I often say, "I hope the Cubs win today" or "I hope this restaurant has my favorite ice cream."
Hope is probably the appropriate word to use in both of those instances but it is a much more powerful word when paired up with the right circumstances.
As we moved through Daniel 6 as a team in our devotions, our topic for the last night of the trip was:
The exiles started to come back to Jerusalem but as far as we know, Daniel probably never made that journey. Daniel's life did not work out according to his plan but he was faithful to the end.
Despite living and dying as an exile, Daniel's hope was in the Lord. This was a good topic to discuss as a team as we know that we need to serve Him faithfully to the end just like Daniel did.
During our devotion time as a team, we were reminded that God is sovereign and it is our job to be faithful and that our faith will be costly sometimes.
We woke up early on Saturday because we had a long drive in front of us. We left the hotel at 5:30 AM. We grabbed some McDonald's breakfast before making the two and a half hour drive to Robinson.
We made a brief bathroom stop before arriving in Robinson.
There is a comical/stressful/embarrassing/blood pressure inducing story that I shared in an earlier blog post about this part of the trip involving a set of keys for the rental car.
If you missed it or if you feel like you should read it again to feel better about how you handle your car keys, please click here!
We arrived at the prison on time. The LTS (Leisure Time Specialist Officer) and Volunteer Coordinator met us in the parking lot and let us know that the field was too wet for softball and that we would be in the gym all day.
We opened up our day with the men there with a game of wiffleball. We had fun running around the prison gym. We lost the first game, unfortunately, but it was fun to see them celebrate a win.
There were 14 guys in the gym, so the LTS let us use an adjacent classroom for our ministry time. Matt Schimpf shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord, and Jon Schimpf shared the Gospel.
Matt shared his story of how he and his wife battled cancer at the same time and how the Lord helped them through that. Jon gave a very clear Gospel presentation to the men in the room.
One of the men in the room was a young man who grew up in Peoria. I had a chance to talk to him. I'm not sure where exactly he is with the Lord so please pray for him.
After our ministry time, the men went to their scheduled lunch period. The staff brought some food to the gym and we enjoyed some team time together.
After lunch, we played some games like bags, pickleball, and a little basketball. This allowed us to have some good conversations with the men.
After this we finished up the day with a few really fun games of dodgeball. Prison dodgeball is always fun!
At the end of the day, we huddled up with the men we saw in the gym and prayed with them before going.
Overall on the day at Robinson, we handed out 14 Gospels and had 2 men make professions of faith.
We huddled up as a team in the parking lot and shared some praises about the day and the trip. When we were done, Jon and I headed back home while the rest of the team headed to Indianapolis to catch a flight back East.
I was able to make it home in time to call in for the team devotions. Bruce Buri did a good job with the team devotions and it was a joy to walk through Daniel 6 together as a team.
This was a fun trip and I appreciate all of the men who I got to serve with. Overall on the trip we handed out over 300 Gospels of John and had 42 men make professions of faith!
A few days later, we got a note from the staff at FCI Marion.
Our next big trip like this is next month as we travel to New Hampshire and then we travel again to Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for our last big trip for the year.
Our Illinois team still has four visits left as well.
Thank you for praying for our team this summer! This has been a very busy but very fruitful year for the ministry and I'm looking forward to finishing strong!
