good job of tying that into having his faith in His heavenly Father and why it important that the men there knew about that faith as well.
After the second game, we circled up around the pitcher’s mound and prayed with the guys one last time.
Overall on the day we handed out 35 Gospels and had 8 men indicate that they trusted in Jesus Christ that day.
Like I mentioned above, this was one of my favorite trips and I really appreciate the guys that I spent time with during this trip.
Over all on the trip we won 14 games while losing 2. We handed out 372 Gospels and saw 53 men make professions of faith in the Lord.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last 10+ years! God worked in a mighty way during our time in Indiana and it was a blessing to be there! I am looking forward to more visits this summer and fall!
