As I write this, I am in the midst of having to work on a broken machine at work. So far all of my attempts to repair said machine haven’t worked. With each passing failed attempt I am feeling a little more and more like the coyote trying to catch the road runner! I’m confident that we will find a solution to our machine problem eventually, but it has been frustrating to say the least. So far everyone has been patient while I work on this…but with that being said, if I can’t fix this machine soon, I’ll probably have to start charging for these email updates!
Sometimes there are issues out of our control like weather or firm decisions made by prison administrations. Sometimes there are issues with transportation- for more examples of that, see pretty much every blog post I wrote between 2015 and 2019! And sometimes, there is a worldwide pandemic that changes everything about what we do! This past weekend’s visit, however, was a lot closer to what a normal pre-2020 visit looked like!
On June 3rd we made our Opening Day trip to Taylorville CC. It was our first event of the season, and I was glad to see our team in full uniform as we met to pray and pack up our equipment. It was good to hear our team pray for the day. We prayed for the men we would see, the speakers who would preach, the families we would leave behind for a day, and the North Georgia team who was also on the road. Once we finished praying, we were on our way to Taylorville. After a quick breakfast, we arrived at Taylorville CC. We made it through security and made our way to the field. Once we got out to the field we saw quite a few guys out in the yard. This was the biggest post-COVID Illinois prison yard that we have seen since we started back up last year.
The prison team was taking batting practice when we arrived. Of course, I don’t want to see that because that means that they are going to be warmed up and ready to play and we would have our hands full! Despite getting out to an early lead, we lost the first game.
Once the first game was over, we stopped for our ministry time. Nick Sauder shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord. After Nick spoke, Josh Frederick shared the Gospel with the group that we saw. Josh preached about God's mercy. Josh does a good job sharing the Gospel clearly with the men in the yard.
After our ministry time, we played our second game. We lost a much closer game. TECHNICALLY… we actually could have pled our case for a tie because they had a runner miss a base on a 3 run double and he was called out at first on the appeal and their runs shouldn't have counted but I digress…
We then enjoyed some hamburgers in the chow hall. Some prison food is a little iffy, but these were really good.
We then played our third game and we won pretty easily. That was a good feeling to get that first win of the season under our belts!
During our ministry time, Chris Onken shared his testimony and Brent Gerber shared the Gospel. Brent preached through a portion of Romans and preached on what it meant to have a debt that we couldn’t pay but God paid for us through the death and resurrection of His Son.
After the ministry time was over, we played an abbreviated game with the remaining yard time we had left. We managed to win again and get our record back up to .500!
We circled up with the men on the pitcher’s mound after the second game and had one more time to remind them of the truth they were confronted with and the decision they were faced with.
Overall on the day, we saw close to 200 guys out on the yard. This was the biggest crowd we have seen in a few years and that was a big encouragement to us. We handed out 184 Gospels and saw 24 men indicate that they made a decision to put their trust in the Lord.
When we finally made it out of the prison, we circled up behind the van and shared some stories about the day. Several guys on the team shared conversations that they had with men on the yard. Hearing those stories is encouraging, and it is cool to see God work not only through our guys but also in our guys.
Our next visit is June 24th at Illinois River CC in Canton, IL. Please pray for our team and for the men that we will see!
Thank you again for your support in 2023!
