I had so much fun getting to know all the women that work these things and all the men who go into the prisons with Kanyon. As one of the in-mates said, it takes a special man to want to work a Kairos.
The weekend didn't start until Friday night for me, though Kairos started Thursday night for everyone else. I didn't want to ask off from my new-ish job yet so I went ahead and just didn't work Friday. When I got there Friday night, they had just sent off dinner to be delivered inside the prison and then men were scheduled to be back in a couple hours. When they did get back, they had a few stories to tell, and then we got home by 9:15 or so.
Saturday and Sunday morning, Kanyon and I left the house around 6:00 to make it to breakfast before the men left for prison. Then all day Saturday, I worked with the women preparing lots of food. Those in-mates eat A LOT. Two guys at Kanyon's table ate 5 12-oz steaks!!! And the huge potato and salad and banana pudding that went with it! They love Kairos food :) We had a lot of fun making it for them.
Saturday afternoon, I went home at 10:30 to let Zeb out and to feed him. I decided to take him back with me and he was up there with us from 12 noon to 9:30 at night! I was kind of nervous about it but he had a blast running around with all the kids. I finally had to hide him from them around 7:00 so he could take a nap. Seriously. They kept coming up to me asking where he was and I would say its a secret.
Zeb and his buddy Blake in the ice chest.
That night, the men came back with some amazing stories. Kanyon gave his talk that day and it was amazing from what I heard. I knew it would be! I read it to the women, who all said wow, and the men came back telling me how awesome it was received and how it touched base with a lot of those in-mates. Of course, there were lots of men that gave amazing talks that day that were all used by God, I'm just proud of my husband :)
Sunday was the closing ceremony. The women are invited in to participate in it. I was really excited to see all these men we'd been praying for and talking about! It was so awesome to see their faces. They all were so on fire for God and had these looks on their faces that you could tell they were relieved of a lot of the mess they had been carrying around with them for years. They looked so free. It was so different .. thats a good word for it. Growing up in Houston and going to school with a lot of "ghetto" kids, I'm not necessarily foreign to those kind of people. I even had a lot of friends that dressed, talked, acted ghetto or whatever. But to see a gang member covered in tattoos tell you that he had never felt love before and how we are his new family and cry like a baby is one of the most surreal experiences I've ever been through! And not just one guy, but 30? Only God can do that. I love it.
I have one cool story that I'll share, although there were several stories that would blow your mind from that weekend. I had a time slot in the prayer room on Saturday afternoon. While I was in there, I decided to go down the list of names of the in-mates in Kairos that weekend. As I went down the list, I just asked God to reveal to me the different things the guys needed to be prayed for. There were several guys that stuck out to me that I prayed pretty specifically for. And I've always remembered names well if I see them written down. Anyways, that night one of our men was telling us how a man, who I'll just name KC to keep anonymous, had been carrying so much hate and anger towards his family his whole life and how he had finally been able to forgive them that day and felt so free. I specifically remembered praying that I felt like KC needed help forgiving something and for God to help him when I was in the prayer room that day! At the closing ceremony, KC got up and spoke at a time where the in-mates could share what had happened to them that weekend to us and he cried like a baby telling us how amazing it felt to be free of that! God really does want each of us to be free. How He knows every single individual inside and out on this earth is amazing to me. Maybe thats why He's God :) How could I not want to serve a God like that?!?
I hope that yall who read this (if anyone reads this lol) get to be a part of ministry somewhere. If you aren't, I suggest you do so immediately because your life will never be the same.
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