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.
