The mission of Kairos Prison Ministry is to share the transforming love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ to impact the hearts and lives of incarcerated men, women and youth, as well as their families, to become loving and productive citizens of their communities.
" I was in prison, and you came to visit me" Matthew 25:36
THANKS for the cookies and prayer.
We had a very Good weekend. Attached is a picture of most (not all) of
the cookies we took into the prison on Thursday morning. Getting into
the prison we start in this reception area. The person trying to get
out of the picture in one of the 21 team members that went in. The
windows in the picture are 1 way glass. Security is sitting behind the
glass watching us. You can see my reflection as I take this picture in
one of the windows. I do not have a picture of the posters we put up
with the names of the people that are praying. We ended up with 4
posters with the names of the people praying in each 30 minute slot.
There were over 225 names on the posters. They were put up on the front
wall of the gym we were in on Friday morning during the "You are not
alone" talk. I saw many of a person look at these posters over the
weekend.
We had 7 tables, with 6 residents at each table, with 3 team members at
most of the tables. The men at my table were a diverse group of men,
most of them very intelligent. The most interesting and the one with
the greatest potential (my opinion) told us his story Sunday (our last
day). He had been incarcerated about 20 years already, and had a 50
year sentence. He was sentences for a crime he did when he was 16. His
background included a very abusive father. It is men like him that
drove Donna and I to become CASA volunteers.
When Donna came in for closing Sunday she told me that the room had a
"warm" feeling and that everyone appeared joyful. That is a good
summary of what the weekend was like. At my table, all 7 men came back
for the entire weekend. We typically lose at least one.
--
Bruce Sharp
540-392-4340
Kairos is part of the 4th day moment as is Emmaus. The approach to the weekend is similar to Emmaus. The differences are primarily driven by the fact that we are inside a prison, and the men and women that attend are not necessarily Christian. We ask the Chaplin of the prison to give us his leaders. We do not care what kind of leader they are.
