The best thing about a flight delay is the stress eating.
What was going to be a quick snack has now turned into several snacks followed by chocolate ice cream!
The second best thing about a flight delay is having time to read.
A book I finished up during my travels was "Dangerous Calling" by Paul David Tripp. I recently celebrated one year of being installed as an elder at my church. This book really challenges pastor/elders to examine their own hearts about calling to serve the Lord. In chapter 8 Tripp brings up Psalm 145 as he talks about the danger of losing our awe of God.
Psalm 145:3 says:
Psalm 145:3- Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
I spend more time with myself than anyone else does and I know how much I can struggle with my awe of God.
When I think about how much the Lord has provided for our church and for the Saints Prison Ministry, I should be in awe.
I should be in awe and not be quiet about it.
I could write for years and not cover how many different places in our lives we should be in awe but if I just focus on how he has blessed and provided for the Saints, this should drive me to worship Him and praise Him to others. It should drive me to want to pursue holiness as I seek to walk with Him. It should drive me to hate my sin. It should drive me to want to be patient and tender with those around me. There is nothing I can bring to the table that competes with the awe I need to have for God. That should make me want to be humble, gentle and tender with those around me.
We indeed serve an awesome God who is worthy of worship.
I woke up early and got some quick breakfast before we left the hotel at 6:45 to return to Unit 1 at FCI Oakdale. This is the same unit that we had lunch with yesterday. It was fun seeing them out on the softball field after spending some time getting to know them.
We started the first game and they looked really competitive but they couldn't quite keep up with us and we won the first game rather easily.
In between games, Jon Isbell from our Illinois team shared his testimony and Hugh Dwyer from the NE team shared the Gospel. During this time, I took quite a bit of literature out to the outdoor exercise area. I had several good conversations with some of the men out there and actually shared the Gospel with a couple of different groups there.
We played another game and won again. We circled up on the pitcher's mound and passed out some awards books for our umpires and MVP's.
After this, they went back in for count. We went back to the lunchroom area for some snacks and to get out of the sun. I had an opportunity to play guitar while we waited for count to clear. When count cleared, we went back out and played one more game against the same team. We ended up winning again but we all had a good time!
After the game was over, we circled up with the men and prayed for them.
Overall on the day we handed out 355 Gospels and we had 6 more men make professions of faith!
Overall on the trip, we handed out 836 Gospels and saw 83 men make professions!
We left the prison and drove to the officer's training center to change out of our uniforms and get ready to head back to the airport.
Of course we could not escape Louisiana without one last bout with the travel drama...
We were about an hour away from the airport when we all got notifications on our phones that our flight to Dallas had been delayed, and that in turn messed up our return flight to Peoria.
While we were driving, our director got us re-booked on a flight to Chicago and then got us a rental car so Jon Isbell and I could drive home. Jon and I finally both made it home a little after midnight.
Despite the travel woes, it was worth it to share the Gospel with so many men.
During our 2025 Federal season we handed out 2736 Gospels to the men in the prison yards and saw 223 men make professions!
Thank you for praying for our Federal team this summer! It was a blessing to get some extra traveling in and share the Gospel in some places that are harder to get to!
