kairos weekend

Some of yall might have noticed me mentioning we were working a Kairos this weekend but didn't know what I was talking about! Well I wanted to inform you of this awesome ministry..

Let me first say that this will be my first Kairos to ever work. I've been hearing about it for years from Kanyon's family though and know some about it. The best way to describe it is kind of like a weekend retreat for inmates in prison. From what I can tell, it is a lot like Walk to Emmaus retreats but tweeked a lot for prison. The lure for the inmates to want to go on these retreats a lot of times is the rumors about how good the food is. Before the weekend starts, we bag up a dozen cookies for EACH inmate in the WHOLE prison (thats a lot) so everyone knows its going on that weekend. They end up hearing about 12 really great talks about different aspects of God's love and the Christian life. Basically trying to blow away all their preconcieved notions. A lot of these men, like a lot of us, have had bad experiences of what church and being a Christian is and the men's talks try to describe to them how amazing and free God's love really is and how Christians are really just imperfect people like them who have accepted Christ as their savior. In between talks, they do some fun stuff because I know they laugh a lot too but I'm not sure yet what all they do. But obviously, the talks are the main focus. They are given by the men working the walk and include each man's story of how God has worked in their life. Hearing that man's testimony always means a lot to the men.

I am working on the Outside Angels team. I've always heard that its a lot of fun for the women, too, even though we can't go into the prison ourselves. Women cannot go into the men's prison except for the closing ceremony if you are approved. So we make all the really good food. We work out of a church nearby the prison that lets us use their kitchen. As you know, food in prison is terrible  and all the prison mates have heard how amazing Kairos food is. We also know what time the men in the prison are giving talks so at that time, we all stop and the wife or whoever of the man giving the talk at that time will read his notes to the girls at the same time so we get to hear the talk that the men are hearing at that time! One of the most important things we do is pray for the weekend. The inmates are floored when they find out how many people that they don't even know have been praying for them each individually by name. Besides the men working and the Outside Angels team, we have a prayer chain that people sign up for so the weekend is prayed for every second of it. Every 30 minute time slot is filled. Even at 3 in the morning, someone woke up to pray for thirty minutes.

One of the coolest things I have heard that we will do for the men is the Birthday celebration. You wouldn't believe how many boys and men in the prison have never had a birthday party thrown for them because they had a bad home life growing up, which resulted in their bad choices, then prison. We make a birthday cake for each "man in white" (what we call them) and the guys sing happy birthday to them and give them a huge sack of letters from all of us. I've heard of one guy bursting out in tears and saying "this is too much!" Seriously, I just got teary eyed typing that. I've heard its one of the most amazing things to witness a grown man blowing out his first birthday cake. 

On Sunday, we have a closing ceremony inside the prison walls. It is a big deal that they let some of the women come in for it. We have to be approved first by the warden, I'm assuming. I've never been to a closing ceremony so I'm excited for Sunday.

I'll post after this weekend to let yall know how it went! Be praying for us. Kanyon is giving a talk this weekend for the first time. He's gonna do so great!