As of this writing, I have seen the new "Masters of the Universe" movie three times.
Before you completely write me off as a dork, one of those times was last night when we went out for a dinner-and-a-movie night because our power was still out from the storms on Thursday.
All three times He-Man defeated Skeletor, I enjoyed copious amounts of movie theater popcorn, and I had fun with my family.
The movie was fun enough where it can be seen multiple times and still be enjoyable.
This past Saturday (6/6/26) we visited IL River CC in Canton for the seventh time. Canton is one of our most frequently visited prisons over the history of the Illinois softball team but it is always a fun trip.
We get to sleep in a little bit longer, the drive is much shorter, and, since the drive is a simple one, we are less likely to get lost! Beyond all of those things, the IL River CC date is always fun because the prison does a good job of making a fun day of the entire visit.
The day of the visit we met up at a local Hardee's for breakfast before making the short trip to Canton. Whenever we can have a morning breakfast, it is nice because that gives us time to catch up on what is going on in our lives and at our churches. There is also some time for trash talking about where the Cubs and Cardinals are in the standings as well!
After we were done eating, we circled up and prayed for the day as a team. We spent some time praying for the men we were going to visit and the other Saints teams that were on the road. We then made the short trip to Canton and to the prison.
One thing that made the trip extra special was having Bruce Buri and Wyatt Jicha come down from Wisconsin and join us for our trip. Bruce and Wyatt have been on several trips over the years and they do such a good job with the ministry and are incredible teammates.
We arrived at the prison on time and made our way through security. The teams were already out on the field and were ready to go when we arrived. After getting some warm up throws in, we circled up again as a team and prayed before our game.
We found out that they had a softball tournament between the different teams and the winner of the tournament was the first team that we got to face.
We jumped out right away with an 8 run first inning, but the IL River team kept chipping away at the lead while we failed to put up another big inning. Eventually, we pulled away and won game 1.
After the game was over, Kris Mettelmann shared his testimony and I shared the Gospel.
We started game two and came out swinging and batted around in the first inning. We won game two very decisively. One thing that almost ended the day early for me was a small three foot snake that was slithering behind home plate. The umpire and I saw the snake go down a hole near the chain link fence behind home plate. The umpire and I both acknowledged that we don't like snakes, and that we would watch out in case the snake decided to come back out!
After the game, we circled up with the team and gave out some MVP and umpire books. We used this time to remind the men about the Gospel that was preached to them earlier and then we prayed with them.
We then had time to have lunch with the men in the prison yard. I had an opportunity to sit down and talk to the guys who had prepared the softball field for the day. One of the men told me about how he came to know the Lord in prison but how he is worried about his 20 year old daughter and some of the decisions that she was making. He asked us to pray for her and for her salvation. I had a chance to pray with him before it was time to start getting ready for our third game.
The third team came out a little tougher but we kept on hitting and won game three rather easily. In between the third and fourth game, Bruce Buri shared his testimony and Brent Gerber shared the Gospel.
By the time the fourth game rolled around, we were starting to feel the effects of the heat and being out in the sun all day. We took control of the game early and didn't look back. We finished the day strong and won game 4.
We circled up with the men one more time and handed out some umpire books and the MVP for the second half of the day. We prayed with the men one more time before packing up and heading out for the day.
Overall on the day we handed out 80 Gospels of John and had seven men make professions of faith.
At this point in the day, our team was pretty beat up from the heat and the four games. We were trying to figure out what kind of food or snack to get on the way home and pretty much the only thing that sounded good to everyone was air conditioning and Gatorade! We got some Gatorade and water from our van and prayed for the men one more time in the parking lot before we left. We did make a quick stop at the local Canton Dairy Queen for some ice cream and some food.
The van ride back to the Hardee's was short but it was still nice to hear the teammate talk in the van.
Our next visit is 6/27 as we make our first visit to Hill CC in Galesburg. This will be our first visit to Hill so it will be fun to go somewhere new and sharing the Gospel. Please pray for the men we saw at IL River and please pray that God allows the doors to stay open at Hill!
