Blogger's note- I wasn't able to go on the 8/5/23 trip to Kewanee LSRC but my oldest son, Ryne Gibson was able to go and help fill in as a emergency sub. So, instead of me writing the update of how the day went, here are Ryne's thoughts on the day!
As nice it is to participate in the Saints, I may as well admit that softball isn’t my forte. I grew up playing baseball in our local Little League hosted by the Christian Center in Peoria but that was about the height of my athletic career. However, I do get to utilize that experience when I get an opportunity to fill in as an emergency guy with the Saints. It has been fun to play softball, share the Gospel, and spend time with my dad. One unique thing about this visit was that my dad wouldn’t be with us on this trip as he was in Arizona at a memorial service. We met at our church in Peoria early Saturday. We loaded up our equipment and prayed as a team. We left the church and got some Chick-fil-A breakfast before hitting the road for Kewanee. We arrived on time to a very rainy Kewanee. We played two games in the morning in very wet and muddy conditions. Unfortunately, we didn’t play very well but it was still fun. In between games, Kurt Hand shared his testimony. Kurt has been a good friend of my dad’s for several years. We used to go and get Buffalo Wild Wings with his family on Wednesday nights when we were younger. After Kurt shared his testimony, Kyle Krall shared the Gospel. Kyle preached on John 3:16. After our second game, we had lunch served by the inmates. The meal we had was really good. They served BBQ chicken with fries and cake. I sat next to a guy from the prison who was doing a news article for the prison about our visit. He talked to me about my time with the ministry and what a typical Saints day looks like. We then played our third game and unfortunately lost again. In between games, Jon Isbell shared his testimony and Brent Gerber shared the Gospel. We then played a fourth game. This time we mixed the teams up and had a lot of fun competing against one another. The trip to the Kewanee Life-Skill Reentry Center was a trip that helped make an impact on others and myself. It was a wonderful experience to both deliver the gospel to the inmates and give them some company from the outside word. Something that stuck out to me for the trip was how God allowed us to do as much as we did. A downpour of rain isn’t exactly the ideal weather conditions for playing softball. However, we were not only able to go in, but we ended up playing softball in both the rain and the mud. Softball obviously wasn’t necessary to preach the gospel to others, however it did give us more of an open area to preach to more people, and that was definitely a blessing from God. Several of the prisoners here at Kewanee were believers even before this visit, and several of them heard the word from previous Saints visits. The fact that the people here, who have sentences to serve that take lifetimes to pay off for the things they've done, retain the word and message that we bring to them is truly remarkable. Getting to play ball and talk with them between innings showed me that we weren't sharing our testimony and preaching the word of God just to random nameless prisoners, but to people who have sinned against God and are in need of a savior, just like the rest of us. Overall on the day we saw 5 men indicate that they placed their faith in Jesus and we handed out 83 Gospels. To everyone that supported the Saints, thank you all so much for praying for the ministry!
