This is the last day of the trip which is called "Getaway Day" but of course we don't refer to it as that while we are in the prison!
The last day of the trip is always bittersweet.
Bitter because it means we have to leave our teammates behind, the softball behind, and the prison ministry behind for a little bit.
It is sweet because on the last day of the trip, everyone is hurt and nursing some sort of injury!
Although I've been trying to deal with a knee injury since January and my legs were shot going into the last day, it is still tough to get back on the plane and go home after a solid weekend of ministry like this.
We woke up and enjoyed a pretty solid breakfast for a hotel breakfast. We got in the van and made our way to our last destination of the trip.
Our last prison of the trip was FCI Seagoville. FCI Seagoville had never had an outside group like ours come in before. They were very thorough as we made our way through security and made our way out onto the field.
The other team was excited to have an outside group come in. It was really windy out so the ball was doing some wild things as it left the pitcher's hand!
We started game one and won in very convincing fashion. There was an inmate movement during our first game so we lost some of our crowd. The staff reassured us that the crowd would return later in the morning so we continued to start our second game which we also won as well. We had a little bit more time before the crowd came out so we played one more quick game before the crowd returned.
After the second game, we were able to do our ministry time. James Mast from our Illinois team shared his testimony. James is a really good softball player but is also the quietest guy on our team. He did a really good job of sharing his testimony of how he came to know the Lord. After James spoke, I shared the Gospel. I have been preaching about Caiaphas and Mary from John chapter 11 and 12 for the last couple of years during my sharing time. I contrast how Mary worshiped Jesus and was all in on following Him and how Caiaphas saw Jesus as in his way and tried to have Jesus killed. While we want to sin and sometimes view Jesus as in our way, we should be like Mary and see Jesus as the true King worth following.
After the ministry time, we circled up again on the pitcher's mound and handed out some awards books. Rodney Stewart closed out the circle time by encouraging the men to stop running from the Lord and put their faith in Jesus. Rodney prayed for the men and we made our way back to the van.
Overall on the day we handed out 70 Gospels of John and had 8 men make professions of faith.
Usually I write about the long goodbyes or last meals that we share as a team but we were on a time crunch to get to the airport. The FCI Seagoville folks let us use the staff training center to change back into civilian clothes so we can run across town to the Dallas airport.
We changed quickly and said some really quick good byes to our teammates who had later flights. We made our way across Dallas and got dropped off at our terminals.
This is usually the place where I write about how I got stranded at an airport because of delays and cancellations. My flight did have an hour delay, but, for the first time in nearly fifteen years of doing this, I was the first one home! Some of my teammates didn't fare so well as they were cancelled and either caught later flights the next day or ended up making the drive back from Dallas to Atlanta!
Thank you for praying for this trip! I am incredibly blessed to be able to continue to do this after so many years. I'm looking forward to our Illinois season starting up in May! Please continue to pray for the ministry across the country as we continue to prepare for lots of ministry and softball this summer!
