Queso is the underdog of snack food. It is often an afterthought but it is the clear undefeated heavyweight champion as an appetizer before a nice sit down meal.
One of my favorite things about going on a Crusade is eating queso and chips at a Mexican restaurant.
Some queso, chips, and a fountain soda is the perfect way to wrap up a day playing softball in the heat!
While the rest of the team is sharing funny stories from the day or from years gone by, I will drift off into my own world while sitting quietly and enjoying my chips and cheese!
Besides queso and chips, another part of being on a Saints Crusade that I appreciate is spending time as a team studying God’s Word in our team devotions.
Bruce Buri led our devotions and did a good job with some tough text from the book of Daniel.
The text we went through for the week was from Daniel 6, and the first point from the text was:
“Godly Exiles Serve Faithfully Wherever God has Placed Them”
Daniel was exiled from his home, but his life was a good example of how he continued to serve the Lord despite the hardship and heartbreak of being taken from Israel. Daniel had an excellent spirit; he was faithful, he did his work without error, and he was a man of integrity.
Bruce did a good job of going through the passage and then made some applications. As Christians, we too are in a sense exiles here on Earth.
We went through some good questions about how we keep our testimony out in the world- even if we aren’t a full time missionary or pastor. Daniel glorified the Lord and served faithfully where he was, and we should too! When I’m not busy going to prison, playing softball, and, yes, eating queso, I need to be faithful about serving the Lord and protecting my testimony at work and in my neighborhood.
Our trip started early on Wednesday July 8th. Most of the team got up and drove to the airport. The three Midwesterners woke up and made the drive down to St. Louis. We got to St. Louis and got some Chick fil A breakfast before picking up the team at the airport. Once we acquired the team, we began the drive to Vandalia. After a quick stop at a rest area, we made our way to the prison.
Our Illinois team has been to Vandalia several times over the years. The prison is one of the oldest in Illinois and the architecture reflects that.
We didn’t have much time to work with so we got a couple or warm-up throws in and then started the game. We played a short game and won the game pretty easily.
During game 1, I had an opportunity to talk to some guys on some bleachers down the right field line. There was a group of about three or four guys, and I was able to talk about the Lord with them. The conversation went pretty well, and I was able to share the Gospel with these men. Please pray for these guys.
On a side note, one of my prayer requests for these trips is that God would open up some good conversations on the trip and this conversation with these men was an answer to prayer!
We won game 1 fairly easily. After the game we had our sharing time. Zach Brown from the Northeast team shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord. His dad, and coach of this team, Wes Brown, shared the Gospel with the men. Wes did a good job of integrating Zach’s testimony into a very clear Gospel message.
After our sharing time, we hustled back to the bench and got one more short game in. We won that game fairly easily as well. After the game we made a big circle around the pitcher’s mound. We handed out some awards for the umpires and the MVPs of the game. Jim Jefferson from the Northeast team closed the session in prayer and challenged the men to consider where they were with Jesus and encouraged them to put their faith in Him.
Overall at Vandalia, we handed out over 60 Gospels and saw 14 men make professions of faith.
We left Vandalia, and, after making one quick stop at a local gas station, we made the long rainy drive to Marion, IL. Once we got checked into our hotel and got cleaned up, we went out for a fun dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. I’m not the biggest fan of Mexican food but it was nice to get my aforementioned queso, chips, and a fountain Dr. Pepper!
Once we left the Mexican restaurant, we went back to the hotel for our team devotions.
One other side note about our devotions is that we have some time for prayer requests after our Bible study time. It is encouraging to hear about a praise from one of my teammates across the country and sometimes it is heartbreaking to hear about a prayer request that is putting strain on a teammate. It was also good to pray for the churches that were represented on that trip. It is cool to think how God has worked through all of the churches represented on the team and how that has helped mold all of us and prepare us to serve Him in prison!
After our devotion time, we got some ice cream from a local ice cream place before crashing out and going to bed.
