I'm starting my 15th season with the Saints Prison Ministry. I could talk for hours about all of the different prisons we have been to and the hundreds of softball games that I have played or all of the sights I have seen while traveling over the road. There are dozens of guys over the years who I have had the privilege of calling teammates. I have had the honor of playing alongside them through the heat, wind, cold, and rain. I have also had the privilege of laughing, crying, and praying with those same teammates.
All those things are fun and important, but I have been reminded several times as I have been preparing for this season is that God has been so faithful over the years. He has provided my support and our team goal every year. While there are some hard times when it comes to travel, He has always protected our teams , and we have gotten home safely. When we started the Illinois team in 2012, having a softball team come in and play softball AND share the Gospel was a new concept to the state of Illinois and it wasn't easy to get in at first. God opened the doors for us to go across the state and have a full schedule every year. This year, Lord willing, we are playing in five places we have never been to. This past Saturday, we went to two of those five places!
He has been faithful over the years and He was faithful during our trip to Logan CC and Lincoln CC.
Our season kicked off on 5/16 in a McDonald's parking lot in Morton. One of the best things about visiting Logan and Lincoln was that the prisons are nearby and thus we don't have to meet so early in the morning!
Our team showed up on time and ready to get after it. It's been a few months since the preseason meeting so we had a couple of moments to catch up before we spent some time in prayer as a team. The weather forecast was pretty lousy for the day so we prayed for the weather conditions and that God would keep the door open at the two prisons so that we could still go in and minister.
We prayed as a team and we got on the road and headed towards Lincoln. Some of our drive times are three hours long so it was nice to have a 35 minute van ride to Lincoln. We stopped at the Lincoln McDonald's and had some breakfast as a team. I had a few minutes to catch up with Kris Mettelmann and Kyle Krall who are also lay elders at their church. I am a lay elder at my church, so it is nice to hear how their ministry is going and to be encouraged on how God is working in their lives. We discussed Joe's past year at Bible college and talked about shepherding folks in our congregation.
One other cool thing that happened at the McDonald's, was that several guys on our team had an opportunity to talk about the ministry with the McDonald's staff and customers. It is always cool to see people's reactions when they find out that we are going to prison on purpose!
After breakfast, we made our way to Logan CC. Logan is a women's facility. Typically our women's teams across the country visit the women's prisons, but on rare occasion, we get an invite for one our men's teams to come in and share the Gospel with the women there.
It had been pretty rainy the night before. Brent Gerber, who is one of our team captains, walked into the prison with me really quickly to verify that we would be outside for the day and not in the gym. They verified that we would be outside for the day and we got our gear and headed inside the facility.
We made the long walk through the prison compound to the recreation yard which had the softball field. We had about 20 minutes before the prison team came out so we had a few moments to throw the ball around a little bit.
There were 24 residents who came out to the yard. We broke our team of 12 up and we had two teams of 18 people. We played a somewhat competitive game, but it was mostly fun.
After the first game, we had our Gospel sharing time. Kurt Hand shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord. Kris Mettelmann shared the Gospel with the crowd there.
We played a much shorter second game as it started to lightly rain. Ultimately, that game was cut short because it was beginning to lightning and thunder.
We had a few moments to circle up with the teams and we handed out some MVP awards. I had an opportunity to pray at the end. I challenged them to make a decision for Jesus because we aren't guaranteed tomorrow.
During our time at Logan, we handed out 25 Gospels and saw 5 residents make a profession of faith.
It began to rain a little harder as we left the prison. We went to the local Culver’s restaurant for lunch. We had some fun team time to eat and talk about the first half of the day.
Once we were done eating, we made our way back towards the two prisons. It had stopped raining during lunch so we were encouraged that we would get an opportunity to play some more softball. A few of us have been doing this for several years and have some really cool stories to tell about how God provided a dry or at least playable softball field in the middle of several rainy Saturdays!
We turned into the prison parking lot and made our way into the facility. The staff on hand verified that we would play on the softball field. We made our way through the security process and walked out to the rec yard. It had been a while since an outside group had come in to do any kind of sport so the men were excited to see us. The warden came out and greeted us and took our team picture. We started the game by scoring lots of runs and never looked back. Despite the tough loss the Lincoln team had a good time and told us thank you several times.
Another group was coming out to the field right after this game was over. The officer in charge asked if we could do our ministry time while both groups were out there at the same time. We circled up with the first group and did our MVP awards while the second group was coming through the gate.
During our ministry time, Nick Sauder shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord and how the Lord has worked in his life ever since. After Nick spoke, Kyle Krall shared the Gospel with the men.
I did have a few moments to talk with a younger man who marked on his response card that He had accepted Christ as his Savior. After talking with him for a few moments, I wasn't so sure that he totally understood. I was able to talk to him some more and tried to explain what it meant to be a Christian and put our faith in Jesus. Please pray for this man. Pray that God works in his heart to draw him to Jesus
After our ministry time was over, the first group went back to their housing while the second group got ready to play.
Once again, we came out and put up several runs and got to an early lead. This team was a little tougher than the first group but still won easily.
We circled up on the pitcher’s mound and handed out the MVP awards and prayed with the men one last time. Kris Mettlemann challenged them on where they stood with the Lord.
We made our way back through the prison and huddled up by our van. A few guys shared some praises from the day. We discussed the awkwardness of going to a Ladies prison but we also praised the Lord for allowing the Gospel to go forth anyway. We also praised the Lord for the opportunities to share the Gospel with the men we saw in Lincoln.
Overall at Lincoln CC we handed out 41 Gospels and saw 12 men make professions of faith.
We stopped at Culver's again for some Custard- (ice cream) before making the short trip home.
Between the two prisons, we handed out 66 Gospels and had 17 people make professions.
Our next visit is next month at IL River CC on June, 6th.
Thank you again to everyone who prayed and we are looking forward to getting back on the field next month!
- During our last outing, we handed out 66 Gospels and saw 17 people make professions between the two prisons.
- The Texas Campaign in March went really well! We visited 3 prisons and handed out 632 Gospels of John and had 37 men make a profession of faith.
- Like I mentioned in a previous email, we have several young adults from our church involved in missions trips and camp ministries this summer. It is such a blessing to see God working in their lives. (I’m sure several of you have young people in your church doing similar things, so if you pray for our young people, I’ll pray for yours!)
- Lord willing we are visiting three more new prisons this summer and one prison we haven’t been to in over 10 years! Praise the Lord for opening doors this year!
- Pray that God keeps the doors open all year for us to minister
- Pray for all of the other teams going out this coming week.
- Pray for the hearts of the inmates we will see this summer. Pray that God draws their hearts to Himself.
- Pray that God provides more missionary athletes across the country for all of the opportunities to go in and share the Gospel!
- Pray for the hearts of our own missionary athletes and pray that we are bold in our prayer lives and bold sharing the Gospel this summer.
