A Simple Game of Basketball

Tonight I went with a group of friends to play basketball. Nothing out of the ordinary. Well, it wasn't an ordinary game...you see our opponents were the inmates at the Marienville Prison. This is the second year we have played them and I guess they have trouble finding people that will go into the prison to play. We had to go through a background check and then had our things searched at the prison and had to go through a medal detector. It feels like you are the one headed to the slammer! They have nice facilities there...it is a new jail...and the gym is beautiful. They get so excited for us to come because they play basketball every day, but they only get to play against each other. There are a few prison guards that stand and watch the game..for our protection...but the clock is run by inmates and the refs are inmates. Yea, that's right, we don't get too many calls that go our way...lol. When the game is over and it is time to shake hands...the imates don't just shake our hands...each and every one of them hugs us, thanks us for coming, and asks us to please come back again. They are mostly just normal men between the ages of 18 and 30, that made mistakes, and are now paying the price...some for the rest of their life. I usually feel sad when I leave though because you see these young men with their whole life ahead of them that could have been successful with the right influence and motivation. Young men that are not much different than you or me.

You are probably wondering who won the game...right? Well, we lost by 20 points each of the last two years. We go and we try to win, but that isn't the reason we go. We think of it as an outreach. We pray before the game and we show good sportsmanship and we give the inmates something to look forward to and we show them we care. We get a chance to stand and talk with them for a little while after the game and they are very appreciative... and we hope that maybe one of them might see our Lord and Savior through our kindness.

That's why we go!