Blogger's note: Usually I start my Saints updates with either something that God has laid on my heart from hearing or reading His Word and sometimes I choose something I think is witty or funny. For my Kentucky Crusade updates, I wanted to share part of the team devotions that our team shared on the trip. My good friend and coach of the North Georgia Saints David Cogliano wrote and shared the devotions on the trip and I wanted to share them in my update posts about our Kentucky Trip. The theme of the devotions is "Compete for the Crown".
1 Corinthians 9:24-27- 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
These verses really resonate since sports are part of our ministry. We aren't just playing softball but we are really competing with the men we see and trying to win when we go out there. As Missionary athletes, we understand the discipline, sacrifice, and focus it takes to win on the softball field. But, Paul reminds us that life itself is a race, a spiritual race, and only those who run with a purpose and intentionality will receive the prize. The prize isn't a trophy or a medal but rather the eternal reward of Christ saying "Well done" and the joy of reaching people for Jesus.
As we sat down as a team to discuss this, we talked about how we are training. Some of the guys from Georgia go to the same church and they have the opportunity to encourage one another and to hold each other accountable. Some of us brought up our current Bible reading plans and our attempts to memorize God's Word. We also talked about what it looked like to do stuff outside of our comfort zone. Getting up early to read and pray isn't comfortable. Memorizing the Bible isn't easy. Sharing our faith with those around us is incredibly uncomfortable, but we need to be running a race and we need to continue to run hard, and prepare ourselves to continue to run hard towards the prize of our relationship with Jesus. There should be a sense of passion and urgency as we go through this.
Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, our team starting making the trek towards Lexington, KY. Three of us from Illinois drove over together. The car rental place at the Peoria airport was supposed to have a standard size SUV but they didn't have one on the lot so instead, they gave us a really, really, nice Ford Expedition that was incredibly nice to drive!
We arrived at our hotel in Lexington and went out to an Italian food restaurant for dinner. This was a fun dinner as I got to meet up with several old friends and meet some new teammates.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and had our team devotions before getting some sleep for the night. The next morning we got up early and made our way to USP McCreary. I have been in a couple of other USP's over the years but basically a USP (United States Penitentiary) is a maximum security Federal prison. These are a little harder to get into because of security and logistical reasons. We got word that we were the first group to come in and do what we do. It was a thrill that God opened the door for us to go!
We made our way through security and eventually ended up out on the prison yard. We basically got to minister to the team, some umpires, and a scorekeeper. We did eventually get to see a few guys who met us at the fence in an adjacent yard.
We started the game out well and got out to an early lead. During the game things were going along well, but then we heard some commotion. There was an incident, most likely a fight of some kind, going on in one of the nearby dorms separate from the fenced in area where we were. We all had to take a knee where we were on the field and not move until the incident was over. Most prisons give us some brief training on how to respond in situations like that but this was the first time I have had to use that training.
After the event was over, we were able to resume play and finish our game. We did our ministry presentation near the left field fence, which is where the other yard was located. Several guys from that yard met us at the fence to hear our ministry presentation. My good friend Tom Carberry shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord and how the Lord has brought him through some really hard points in his life. Tom's wife is currently battling cancer so please keep her in prayer. After Tom shared his testimony, Jim Jefferson shared the Gospel. JJ was one of my first teammates from my first Ohio trip in 2011 and he has been such a good friend for several years! JJ shared the Gospel with the men. It was cool because the team we played with and the men on the other side of the fence were locked in as both Tom and JJ talked with them.
After our ministry presentation was over, we were told that the prison had to go on lockdown. We had planned to be in the USP all day to play 4 games and share the Gospel twice but we were going to have to leave the USP. That is bad news. But, the good news was that the warden arranged for us to spend the rest of the day at the connecting lower security camp at the facility.
Before leaving the USP for the day, we were able to eat lunch in the staff dining room. We enjoyed a good lunch of burgers and chili dogs. We had an opportunity to pray with one of the officers who had cancer and who was getting cancer treatments.
After lunch, we left the USP and made our way to the camp. The camp was much lower security and had no fences. We played our first game at the camp and won again pretty easily. Jon Isbell from our team here in Illinois shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord. Don Conner, who was also on my first Saints team in 2011 shared the Gospel.
After the ministry time, we played another game. This game was a little closer but we held on and won.
After the game, we huddled up with the men, and acknowledged some MVP's and umpires. While we were still circled up with the men, we reminded them again about the Gospel message that they heard and why it was so critical that they put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Overall at the USP, we handed out 39 Gospels and had 4 men make professions of faith. At the camp, we handed out 26 Gospels and had 1 man make a profession of faith.
After we left the camp, we went back to our hotel, got cleaned up, and went out to a local BBQ restaurant for dinner.
We got back to the hotel and did our team devotions.
The devotions continued with the same theme of Competing for the Crown were about 1 Timothy 4:7-8.
1 Timothy 4:7-8- 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
In the first verse, "Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. Paul warns us not to get caught up in myths or distractions. Things that sound spiritual, but don't lead to truth.
We talked about things like "God wants us to be happy" or "That we are all God's children" or that "God helps those who help themselves". Those all sound like nice things to say and hear but we know that they are half truths at best. If we dig into Scripture, we see that God wants our worship, and that God's children are those who repent and believe in Him, and that we are totally powerless to help ourselves and that our reliance needs to be on God.
We talked about how physical training is a good thing but training for godliness is far more important.
We then talked about how we can train for godliness and encourage our teammates to train and grow spiritually.
We prayed together as a team as we closed out our devotion time.
After devotions, some of us made a quick ice cream and Walmart run but once we got back to the hotel, we had no problems falling asleep after a busy full day of ministry!
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