Bill Glass Prison Ministry Day of Champions witnesses at 5 prisons

Emory Wilson, the head coach for the recent Bill Glass Prison Ministry ‘Day of Champions,’ said, “Last Saturday was one of the best prison events ever.” The Ministry has come to Perry 19 times over the last 22 years. The Perry First Baptist Church has been the host church on all of the Bill Glass prison visits.

Wilson said, “Our prayers were answered after a week of rain to give us a sunny day so we could have programs in the prison yards. When we have a program in the church, we have maybe 50 inmates. When we have them in the yard, we have 600 to 1,000 inmates.”

The Bill Glass Prison Ministry was started by Bill Glass, who was an All-American football player at Baylor University and All-Pro with the Cleveland Browns.

The ‘Day of Champions’ started on Friday at 5:30 p.m. with a Chick-fil-A dinner at Perry First Baptist. At 6:30, 24 teammates who had attended five Bill Glass prison events were awarded a large chrome cross made out of bars from a prison cell. The next four teammates received a 10-event award. Three teammates received awards for attending 25 prison events, and one teammate was recognized for having attended 100 prison events.

Wilson was recognized and honored for serving 33 years with the Bill Glass Ministry and attending 356 prison events in 42 different states. He served on the staff of the Bill Glass Ministry as assistant to the president and CEO.

At 6:45, all teammates went through an hour of training and were then divided into prison teams.

The teammates left early Saturday morning to go into three state prisons and two youth development centers. The prison teams visited Macon Men State Prison in Oglethorpe; Dooley Men State Prison in Unadilla, Pulaski Women State Prison in Hawkinsville, and two Youth Development Centers in Macon. They had access to more than 3,500 inmates.

There were 258 teammates and 30 motorcyclists from the Christian Motorcycle Association who attended the event.

During these prison visits on Saturday, there were 338 first-time decisions for the Lord and 560 rededications and assurance decisions for a total of 898 decisions for the day.

Each prison had two programs Saturday, one at 9:30 a.m. and one at 1:30 p.m., followed by 90 minutes of witnessing time. The Ministry had 12 platform speakers, all of whom are known professional figures. Some of them are:

Tanya Crevier, who tours the world and entertains at NBA games juggling, dribbling and spinning as many as 10 basketballs at one time. She is a four-time letter winner from South Dakota State University.

David Pendleton, a ventriloquist and humorist, who gives voices to Otis and Aunt Tilly, Buford the Dog and Vern the Vulture.

Jack Baker, who played for the Boston Red Sox from 1971-78 and graduated from Auburn University, where he was All-American and All-Southeastern Conference. He is the chapel representative for the Birmingham Barons.

Cheryl Littlejohn, who played on the first women’s basketball national championship team at Tennessee under coach Pat Summitt.

Jean Harris, singer/songwriter from Nashville who has performed with Blackhawk.

Chip Thomas, an ex-felon who was saved at a Bill Glass Behind the Walls event in Perry 11 years ago.

James Henderson, the Guinness world record holder for being the first man to bench press over 700 pounds and is a five-time national and five-time world champion in the bench press.

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