Quick Postseason/Post Surgery Update from Me and my New Achilles Tendon…

I tore my right Achilles tendon almost two and half weeks ago. I know several of you have been praying for me so I wanted to provide a quick update on how things are going.

I had surgery on it on 10/17. The procedure was called: “ACHILLES TENDON RUPTURE WITH FLEXOR HALLICUS LONGUS TENDON TRANSFER AND RIGHT LOWER EXTREMITY, RESECTION OF HAGLUND’S DEFORMITY with C ARM (Right)”

In other words, they took a tendon that goes behind my heel to my big toe and re-routed it so that is my new Achilles heel tendon. They also cleaned up some heel spurs that were the root issue of the initial tendon damage.

Over the last couple of weeks I have used my recovery time to get caught up on some Batman movies. Of course, Michael Keaton is still my favorite Batman. I beat Super Mario Bros 2 for the first time since 1992. The Cubs are in first place and they are 18-5 in my MLB The Show Xbox video game. For the sake of everyone's sanity, I am not doing a fictitious interview with Lou Piniella and postgame write up of every game (if you know, you know…).

I have also had some time to work on some ministry stuff either on the couch or in an office chair at church. I have also had time to prep for preaching at one of our local rescue missions this Thursday and this upcoming Sunday at my church. I will have to preach from a chair but I am looking forward to both of those opportunities. I am also looking forward to using this time to work on some stuff for our church’s youth group and some time to practice playing guitar for our worship services.

Thank you again to everyone who has been praying!

Praises

• The surgery was successful and I am looking forward to knocking out some of the upcoming steps to get back to walking, work, and hopefully the softball field!
• I have got the opportunity to spend time with my dad as he has hauled me back and forth to doctor’s appointments

Prayer Requests

• Pray for the upcoming service at the Esther House Rescue Mission on Thursday
• Pray for the upcoming worship service at my church on Sunday
• Pray for continued recovery- pray for my attitude as crutches, casts, and stairs are frustrating at the moment!
• Continue to pray for the men in New Mexico who made professions of faith on our trip earlier this month.

"This Week on General Hospital"- 2023 New Mexico Crusade Day 3 & 4 Update

Just in case you are wondering, the closest emergency room nearby Roswell Correctional Center is Artesia General Hospital. It is almost a half hour drive to get there from the prison but it contains lots of lovely views of rural southeast New Mexico. The staff there is pleasant and helpful. There isn’t a long wait if you visit around 10 am on a Friday morning. Their expert team made the transition from waiting room to patient room to the catscan room to the room where you get a cast and crutches efficient and seamless. Of course, anything to do with an emergency room was not on the agenda for this particular Friday… We arrived at Roswell CC at our expected time of 7:00 am. Once we were processed through security, we made our way to the softball field. We got introduced to the team and started our game like normally. The game went along like a normal prison game. We got out to an early lead and never really looked back. I had two normal at bats, hitting a base hit up the middle and getting a hit off of the outfield wall. My third at bat, I hit a ground ball to 2nd base. I remember taking one step towards first base when I felt a lot of pain coming from my right heel. I face-planted right there in the dirt and I couldn’t move until my teammates came to pick me up. I had been battling some Achilles tendon pain for the past two seasons because of some heel spurs but it had finally ruptured right there on the first base line on the prison softball field. My teammates, Bruce Buri from Wisconsin and Adam Blankenship from West Virginia, helped carry me back to the bench. The longer I sat on the bench, the more the pain subsided. We had won the game and broke for ministry time. Adam Blankenship shared his testimony and Jimmy Cochran shared the Gospel. After Jimmy was done sharing the Gospel, one of the staff members at the prison got me a wheelchair and drove me to the local emergency room. I got evaluated and they did a catscan. They verified that I had a rupture of my right Achilles tendon. They put me in a temporary cast and gave me some crutches. I joked with the ER doctor and asked him if I was cleared to play the second half of the day. He looked at me funny and told me to go ahead and try but to be prepared to be amputated below the knee! The prison staff member who made sure I got to and from the hospital was exceptionally kind. Please keep her in prayer because she doesn’t know the Lord. I made it back in time for the end of lunch. I was back in my wheelchair and my teammates rolled me back to the field. We played our last game of the day and got out to another comfortable lead. We took a break in the middle of the game to do our ministry time. Bruce Buri shared his testimony and Jimmy Cochran shared the Gospel. There was a public address system set up and I got to take turns with the prison announcer, announcing the game. I got to use my Harry Caray impression which made a few guys laugh! Overall on our day at Roswell CC we handed out 200 Gospels of John and had 18 men make a profession of faith.

After we left Roswell, we made the long drive back to Albuquerque. We made it to our hotel and then had dinner at a local restaurant nearby the University of New Mexico.

We all went to sleep that night very tired. Our 4th day of the trip wasn’t a typical Saints day. We didn’t have a prison lined up to go and play softball and minister at. We were able to go to Central New Mexico Correctional Facility for a concert another prison ministry was putting on. They played several songs and shared a message with the men there. We were allowed to hand out Gospels of John to the men we saw there. After we left the prison, we went back to our hotel for some rest. That evening we had our devotions. We went over an article from a 9Marks contributor about James 5:19-20. The article was about Three Reasons to Preach through James. The listed that one of the reasons was that we should preach the book of James to bring one another back to Christ. 

After our devotion time, we enjoyed our last meal together as a team with some pizza and wings. The next morning we made our way to the airport and went our different directions. Ray Koonce, who plays on our Illinois softball team, helped me navigate the three airports required to get home. If it wasn’t for Ray, I would still be stuck in Albuquerque! 

Overall on our trip, we went undefeated on the field (I think that is the first time I’ve been on a trip where we have done that!). We handed out 444 Gospels of John and had 47 men total make a profession of faith. 

I will be having surgery on my right Achilles this coming Tuesday (10/17). 

Please pray for wisdom for the doctors. I am looking forward to having this cleaned up and repaired. I will miss some time on the field but I fully intend on being active with our Illinois team and being back on the field at some point in 2024! Thank you to everyone who prayed for and supported the trip. It has been a blessing to do this all of these years!

"Are You Sure That There Isn't Another Thursday Night Football Game On?"- 2023 New Mexico Crusade Day 2 Update

It has been a few years since the whole Chicago sports fan thing has been fun. Although my Cubs have been a disappointment the last couple of years. They did make a run at the playoffs this year but of course were eliminated on the 2nd to last day of the season. I am not as big of a Bulls fan as I used to be, but they aren’t usually too fun to watch anytime I turn them on. I really haven’t gotten into hockey, but the Blackhawks are a ways away from the glory years of the last decade and probably a couple seasons away from being relevant again.

But the Bears…my beloved Chicago Bears have been bad for quite some time. Despite the high hopes of this season, they went into the Thursday night game with a last place 0-4 record.

I was dreading the inevitable dinner slot where I would be forced to watch my Bears in front of all my teammates who all had good teams to cheer for…

Thursday morning was another early morning and we were on the road before the sun came up. We traveled from our hotel in Roswell to Lea County Correctional Center in Hobbs, NM. Before reaching the prison, we stopped at a McDonald’s for a quick breakfast. During our breakfast time, we played the daily puzzle game “Immaculate Grid” from www.baseballreference.com . We had a fun time trying to think of players from years gone by to fill up the puzzle.

Once we were done with breakfast, we made the short drive to the prison. Once we arrived, we saw a big banner with our logo on it welcoming us to the prison.

We made our way to the field and met our first group of the day. Before we took the field, one of the men sung the National Anthem which was cool.

We won our first game pretty easily. During our ministry time, David Cogliano shared his testimony and Frank Zeidler shared the Gospel.

After our ministry time we enjoyed another really good cookout style lunch with the men in the yard.

After our lunch, a coordinator from the prison was able to use her phone and the sound system and conference call in a group of men who were “alumni”. The men on the phone did a total of 95 years served combined. They shared about having hope while in prison but they shared how that hope came from the Lord.

The Gospel is the most powerful thing that these men can hear, but that was special hearing the men who had spent time on the outside, genuinely care and encourage those who were still serving time.

I also got an opportunity to meet the prison chaplain during our lunch time. He was excited to share about the help they were getting from a local Bible college and how they were training up men in the on-site seminary. Once the enrolled men graduate from the seminary, they would be moved around to different prisons to plant churches inside other prisons in New Mexico.

When lunch was over, we had about an hour-long break in the prison gym during count. Some guys played basketball, some guys talked, and some guys took a nap! One of the cool things as a lifelong Chicago Bears fan was seeing a mural painted by the residents of former Bear Brian Urlacher. Urlacher spent his college years playing for the University of New Mexico.

After count cleared, we played two more groups. We won both of the games pretty easily. During both of the sharing times, Tom Carberry shared his testimony and Andy Solomon shared the Gospel.

Overall on the day, we handed out 169 Gospels of John and saw 13 men make professions of faith!

After we left the prison, we made the drive back to our hotel and then ventured out to the local Buffalo Wild Wings to enjoy a team dinner and watch the dreaded Chicago Bears game on Thursday Night Football.

Much to my surprise, the Bears played well and won in convincing fashion over the Washington Commanders.

After the game we went back to the hotel and had our team devotions. We went through James 1:1-11. We talked about how the tests that we go through and how James tells us to respond to them.

Our team once again went to bed quite tired and worn out but our Thursday in New Mexico was most certainly a blessed day to serve the Lord in prison.

"It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door"- 2023 New Mexico Crusade Day 1 Update

“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”  - Bilbo Baggins from the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

One of my all-time pet peeves is someone who will go out of their way to let you know that the book was better than a movie that you just watched.  This people trigger is probably something that holds me back from being a good extroverted “people person”.  

With that being said, I write this next line with some apprehension…

One of my favorite movies is the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” series movies.  

Yes, I know, I’m sure the books were better, but they are such fun movies!

There are several things I love about both trilogies but something that resonates with my heart is how different the main characters are from each other yet they band together on an epic quest to destroy the one ring.  

One of my favorite things about the Saints Prison Ministry is getting to know so many different people from so many different backgrounds over the last 12 years.  

This trip was going to be a special trip no matter how it went.  We had several guys on the team who started with the ministry about the same time I did and we have been through a lot together.  

Wednesday morning, Ray Koonce and I met at the airport in Peoria at 5:30 am. From there, we flew to Dallas and made a quick connection to our next plane going to Albuquerque. We sat on the runway for a bit waiting for our plane to take off. That delay put us in a slight time crunch to meet the rest of the team for our first visit. In order to save some time, I changed into my softball gear in the airplane bathroom. I'm not sure if I would ever recommend doing that again but I was able to successfully change in the tiny bathroom!

Once we landed, we met up with two guys that flew in from the West Virginia team. After picking them up, we made a quick stop to get our stuff together and then headed to our first ministry opportunity of the trip.  

The group we were ministering to was the New Mexico Men's Recovery Academy. They are a reentry treatment service that is designed to reduce recidivism.  Some of their residents are current inmates and some are men off the street who need help.  Since their facility didn't have a field, we met, and played them at a local sports complex in town. 

We won our first game pretty easily.  In between games we enjoyed some lunch with the men.  The administration grilled some burgers and hot dogs.  During lunch, I talked with a guy who was a professing believer. He talked about how drugs and alcohol had led to other bad decisions in his life and how he was looking forward to giving up that lifestyle when he got out.  

After lunch we sat in the bleachers under some shade and had our ministry time. Rodney Stewart shared his testimony and Ray Koonce shared the Gospel. I had some time to talk to a young man who had made a profession of faith, but was a little iffy on his understanding of the Gospel. I don't remember his name but please pray that God brings others to minister to him and share truth with him. 

After our ministry time, we didn't have time to play a full game so we threw some batting practice to their guys before they left. 

Overall on the day, we handed out around 75 Gospels of John and had 16 men make a profession of faith. 

After the game we stopped for snacks and then started the long drive from Los Lunas to Roswell.  The drive to Roswell took a little over 3 hours.  To pass the time, David "Cogs" Cogliano suggested a game on our phones called "Psych".  The game was basically based on how well we could passive aggressively insult each other which led to a lot of much needed laughs for such a long drive!  

We finally arrived at our hotel after 8 pm.  We enjoyed a late team meal and had our devotion time. Although we were all really tired, we studied James 4:14 which says:

James 4:14- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

We talked about the urgency we have to share the Gospel and the urgency to get the Gospel to the inmates.  

We went to bed that night very tired but encouraged about what God had done during our first day!

Wednesday was a good start to a really good trip!

Saints Travel to New Mexico Tomorrow!

Dear friends and family,

It is Saints Prison Ministry fall Crusade time!  

Tomorrow morning I am flying to New Mexico and we will be visiting several prisons around the state. 

Here are a few very specific prayer requests for our team:

Traveling Mercies– There are 12 men going on this trip from all over the place! We have guys traveling from Pennsylvania, Georgia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and of course Peoria, IL!  We will spend quite a bit of time in the air flying on Wednesday and then we will spend quite a bit of time driving around the state.  

Please pray that transportation won’t be a hindrance to sharing the Gospel this week!

Team Unity– This is going to be a fun group to be around this week but we will be spending several days together! Please pray that fellowship will be sweet and moral will be high as we serve together. This is a veteran group of Saints and this will be a solid group to hang with all week on and off the field!

Team Performance– The results of the games aren’t important but it is critical that we play well and that we earn the respect of the inmates. If we play well and earn their respect, they will be more likely to stick around and listen to us share the Gospel.

We will only have the 12 of us and we have a few guys who are already banged up and several of us will be injured even before we will get to the airport!  Please pray that our guys will stay healthy this week and that we compete well this week.  

Speakers– Pray for the Missionary Athletes who will be sharing their testimonies of how they met Jesus and for the Missionary Athletes who will be sharing the Gospel. I am on the schedule to share the Gospel once this week and I will be sharing the team devotions this week.

Families– Each of the 12 Missionary Athletes are leaving a family at home so they can minister. Please pray for all of the wives and moms who have to brave work and kids by themselves. I’m very thankful for the support that I have from home on these trips!

Inmates– Most importantly, pray for the men that we will encounter as they are the purpose of this trip. Pray that they hear the Gospel and will see a need in their lives to follow Jesus!

Please keep checking my Facebook page for updates throughout the week.

Thank you in advance for the prayer support and for all of the encouragement many of you have been over the last several years! I’m looking forward to sharing the stories from this week!

Inside the Mind of Gibby- Technology to the Rescue!

Technology to the Rescue 

I am getting a little older and I am finding that there are more and more things that are popular that I simply just don’t get. I’m from the 1990’s and when Al Gore invented the internet, it was just a fun way to keep up with family and play fantasy football. Well, it’s 30 years later, and the latest thing is the push for more artificial intelligence, simply known as A.I. I'm fairly sure the A.I. craze will lead to a hostile robot takeover but, in the meantime, I do wonder how we could utilize it around here for what we do! 

Remembering Outs in an Inning 

Let’s start with something simple. We can utilize this technology to keep track of how many outs are in an inning because I have seen Missionary Athletes forget this about 8,065 times! Drumming up the technology to help our teams count all the way to three shouldn’t be too hard but the real question is how does the A.I. respond when we mess up? The obvious answer is electrical shock, but we can also set it up so that MA's hotel room keycard will deactivate if they forget the number of outs while they are on a Crusade! 

Virtual Assistant 

Siri and Alexa make it easy for people to ask A.I. questions. Of course we can come up with our own version, and we will use it for common questions that are important to our prison visits such as: “Hey A.I., is it legal in Chillicothe, OH to cut across someone’s back yard to get back on the main road if you are running late?” or “Hey A.I., by random chance is there ANYWHERE to eat within 70 miles of Morgan, GA that doesn’t specialize in catfish?” 

Patterns 

One of the things that A.I. monitors is patterns so it can make better decisions. We can program the A.I. to notice the pattern of 36 years of playing sports in prison, so that we know what sport to play to guarantee that we will win when we show up! If we are traveling in Indiana and have Don Conner with us, we will know that we should play basketball. If we are indoors in a rain delay and have Wayne Hinkson with us, we know we will dominate in Trivial Pursuit. And anywhere in the country - regardless of the conditions - if we have Dave Cogliano, it will tell us we have better odds of winning a game involving competitive eating! 

Writing this Article 

This is my 26th article and I'm still on the hot seat to get canceled at any moment! I’m sure we can get a robot, plug it into the wall, and he can write delightful little articles like this better than I can. However, “Inside the Mind of T-1000” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it!