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!
