We order our students' textbooks, some materials and equipment from a lending library hosted by the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired called Louisiana Instructional Materials Resource Center or LIMC. Those of us who are intinerant have to work very closely with the staff there.
Recently, Robin, the lady who runs it mentioned something I had thought of earlier and she's just the person to get it started! She knows I do prison ministry, particularly Kairos Prison Ministry, at Angola and she would like to start a braille textbook industry there like they have at other prisons
across the country.
Lot's of wonderful, productive industries happen at Angola as well as a strong Christian community so I am hoping that Warden Caine approves this idea. I would certainly like to help and would be interested in teaching the use of the computer transcribing programs.
It would make getting textbooks out to our kids a lot easier and bring down the cost of ordering them from out-of-state sources. I'm excited about this!
Showing posts with label Kairos Prison Ministry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kairos Prison Ministry. Show all posts
Friday, July 5, 2013
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Kairos Cookie Cartoon
GoAnimate.com: Kairos Cookie Caper by mskathy0724
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
Monday, May 16, 2011
‘Stone killer’ becomes inmate missionary
m
Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/
From: Nick Sigur
Subject: 'Stone killer' becomes inmate missionary
Subject: 'Stone killer' becomes inmate missionary
Thanks to Morris Talley for pointing out two articles which appeared in the Baton Rouge Advocate. Always one to one up Morris when possible. I have placed the articles in this email. It's about time the Louisiana Press begins to notice the Miracle of Hope which has been unfolding at Angola for years. Take a few minutes and read this email. Wait until you have time to really read it and be blessed.
![Prentice Robinson, an inmate minister at Louisiana State Penitentiary, leads other inmates in prayer for Warden Burl Cain, right, during a worship service after Cain mentioned that his wife was sick.]( "Prentice Robinson, an inmate minister at Louisiana State Penitentiary, leads other inmates in prayer for Warden Burl Cain, right, during a worship service after Cain mentioned that his wife was sick.")
![Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola inmate Donald Biermann goes by the nickname 'Carolina.' Biermann recently returned to Angola from Forcht-Wade Correctional Center in Keithville. He spent 18 months there as part of the inmate missionary program for graduates of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's studies.]( "Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola inmate Donald Biermann goes by the nickname 'Carolina.' Biermann recently returned to Angola from Forcht-Wade Correctional Center in Keithville. He spent 18 months there as part of the inmate missionary program for graduates of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's studies.")
Click Image to Enlarge
RICHARD ALAN HANNON/The Advocate
Prentice Robinson, an inmate minister at Louisiana State Penitentiary, leads other inmates in prayer for Warden Burl Cain, right, during a worship service after Cain mentioned that his wife was sick.
Warden: Seminary helped lower violence
ANGOLA — When he asked New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to start teaching at Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1996, Warden Burl Cain had a problem to solve. He didn't think it would change the prison. He certainly didn't see it changing other prisons.
"I wasn't that smart," Cain said.
But that, Cain insists, is what has happened.
Angola, once considered America's most dangerous prison, has seen violence cut by more than half since the seminary opened in 1998. In that year, there were 870 violent incidents (defined as murder, escape, suicide, assaults on staff and assaults on inmates). In 2009, that number was 362.
While other factors — an aging population, disciplinary strategies — may play a role, Cain said the seminary program has been key tochanging the culture of a prison that houses more than 5,000 inmates, nearly all of whom have life sentences.
One of them, Ron Hicks, received a seminary degree and is the pastor of United Methodist Men, one of about 50 inmate-run churches that operate at Angola. He has been at the prison since 1991 and has seen it evolve. Prison rape and other acts of inmate-on-inmate violence are not the problems they once were, Hicks said.
"You don't see fights. You don't see all these things," he said. "You could take a walk down the hall right now. You won't hear people acting crazy, because God has come in here and healed the minds of these men, really changed their lives.
"I know people think … 'jailhouse religion.' That's not what it is. It's the real deal. God is real in this place and he's real in the hearts of men, and men are changed and are being changed. … God has changed our lives, and the evidence is there. Come and see."
Angola had inmate-led churches long before Cain arrived in 1995. That same year, Congress eliminated Pell Grant funding that had paid for inmates to receive higher education. The Rev. T.W. Terrell, then director of the area Judson Baptist Association, suggested the New Orleans Seminary might offer a degree-granting program.
"I said, 'You have lost your mind. They would never do that,' " Cain said. "He said, 'Yes they would. I believe they would.'"
The program quickly became popular — and not only with Christians. Some Muslim inmates signed up, drawn by the opportunity to get an accredited college degree. Any inmate who qualifies academically is admitted, said the Rev. John Robson, who oversees the prison seminary program. The prison has had to strengthen its GED program because of the seminary's popularity.
"It's not Sunday school," Robson said. "They learn Greek and Hebrew."
Once the seminary began producing graduates, a question arose: what to do with them? Two answers emerged. The first was to spread them among the prison population.
"We didn't put them in one spot," Cain said. "You want to let them all mix just like you do in a community. They immediately started having an impact because they'd read their Bibles and do Bible studies, and (inmates) started getting more moral."
Chaplain Robert Toney said the inmate churches are in a wide array of Christian denominations as well as other religions such as the Jewish, Islamic and Rastafarian faiths. He estimates about 2,800 of the inmates participate, with meetings taking place every day in several prison chapels and other meeting rooms.
"We don't have gangs," Robson said. "We have churches."
The churches do more than worship services and Bible studies. Ministers participate in the prison's hospice program, caring for inmates in the late stages of terminal illnesses, as well as help fellow inmates go through difficult times.
There is no shortage of such times. Separation from family members who don't or can't visit is a frequent issue. Younger offenders who have long sentences must come to grips spending life in prison. Hicks knows this from experience; he's been in prison since 1990, just over half his life.
"I couldn't even comprehend a life sentence," he said. "I was only 19. I hadn't started living. Here I am in this cell, and I began to pray. I had an experience with God when I was real young. I just cried out to God and said you're going to have to help me."
The different churches work together, Hicks said. If a minister finds an inmate with a need, the minister will work with him regardless of what church, if any, he belongs to.
"I believe this 100 percent," Hicks said. "We could take the church that's here and set it in any community in America and I'm positive that it's going to make a difference in that community."
Many outside religious organizations conduct prison ministry at Angola. But, since the seminary program has strengthened the inmate churches, Cain said he has reduced the number of outside ministry groups he lets in, and not just because the meeting schedule has gotten tight.
"Half the preachers in the Southern Baptist Convention — I talk about them because I'm Baptist — don't have the education or the full four-year seminary degree that our inmates have," Cain said. "So, you had a lot of people trying to come and minister to them that were not the biblical scholars that the inmates are. So, we passed them. That was pretty cool, wasn't it?"
'A very calming influence'
The idea came — as ideas often do — out of nowhere.
"I was in the shower … and I thought, 'What am I going to do with all these preachers? I've got a prison full of them,' " Cain said. "We'll just send missionaries to the other ones."
Although Cain oversees the largest and by far the best-known of Louisiana's penitentiaries, it houses only a small percentage of the state's inmates. If seminary-trained prisoners could have a positive influence on Angola, he reasoned, they could do the same elsewhere.
He turned first to Dixon Correctional Institution, where he had been warden before coming to Angola and whose warden then, James LeBlanc, is now DOC secretary. LeBlanc was initially skeptical the missionaries might have agendas that threatened security.
"But Burl is persuasive as he can be," LeBlanc said. "He convinced us to give it a shot. He said, 'I think you'll like what you'll find out.'
"Man, was he right. It was unbelievable."
Having the missionaries — all of whom volunteer to be there — provided a resource when a chaplain was unavailable, LeBlanc said. They soon earned enough trust to receive special ID badges that let them move throughout the prison.
"They were well-trained, professional," LeBlanc said. "You could tell in the atmosphere of the prison where they were practicing. We saw a big difference in inmate-on-inmate assaults, inmate-on-staff assaults, just on disciplinary activity."
The B.B. Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie has 11 graduates of the seminary at Angola, seven serving as the chaplain's orderlies and four working as tutors in Rayburn's educational program. As with Angola, they are scattered throughout all sections of the prison except the maximum security cellblock, which they visit regularly, Rayburn Warden Robert Tanner said.
Like Angola, Rayburn is a less violent place since their arrival, Tanner said. From 2003 through 2009, total assaults decreased by 40.4 percent, inmate-on-inmate assaults decreased by 37.8 percent and inmate-on-staff assaults decreased by 71.2, Tanner said.
"We think it's had a very positive impact on our operations," Tanner said. "They're a very calming influence on the population."
Cain and LeBlanc hope the impact will extend beyond the prisons. Most Angola inmates will die there, but statewide, about 15,000 offenders are released each year, Assistant Warden Cathy Fontenot said. True success will be reflected by former inmates touched by the program not committing crime after being released, Cain said.
It is too early to tell if this is happening. Hicks is confident.
"There's no question about it. If a person gets born again and gives his heart to Christ and gets nourished in the word and gets discipled, the chance of him committing a crime again is very slim," he said. "By sending those missionaries into those institutions, it's meeting a great need."
With roughly half of the offenders under Department of Corrections supervision serving their sentences in parish jails, the idea of inmate missionaries going there has been discussed, Fontenot said.
"We have talked unofficially with sheriffs about the possibility, but … that sheriff would have to be very comfortable that the population he supervises would not think that they're threatened in any way," Fontenot said.
Robson hopes it happens, saying inmate missionaries could influence the inmates most likely to return to freedom.
"Nobody can confront an inmate like another inmate," Robson said. "The streets of Louisiana can be changed, and these are the men who can do it with God's help."
That, Cain said, has been an ingredient in the program from the start.
"None of us can claim credit, and I love it, because I want to claim credit but I can't claim credit," he said. "I didn't do it. It was an accident. That makes you think there truly is divine intervention."
'Stone killer' becomes inmate missionary
Click Image to Enlarge
RICHARD ALAN HANNON/The Advocate
ANGOLA — Ten years ago, Donald "Carolina" Biermann was "Angola at its worst," Louisiana State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain said.
"A stone killer," Cain said. "He would fight you. He was mean. He was a cellblock man."
Now, Cain calls Biermann a success story.
Biermann recently returned to Angola from Forcht-Wade Correctional Center in Keithville. He had spent 18 months there as part of the inmate missionary program for graduates of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's studies.
While there, he led Bible studies and gently tended the most basic needs of dying men in the prison hospice program.
"If you ever told me at any time in my life that I'd have washed a naked man, we'd have had some real serious problems," said Biermann, 53, serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. "I can tell you that God will bring you to that point where you desire to do that so they don't feel shame and humiliation in their dying hour, that they can die with dignity."
Biermann's journey to that point includes being imprisoned in three states. Figuring he'd never be paroled, Biermann decided to make the best of prison life.
But he couldn't. The inner rage that led him into prison wouldn't let him alone.
"That hate still stays inside of you and manifests itself in everything you do," he said. "At the very moment I met Christ, it was on my mind that weekend to hurt somebody seriously. That's how full of that rage I was, not because of anything they did to me.
"The only two emotions I knew up until I met Jesus was hate and indifference. There was no middle ground."
Nine years ago, Biermann put his faith in Jesus Christ, and began to cry. And cry. And cry for two weeks. He said it was the first time he'd cried since he was 7 years old.
"Even the nonbelievers said, 'God has got him,' " he said. "I fought with God because I didn't believe in him, but I couldn't deny what was happening inside of me. I didn't have that hate anymore. I couldn't hate. I started looking at people as human beings for the first time in my life. They weren't objects of my hate. They weren't potential victims."
What they became was objects of ministry. Biermann completed NOBTS' seminary training and volunteered to accept a transfer to Forcht-Wade, which had far less in the way of spiritual programs than Angola. Biermann said he started a 15-week course defending Christian doctrines and spoke about his faith to anyone who would listen. Many would not, especially at the start.
"Even the inmate population did not receive me very well at first," he said. "There is a lot of distrust in this environment no matter where you go. It's difficult to have people come to you and tell you they have a problem."
The highlight of his ministry there, Biermann said, was tending to hospice patients. He recalls sitting with one man dying of esophageal cancer whose pain was so great that he'd yell and curse. Biermann convinced him to say "Help me, Jesus" when the pain was bad.
"I sat on the side of his bed and he just held my hand, and he mouthed to me, 'You're a good man,' " Biermann said. "I watched this man die with a peaceful countenance, and it's probably one of the most awesome times I have truly felt God's forgiveness in my life."
"It is so important that people understand the importance of inmates being able to minister to other inmates. We can love each other. There is a lot of callous indifference in this environment, and it's hard for a man to leave this world not feeling that love, and they need that love of Christ. That's probably one of the greatest things God has done in here."
Biermann left Forcht-Wade after it was reclassified as a facility for drug offenders. Although most of his friends are at Angola, he is willing to be an inmate missionary again.
"I'll go anywhere … they feel that I will be useful," he said. "For me, it's just another opportunity."
Monday, May 9, 2011
Fwd: Winn Weekend
Greetings all! We have been asked by the Winn administration to post postpone Winn #34 originally scheduled to start this Thursday. Winn will be housing some of the Angola evacuees being moved due to the threat of flooding and the administration did not feel that they had the resources to accommodate these new residents and host a Kairos weekend. Needless to say, this is a blow to the leader, Bobby Taylor, who has invested a significant amount of time preparing the team for this work as well as the rest of the team and the residents that were scheduled to attend. Please be in prayer for these individuals as they deal with this loss. As of now, Angola's June weekend is still on the track, but that is certainly subject to change.
God is in control of this situation and His timing is always perfect. Unfortunately, in our mortal flesh, we sometime struggle with understanding His ways. As we surrender to His will, let us all seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and join together to support each other as we walk through this part of our journey.
I'm sure that Bobby would appreciate an email of encouragement (jr460@bellsouth.net).
God is in control of this situation and His timing is always perfect. Unfortunately, in our mortal flesh, we sometime struggle with understanding His ways. As we surrender to His will, let us all seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and join together to support each other as we walk through this part of our journey.
I'm sure that Bobby would appreciate an email of encouragement (jr460@bellsouth.net).
I will keep you posted and this situation unfolds.
Monday, February 21, 2011
You Know What This Is...(la deuxième partie)8:54AM 2/18
Down to 94! Lemme spell that out NINETY-FOUR!!!
Gotta go to another school now. But I will be checking in later today.
Visual Impairments Specialist
WE are down to 7 empty spots as of 2:15 PM 2/21
WE are down to 7 empty spots as of 2:15 PM 2/21
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Prayer Vigil Countdown Time!!! (or here she goes again!)
If you've already taken care of this--it's OK, I'm gonna bug  everybody anyway because you can either add some more yourself or ask others to but WE NEED MORE NAMES ADDED TO THE PRAYER CHAIN!!! The countdown is 462/276. That means 276 EMPTY spaces are left.  My life would be easier at the hotel if all the spaces are filled BEFORE Feb 24 rather than ON Feb 24 So if ya don't want me to bug ya with another countdown, you know what to do!GIT 'ER DONE! Lost the link? Click here, Boo. SDAL Kathy http://www.kathyskids.org Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/ |
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
[Nick's Walk] Still Human! Devotional for Tuesday, November 16, 2010
http://www.kathyskids.org
Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nick Sigur
To: kairos-angola
Sent: Mon, November 15, 2010 4:48:09 PM
Subject: [Nick's Walk] Still Human! Devotional for Tuesday, November 16, 2010
From: Nick Sigur
To: kairos-angola
Sent: Mon, November 15, 2010 4:48:09 PM
Subject: [Nick's Walk] Still Human! Devotional for Tuesday, November 16, 2010
. . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31
Kairos #50 just finished at Angola and by all accounts it was wonderful, a true hilltop experience. I did not take part but I know what the participants are going through this week.
In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.
We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience. It's one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, "What a wonderful man of prayer he is!" or, "What a great woman of devotion she is!" If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.
The true test of a saint's life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" in our everyday human conditions (Colossians 3:3). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.
To all my brothers and sisters, moving down from the hilltop, I pray for you now as I did during the weekend.
Continue to be blessed and to bless.
Nick
In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.
We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience. It's one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, "What a wonderful man of prayer he is!" or, "What a great woman of devotion she is!" If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.
The true test of a saint's life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" in our everyday human conditions (Colossians 3:3). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.
To all my brothers and sisters, moving down from the hilltop, I pray for you now as I did during the weekend.
Continue to be blessed and to bless.
Nick
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Hospice-Angola style www.onelastshotthemovie.org
From my friend Lou who used to volunteer here and this is how she knows Brother Checo.
http://www.kathyskids.org
Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/
Forwarded Message ----
From: Lou
http://www.w.onelastshotthemovie.org
http://www.kathyskids.org
Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/
Forwarded Message ----
From: Lou
HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY:
Watch this video. This is where I worked for years at Angola. Saw many of my inmates die and was holding their hand, but I know where they are and I will see them one day. What an experience that is embedded in my mind forever. Tears are flowing down my face as I watch this. Very touching to me and brought back such sad and such wonderful memories that I will never, ever forget. I know many of these inmates. Nelson Lane was working in Hospice when I was there. A funeral at Angola is something really heart breaking, but it was something to see when all their inmate friends got up to speak about their special loved friends, especially when they were ready to meet Jesus. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Of course, I gave 30 years of my life to inmates, so it may mean something totally different to me than it will to you, but watch it anyway, I think you will be thoroughly blessed. www.onelastshotthemovie.org
One of the inmates fears is being buried at Look Out Mountain at the prison, but many are buried there as their family have forsaken them or all their family have died and they are all alone, so Look Out Mountain at Angola Prison is the only place they can be buried. Be blessed as I was.In Christ love,
Lou Beyl
Subject: Hospice-Angola stlye
Lou, you've got to watch this. When I saw it, I instantly thought of you and the work you did for years and still doing in prisons.
Click on this link ….
http://www.w.onelastshotthemovie.org
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Angola Kairo #49 Part 3
I was finally able to take a little break after running to the dollar store for a request my husband made before he left for the prison that morning. I also picked up some snacks as it was too hot outside for me to eat heavy meals. I had a few letters to finish writing and since I'd gone in late the night before I wanted to take a nap but that was not possible. It felt better just to get off my feet for a bit, pray, rest and watch a little TV.
My table at Agape Central was a mess. It gets that way when things get really busy. I tried to straighten it out because when the guys came in from the prison, it was going to get hairy since the names would be arriving at the same time. I was not very comfortable with that because it is last-minute stuff. Cyndi had been up to the prison and back. It was too hot for her to stay up there with her legs bothering her and she needed to finish her letters, too.
Each team member writes forty-five letters to the resident candidates for the workshop. We're supposed to start writing about six weeks in advance and bring the same pen we started with. That way when we have the names of the candidates we can fill in their names with the same pen. We usually have forty-two participants but in case something happens we write forty-five as a cushion. One leader for an earlier team allowed forty-six inmates to participate. He didn't realize what that does when preparing food and agape. I asked that that not be allowed again. Besides that, it throws off the sponsor/sponsoree system and they table families. There's suposed to be seven table families made of about two or three of our volunteers and six inmate residents. I don't know how any extra will sit comfortably at a table meant for nine. I bring forty-three paper bags with handles for the agape bags and those who get Sunday school classes of kids to make sets of 42--well, it throws that off too. The local Fred's and Dollar General don't have the same kind of bags so I had to buy a shiny party bag that didn't match the rest. Since there were not enough volunteers, chairs and two tables were eliminated from this workshop rather than added.
There were going to be only five tables instead of seven. That is easier to deal with, however, it is nice to be prepared for that at least a week before the weekend. The head cook orders the food in advance and she had too much food. She said if she'd known she would have called to restaurant supplies and asked them to cut back on some of her order. I was happy to see my mother and daughter come up to help fill the bags.
The ladies from the kitchen came in to set up the food while the leader and observing leader came in with a list of inmates names. It was a scratch list because they had to cut the participants. Then some alternates took the place of others. The names were not in alphabetical order. This was going to be a mess. To emphasize the mess, one of the men who had finished addressing his letters, came over to agape central to ask, "So can you tell me when you will have the names on the agape bags?" I wanted to kick someone or something really hard.
It was not easy using a label maker to print out the thirty-two names for the name cards on each bag. It was a painfully slow process. The list was a scratch list so it was marked up and not in alphabetical order. There is a lot to be said for delegating jobs beforehand! My temp was rising. I had to get into prayer mode when I could rest and think about things past my headache and aching legs and feet. I'm certain I'd already said some things and had the facial expression I would not have had if I'd not been so tired.
But they got done and all the guys had their letters in the bags, including the one who asked me if I had his paper for him to write his letters that very evening AND if I had some envelopes for him. Ok, Kathy, breathe and do not explode. Jesus, stay with me and Satan get behind me!
I had one more set of bookmarks that the printer recognized but they would have to wait until morning. So the next morning, my husband was not waking me too early. He wanted me to get more sleep. Although he was not aware of everything I had to do, he was not enjoying the organizational style. His PTSD is not comfortable with change nor what he perceives as disorganization.
I was happy to be able to sleep a bit later and had told Cyndi that I wasn't coming into the conference room until 9:00am. She was happy about that, too. With two or three of us (we had been expecting Carolyn to come and help) it wouldn't take more than an forty minutes to organize the bags by table families, seal them and put them in garbage bags by table families.
BUT at 8:30 the next morning Cyndi called and said Carol had gone up to the prison to go to the kitchen with the other ladies and she'd left her driver's license at the hotel. She'd called Cyndi to bring it to her. One cannot enter the prison without ID. It wouldn't make sense for Cyndi to take a twenty-mile trip just to turn around and come back to help me. It made more sense for her to go on into the kitchen early. That threw off my schedule for bagging up the agape bags if they were to be in the prison for 10:00am with just one person getting them together rather than three.
My head was pounding as I left the hotel for the prison with the bags in my car. I was about thirty minutes behind my usual schedule. By the time I got to the gate their was everyone and their mama at the check in station. Visitors were piled up in their. I waited in one line for a security officer to tell me that I didn't have to wait in the visitor's line since I was not riding the bus and going to join the Kairos ladies at the culinary school. That put me back about thirty more minutes. I got to the culinary school at the main prison complex by 11:00. I breathed a sigh when I saw that the runners' truck had not left. Matt, one of the runners put the bags on the back of the truck for me.
I all but collapsed into a chair in the eating area.
After I rested a bit, I stayed to have lunch with the ladies and the two inmates that serve in the culinary school kitchen. Then we played a couple of games of spoons. One of the ladies gave me a couple of Tylenol to help me make it back to the hotel where I could rest.
My table at Agape Central was a mess. It gets that way when things get really busy. I tried to straighten it out because when the guys came in from the prison, it was going to get hairy since the names would be arriving at the same time. I was not very comfortable with that because it is last-minute stuff. Cyndi had been up to the prison and back. It was too hot for her to stay up there with her legs bothering her and she needed to finish her letters, too.
Each team member writes forty-five letters to the resident candidates for the workshop. We're supposed to start writing about six weeks in advance and bring the same pen we started with. That way when we have the names of the candidates we can fill in their names with the same pen. We usually have forty-two participants but in case something happens we write forty-five as a cushion. One leader for an earlier team allowed forty-six inmates to participate. He didn't realize what that does when preparing food and agape. I asked that that not be allowed again. Besides that, it throws off the sponsor/sponsoree system and they table families. There's suposed to be seven table families made of about two or three of our volunteers and six inmate residents. I don't know how any extra will sit comfortably at a table meant for nine. I bring forty-three paper bags with handles for the agape bags and those who get Sunday school classes of kids to make sets of 42--well, it throws that off too. The local Fred's and Dollar General don't have the same kind of bags so I had to buy a shiny party bag that didn't match the rest. Since there were not enough volunteers, chairs and two tables were eliminated from this workshop rather than added.
There were going to be only five tables instead of seven. That is easier to deal with, however, it is nice to be prepared for that at least a week before the weekend. The head cook orders the food in advance and she had too much food. She said if she'd known she would have called to restaurant supplies and asked them to cut back on some of her order. I was happy to see my mother and daughter come up to help fill the bags.
The ladies from the kitchen came in to set up the food while the leader and observing leader came in with a list of inmates names. It was a scratch list because they had to cut the participants. Then some alternates took the place of others. The names were not in alphabetical order. This was going to be a mess. To emphasize the mess, one of the men who had finished addressing his letters, came over to agape central to ask, "So can you tell me when you will have the names on the agape bags?" I wanted to kick someone or something really hard.
It was not easy using a label maker to print out the thirty-two names for the name cards on each bag. It was a painfully slow process. The list was a scratch list so it was marked up and not in alphabetical order. There is a lot to be said for delegating jobs beforehand! My temp was rising. I had to get into prayer mode when I could rest and think about things past my headache and aching legs and feet. I'm certain I'd already said some things and had the facial expression I would not have had if I'd not been so tired.
But they got done and all the guys had their letters in the bags, including the one who asked me if I had his paper for him to write his letters that very evening AND if I had some envelopes for him. Ok, Kathy, breathe and do not explode. Jesus, stay with me and Satan get behind me!
I had one more set of bookmarks that the printer recognized but they would have to wait until morning. So the next morning, my husband was not waking me too early. He wanted me to get more sleep. Although he was not aware of everything I had to do, he was not enjoying the organizational style. His PTSD is not comfortable with change nor what he perceives as disorganization.
I was happy to be able to sleep a bit later and had told Cyndi that I wasn't coming into the conference room until 9:00am. She was happy about that, too. With two or three of us (we had been expecting Carolyn to come and help) it wouldn't take more than an forty minutes to organize the bags by table families, seal them and put them in garbage bags by table families.
BUT at 8:30 the next morning Cyndi called and said Carol had gone up to the prison to go to the kitchen with the other ladies and she'd left her driver's license at the hotel. She'd called Cyndi to bring it to her. One cannot enter the prison without ID. It wouldn't make sense for Cyndi to take a twenty-mile trip just to turn around and come back to help me. It made more sense for her to go on into the kitchen early. That threw off my schedule for bagging up the agape bags if they were to be in the prison for 10:00am with just one person getting them together rather than three.
My head was pounding as I left the hotel for the prison with the bags in my car. I was about thirty minutes behind my usual schedule. By the time I got to the gate their was everyone and their mama at the check in station. Visitors were piled up in their. I waited in one line for a security officer to tell me that I didn't have to wait in the visitor's line since I was not riding the bus and going to join the Kairos ladies at the culinary school. That put me back about thirty more minutes. I got to the culinary school at the main prison complex by 11:00. I breathed a sigh when I saw that the runners' truck had not left. Matt, one of the runners put the bags on the back of the truck for me.
I all but collapsed into a chair in the eating area.
After I rested a bit, I stayed to have lunch with the ladies and the two inmates that serve in the culinary school kitchen. Then we played a couple of games of spoons. One of the ladies gave me a couple of Tylenol to help me make it back to the hotel where I could rest.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Angola Kairos #49 Part 2
My sister called and told me she had joined our prayer vigil. I saw that 70-something slots were open before I left for school that morning. One of the brothers from new Orleans called and asked me if I'd noticed that some of the times--mostly on Thursday--had been doubled. I thought there were more than usual! I had another short list of people to write in after I got to the hotel so I was hoping that would fill it. By the time I got to print it--and the printer froze a few times--the count was down to about 20 which was perfect for the write-ins. So all blank speace were taken care of. YAY!! It always works!
There were several things going wrong, like with the printer. But also, the Internet connection at the hotel was lousy. I never expect it to work in the conference room and my Kairos sister, Cyndi told me she was having trouble connecting in her hotel room. I disconnected my netbook (AKA "Baby Laptop, as my things have names) from the printer and took it to the breakfast area, where there the WiFi usually is. The operative word here being "usually."
Eventually, I was able to get on line in my room and download the prayer vigil chain, right before the Internet connection shut off again. I pasted it into a Word document so that I could number the pages. It came out to sixty-one pages. I finally got the printer gods to smile on my teeny printer. Everything that didn't print the day before printed first after turning it off and rebooting Baby LapTop. All of this took a number of hours so that by the time the guys returned from the prison, Cyndi and I were still working on cutting apart the prayer chain links and making a paper chain of them.
My mantra by this time was, "I will not be up past midnight. I will not be up past midnight." Just then, one of the first guys to return from the prison came to Agape Central gingerly hold a Kairos name tag. "Um, they said to come to you with name tag changes," he said.
OoooooooK. The problem with that was that while we were having Saturday formation meetings, I'd asked the leader if he'd need help with name tags. They'd all been made for team members for the meeting so he said he had it covered. Well, having it covered came to mean that if there were any changes to be made at the hotel, it would be on me. Not cool. I was hot. There were about eight changes to make, including three team members who'd taken theirs home and forgotten them. We never let the team members take their name tags home if we wanted to have all of them during Kairos Weekend.
So...I left Cyndi cutting and stapling the prayer chain while I tried to get a name tag template. I had some card stock. The leader's wife also had a laptop and tried to log on in her room. The Internet was out again. She asked the desk employees about it and they stretched an ethernet cable across their check-in desk to her laptop while I looked for a rainbow Kairos logo to put at the top of the name tags so they'd looked like those that were previously printed.
Although the Internet still didn't come up, she located the template already installed in her laptop. We both had the same version of Windows, so she showed my where it was on hers so I could find it on Baby. I only had a blue and black logo on Baby so we were just going to make blue logos. "They'll just have to be different," we both agreed.
Then she remembered that her husband had snet her a PDF with the logo and it was on her laptop. "Can you copy a logo from a PDF to a Word document?"
"YAHOO! Why sure you can!" I laughed. We were making it possible.
We got the print the same size and the logo cut and pasted. And since the cardstock was not perforated like the paper that comes with the name tags, I held an old name tag up to the light, matched the print, so I could draw he lines for the edges of the new name tags and cut them out.
The guy's meeting was long over and they had slipped off to bed. The ladies who'd worked in the kitchen were hot and tired as they dropped off an evening meal and gone to their rooms. The mantra had been useless. The three of us were up past midnight.
I was still rather hot. It's much asier to be so when you've been up since 4:30 AM, gone to work, picked up a car, packed--in other words when you're exhausted. I'm far from the most organized person and I'm most disorganized when I'm overwhelm with many things on my plate. However, this was a result of not thinking things through and being organized. That comes for from trying to think and do too much on your own and not delegating the small stuff. My husband was still half awake and I vented that before he went to sleep. I was too tired to unpack my clothes, so I just took out my contact lens juice, washed up and went to sleep.
The next morning, my husband was up and dressed when I awoke. He'd made coffee and set aside a cup for me. "Ugh! Pink, stuff!" was all there was for sweetening my coffee from the world of artificial sweeteners. I liked the blue stuff better.
"Hunnee, I'm gonna slip on some clothes and get me some blue stuff and couple of muffins, " I said.
"I think you should wait a while. I wouldn't go there right now if I were you," he warned.
I thought I'd just get my sweetener and come back to the room, have coffee and muffins and get in the hot shower.
I was ambushed at the lobby entrance with "Did you bring my name tag? I need my name tag." "I need you make me a name tag this morning before we leave for the prison." "I have two more inmate name tags."
Baby Laptop said, "Sorry, I'm sending the message to the printer but Li'l HP is saying he ain't hearin' that!"
I had a labeler and printed he names with that. Then we stuck them over the names that needed correcting. "Here's a temporary solution. Use these and when you come back this evening Li'L HP will have heard the print message and printed your name tags."
The muffins were hard by the time I got to them. Fortunately, Ms. Linda, the breakfast lady was looking out for me and went to the back to get me some soft blueberry muffins.
I finally got back to my room for that shower when my sister called from Denver. We talked for about 30 minutes. I had not talked with her for a few weeks so I called Cyndi to let her know I wasn't lost. Cyndi sounded like she hadn't had a good sleep. He legs were bothering her the day before so she was talking to me in one of those twilight stupors that say, I'm talking to you but my eyes are closed. Poor thing. She needed to rest and I was not going to call her back to wake her.
I checked on Baby Laptop and Li'l HP to see if they were talking to each other. They were friends once again. On the empty name slots I typed names I made up like "Downenda Treme" and "Fidnta Blow." I could put those in my own name tag and change out every few hours. Linda came to check on me from her breakfast bar and we talked for a while. I went to the dollar store and started on the agape bags.
By that time, Cyndi was up and ready to work. She was apologizing for not coming down from her room earlier. Her legs had hurt her all night long. I told her there was no need for an apology and that when I'd called her I could tell in her voice that she wasn't actually awake.
We had no resident list or table family list, so I couldn't put names on the cards on the bags. I had that "it's gonna be another late night when the guys get back from the prison" feeling. I used the name tag template and some photos from the team formation meetings. I lightened the photos about 50% so they'd make a nice background for the names which would be printed with the label maker.
We had no children's agape brought in by the guys. I couldn't believe that! That has never happened before. Later my mother and my daughter came up to help. My mother brought some craft material and some leftover items from Bible School. My daughter and Cyndi helped make some book marks. Then I found a plastic envelope full of agape leftover from the previous Kairos weekend. There was enough for each of the thirty-two bags to receive about three letters from children.
There were several things going wrong, like with the printer. But also, the Internet connection at the hotel was lousy. I never expect it to work in the conference room and my Kairos sister, Cyndi told me she was having trouble connecting in her hotel room. I disconnected my netbook (AKA "Baby Laptop, as my things have names) from the printer and took it to the breakfast area, where there the WiFi usually is. The operative word here being "usually."
Eventually, I was able to get on line in my room and download the prayer vigil chain, right before the Internet connection shut off again. I pasted it into a Word document so that I could number the pages. It came out to sixty-one pages. I finally got the printer gods to smile on my teeny printer. Everything that didn't print the day before printed first after turning it off and rebooting Baby LapTop. All of this took a number of hours so that by the time the guys returned from the prison, Cyndi and I were still working on cutting apart the prayer chain links and making a paper chain of them.
My mantra by this time was, "I will not be up past midnight. I will not be up past midnight." Just then, one of the first guys to return from the prison came to Agape Central gingerly hold a Kairos name tag. "Um, they said to come to you with name tag changes," he said.
OoooooooK. The problem with that was that while we were having Saturday formation meetings, I'd asked the leader if he'd need help with name tags. They'd all been made for team members for the meeting so he said he had it covered. Well, having it covered came to mean that if there were any changes to be made at the hotel, it would be on me. Not cool. I was hot. There were about eight changes to make, including three team members who'd taken theirs home and forgotten them. We never let the team members take their name tags home if we wanted to have all of them during Kairos Weekend.
So...I left Cyndi cutting and stapling the prayer chain while I tried to get a name tag template. I had some card stock. The leader's wife also had a laptop and tried to log on in her room. The Internet was out again. She asked the desk employees about it and they stretched an ethernet cable across their check-in desk to her laptop while I looked for a rainbow Kairos logo to put at the top of the name tags so they'd looked like those that were previously printed.
Although the Internet still didn't come up, she located the template already installed in her laptop. We both had the same version of Windows, so she showed my where it was on hers so I could find it on Baby. I only had a blue and black logo on Baby so we were just going to make blue logos. "They'll just have to be different," we both agreed.
Then she remembered that her husband had snet her a PDF with the logo and it was on her laptop. "Can you copy a logo from a PDF to a Word document?"
"YAHOO! Why sure you can!" I laughed. We were making it possible.
We got the print the same size and the logo cut and pasted. And since the cardstock was not perforated like the paper that comes with the name tags, I held an old name tag up to the light, matched the print, so I could draw he lines for the edges of the new name tags and cut them out.
The guy's meeting was long over and they had slipped off to bed. The ladies who'd worked in the kitchen were hot and tired as they dropped off an evening meal and gone to their rooms. The mantra had been useless. The three of us were up past midnight.
I was still rather hot. It's much asier to be so when you've been up since 4:30 AM, gone to work, picked up a car, packed--in other words when you're exhausted. I'm far from the most organized person and I'm most disorganized when I'm overwhelm with many things on my plate. However, this was a result of not thinking things through and being organized. That comes for from trying to think and do too much on your own and not delegating the small stuff. My husband was still half awake and I vented that before he went to sleep. I was too tired to unpack my clothes, so I just took out my contact lens juice, washed up and went to sleep.
The next morning, my husband was up and dressed when I awoke. He'd made coffee and set aside a cup for me. "Ugh! Pink, stuff!" was all there was for sweetening my coffee from the world of artificial sweeteners. I liked the blue stuff better.
"Hunnee, I'm gonna slip on some clothes and get me some blue stuff and couple of muffins, " I said.
"I think you should wait a while. I wouldn't go there right now if I were you," he warned.
I thought I'd just get my sweetener and come back to the room, have coffee and muffins and get in the hot shower.
I was ambushed at the lobby entrance with "Did you bring my name tag? I need my name tag." "I need you make me a name tag this morning before we leave for the prison." "I have two more inmate name tags."
Baby Laptop said, "Sorry, I'm sending the message to the printer but Li'l HP is saying he ain't hearin' that!"
I had a labeler and printed he names with that. Then we stuck them over the names that needed correcting. "Here's a temporary solution. Use these and when you come back this evening Li'L HP will have heard the print message and printed your name tags."
The muffins were hard by the time I got to them. Fortunately, Ms. Linda, the breakfast lady was looking out for me and went to the back to get me some soft blueberry muffins.
I finally got back to my room for that shower when my sister called from Denver. We talked for about 30 minutes. I had not talked with her for a few weeks so I called Cyndi to let her know I wasn't lost. Cyndi sounded like she hadn't had a good sleep. He legs were bothering her the day before so she was talking to me in one of those twilight stupors that say, I'm talking to you but my eyes are closed. Poor thing. She needed to rest and I was not going to call her back to wake her.
I checked on Baby Laptop and Li'l HP to see if they were talking to each other. They were friends once again. On the empty name slots I typed names I made up like "Downenda Treme" and "Fidnta Blow." I could put those in my own name tag and change out every few hours. Linda came to check on me from her breakfast bar and we talked for a while. I went to the dollar store and started on the agape bags.
By that time, Cyndi was up and ready to work. She was apologizing for not coming down from her room earlier. Her legs had hurt her all night long. I told her there was no need for an apology and that when I'd called her I could tell in her voice that she wasn't actually awake.
We had no resident list or table family list, so I couldn't put names on the cards on the bags. I had that "it's gonna be another late night when the guys get back from the prison" feeling. I used the name tag template and some photos from the team formation meetings. I lightened the photos about 50% so they'd make a nice background for the names which would be printed with the label maker.
We had no children's agape brought in by the guys. I couldn't believe that! That has never happened before. Later my mother and my daughter came up to help. My mother brought some craft material and some leftover items from Bible School. My daughter and Cyndi helped make some book marks. Then I found a plastic envelope full of agape leftover from the previous Kairos weekend. There was enough for each of the thirty-two bags to receive about three letters from children.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Angola Kairos #49 Part 1
I started writing this entry on last Thursday. The hotel we use in St. Francisville for Kairos has undergone some changes. The Internet connection is one of the changes. It has been intermittent, thus the late post. No, I do not have an iPhone.
I need to get sum'n to eat. I made it here to St. Francisville in one slightly damp piece. Thank God. I really do.
Mr. Bob Buttons woke me up at 4:30AM. His internal clock has been thirty minutes off lately. Still pretty good for a 14-year-old cat. I'd packed the night before so I could leave for the Kairos Prison Ministry weekend right after work. Unfortunately, I couldn't pack my car. I had to bring out the dusty Corolla I'd given to my daughter for work. It's fine for getting to work but not for going out of town.
My air conditioning went out on the Intrigue. After work on yesterday I took it to the Texaco where everyone and his mama happened to be bringing a car in for repair or inspection. I'd just had the air fixed a couple of weeks ago so there was no reason for it to run hot again unless the mechanic didn't repair the leak. The guy behind the cash register wanted a receipt and had be run back to the car to find it. Rivers of sweat were pouring from my neck when he decided, "Oh, yeah! I can look it up on he computer!"
So after work I asked my mother to take me to get my car from the Texaco. Then I had to bring it home and pack it with luggage and Kairos stuff.
When I finally got on the road, it seemed everybody and their mama was trying to travel through St. Francisville on Highway 61. Then a I turned into the hotel's driveway, I saw the sign had been changed once again. It is now, The Magnamous! Wow! That's the third name in about as many years. When I started it was a part of the Bestwestern chain. After that, a couple of years ago, it became a Quality Inn.
Inside the guys were ready to start their meeting and a couple of them set up a table for me which would become "Agape Central." That's where I put together the prayer chain, the agape bags and do my other agapeladytype stuff.
I met my husband just outside. He'd already arrived and asked for a room on the ground floor near the lobby. He knows I have to go back and forth to the conference room so this will make life easier.
Well, gotta do my agape stuff and get something to eat.
I need to get sum'n to eat. I made it here to St. Francisville in one slightly damp piece. Thank God. I really do.
Mr. Bob Buttons woke me up at 4:30AM. His internal clock has been thirty minutes off lately. Still pretty good for a 14-year-old cat. I'd packed the night before so I could leave for the Kairos Prison Ministry weekend right after work. Unfortunately, I couldn't pack my car. I had to bring out the dusty Corolla I'd given to my daughter for work. It's fine for getting to work but not for going out of town.
My air conditioning went out on the Intrigue. After work on yesterday I took it to the Texaco where everyone and his mama happened to be bringing a car in for repair or inspection. I'd just had the air fixed a couple of weeks ago so there was no reason for it to run hot again unless the mechanic didn't repair the leak. The guy behind the cash register wanted a receipt and had be run back to the car to find it. Rivers of sweat were pouring from my neck when he decided, "Oh, yeah! I can look it up on he computer!"
So after work I asked my mother to take me to get my car from the Texaco. Then I had to bring it home and pack it with luggage and Kairos stuff.
When I finally got on the road, it seemed everybody and their mama was trying to travel through St. Francisville on Highway 61. Then a I turned into the hotel's driveway, I saw the sign had been changed once again. It is now, The Magnamous! Wow! That's the third name in about as many years. When I started it was a part of the Bestwestern chain. After that, a couple of years ago, it became a Quality Inn.
Inside the guys were ready to start their meeting and a couple of them set up a table for me which would become "Agape Central." That's where I put together the prayer chain, the agape bags and do my other agapeladytype stuff.
I met my husband just outside. He'd already arrived and asked for a room on the ground floor near the lobby. He knows I have to go back and forth to the conference room so this will make life easier.
Well, gotta do my agape stuff and get something to eat.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
What's A Prayer Chain Look Like? (Thanks for the Participation)
Thanks to everyone who participated in the prayer vigil for Angola Kairos #48.
Then one of the guys who serves as our runner over the 3 1/2-day Kairos Weekend would take the prayer chain into the prison in a huge garbage bag.
The chain is then hung up inside the prison where the workshop is being held. It is draped around and around and up and down the room. As you can see in the hotel photos below, thic chain was pretty long. During the weekend, it is explained to the prison residents that someone is praying for them 24/7 during the 3 1/2-day weekend and that each link represents someone praying for them in a 10-minute block. They can actually walk up to the physical representation and they are awed by the prayers!
This time I made sure to take pictures of the chain before it was sent it into the prison so that those of you who signed up and prayed will have some idea of how the physical chain looked.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
ExCePt FoR tHeSe
I have people contact me and ask for prayer in sickness and in bad times. I am grateful for the opportunity. I'm grateful they see something of God in me that they find me worthy to share in their prayers for their family and friends. Sometimes it's those requests that remind me to talk to God each day, so for that I am grateful.
The Bible admonishes us Christians to "pray without ceasing." However, some of us want to put restrictions and conditions on God. We only pray when we want something to go our way and we want God to bless what we want. "Oh, God! Let this scratch-off ticket bring me one million bucks! Just ONE million is all I ask!" Dude, God knows you're a jerk with $100 and that you'll just be a bigger jerk with a million bucks!
More seriously, though, folks put limits on their prayers as if they really belong to themselves and are to be doled out only for certain causes and for certain people. I actually saw someone who didn't know better, thinking it was fine to pray for something bad to happen to someone they didn't like. Can you say "Way off base!" Boys and girls?
Prayer is simply talking to God. It's not always about asking for what you want. It's also about praise, worship and thanks. In the model prayer, which some folks call The Lord's Prayer, Christ is teaching how to pray using praise, request, thanks.
I am mentioning it here because as we do Kairos Prison Ministry, we always have a prayer chain for the 42 prison residents who will participate in the 3 1/2-day spiritually uplifting workshop and for the team of gentlemen and ladies who will serve on the team. There are actually babes in Christ who feel such ownership of their prayers that, though they consider themselves to be devout, they will limit how they dole out their prayers and say, "No, I will not pray for those people."
With that said, I have combined a TOP TEN list of reasons that Christians do not pray--which are not really reasons at all!
1. They don't like us and they are not praying for us! (Heard a lot after 911)
2. I don't have a "podium"/ don't know how to make the words sound right in the group.
3. They are not in our church.
4. They don't look like us.
5. They don't deserve my/our prayers.
6. It's useless/ fruitless. What's the point?.
7. I don't have someone to pray with me.
8. I just don't like her/him/them.
9. They're too young/old/insignificant
10. I have not forgiven her/him or someone they bring to mind.
Now with my fussing done, prayerfully consider joining our prayer vigil for February 18-21. We know that everyone is not called to go inside the prison with us so we give you an opportunity for your blessings from the outside. Click the link in the title or copy and paste this link into your browser area: http://www.3dayol.org/Vigil/GetVigil.phtml?pvid=4110&commid=1462
The system will ask for your email but it will only be used to remind you of the 10minutes you chose to pray. It will not print out on the physical prayer chain.
What will happen is that during the workshop a physical prayer chain will made from colored paper and strung across the classroom during the weekend. It is a physical reminder and encouragement for the 42 particiapnats that people who don't even know them are praying 24/7. It really amazes them to see a representation of people from all over the world in prayer for them throughout the workshop.
http://www.3dayol.org/Vigil/GetVigil.phtml?pvid=4110&commid=1462
The Bible admonishes us Christians to "pray without ceasing." However, some of us want to put restrictions and conditions on God. We only pray when we want something to go our way and we want God to bless what we want. "Oh, God! Let this scratch-off ticket bring me one million bucks! Just ONE million is all I ask!" Dude, God knows you're a jerk with $100 and that you'll just be a bigger jerk with a million bucks!
More seriously, though, folks put limits on their prayers as if they really belong to themselves and are to be doled out only for certain causes and for certain people. I actually saw someone who didn't know better, thinking it was fine to pray for something bad to happen to someone they didn't like. Can you say "Way off base!" Boys and girls?
Prayer is simply talking to God. It's not always about asking for what you want. It's also about praise, worship and thanks. In the model prayer, which some folks call The Lord's Prayer, Christ is teaching how to pray using praise, request, thanks.
I am mentioning it here because as we do Kairos Prison Ministry, we always have a prayer chain for the 42 prison residents who will participate in the 3 1/2-day spiritually uplifting workshop and for the team of gentlemen and ladies who will serve on the team. There are actually babes in Christ who feel such ownership of their prayers that, though they consider themselves to be devout, they will limit how they dole out their prayers and say, "No, I will not pray for those people."
With that said, I have combined a TOP TEN list of reasons that Christians do not pray--which are not really reasons at all!
1. They don't like us and they are not praying for us! (Heard a lot after 911)
2. I don't have a "podium"/ don't know how to make the words sound right in the group.
3. They are not in our church.
4. They don't look like us.
5. They don't deserve my/our prayers.
6. It's useless/ fruitless. What's the point?.
7. I don't have someone to pray with me.
8. I just don't like her/him/them.
9. They're too young/old/insignificant
10. I have not forgiven her/him or someone they bring to mind.
Now with my fussing done, prayerfully consider joining our prayer vigil for February 18-21. We know that everyone is not called to go inside the prison with us so we give you an opportunity for your blessings from the outside. Click the link in the title or copy and paste this link into your browser area: http://www.3dayol.org/Vigil/GetVigil.phtml?pvid=4110&commid=1462
The system will ask for your email but it will only be used to remind you of the 10minutes you chose to pray. It will not print out on the physical prayer chain.
What will happen is that during the workshop a physical prayer chain will made from colored paper and strung across the classroom during the weekend. It is a physical reminder and encouragement for the 42 particiapnats that people who don't even know them are praying 24/7. It really amazes them to see a representation of people from all over the world in prayer for them throughout the workshop.
http://www.3dayol.org/Vigil/GetVigil.phtml?pvid=4110&commid=1462
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Prayer Chain Count Down for 1/13/10
| For Men's Kairos, Angola LSP #48 Feb 18-21: Of 462 prayer slots, 285 need to be filled!  CLICK HERE to get to go THERE! Better, still, pass this notice on to your prayer warrior friends! YSIC, YKW [YAAAAAAHOOOOOO!!!!] 
Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/ |
Monday, November 16, 2009
Kairos Weekend Part 2 (or the birth of Francine)
The weekend was a blast although it can wear ya down. I was thinking as I tried to get out of bed this morning that perhaps I should have taken an extra day off from work just to rest and recuperate. I am so thankful that two of the ladies stayed behind at the hotel with me to help with some of the agape duties before they went to help at the prison's culinary school kitchen.
The prayer chain on Thursday night was most involved. In the past I have had to get a physical chain ready with blanks for names and times written in. Each team member was given a two-hour block of prayers to collect from church members, friends, etc. I would have to go on line or email my friends in South Africa and Ireland whom I have met via this ministry and ask them to take our wee hours of the morning slots that are the middle of the day for them. Ultimately, the guys on the team would forget their chains, have them partly filled or just not do them. This time, I had the chain on line at 3dayol.org. It made for the most complete chain we had ever had. I took my net book and a little printer and I was able to download the prayer chain from the web site and print it on colored paper at the hotel. Two other sisters helped cut them out and we stapled together 468 links n the prayer chain. If it had not been for them I would have been up half the night trying to cut and staple the chain.
The other way, the men cut and staple their own assigned parts of the chain but I don't always get all the parts. This way every prayer is accounted for.
The purpose of the chain is for it to be a visible representation to the inmate participants of the prayers that are being lifted up in their behalf during the 3 1/2-day weekend. With an orderly chain they can walk up to the chain and see who is praying at that particular hour. They are overwhelmed by this to be sure.
On Fridays I get the agape bags ready. We have collected items from all over for those bags. I will not say what except to say that when you are asked, it's a cool thing to do. i don't want to spoil the surprise in case there is someone who may receive such a bag at a similar spiritual walk. When the guys leave the prison on Friday night they load the bags with their letters. Some of them are up half the night. I give them until Saturday morning before they leave for the prison to get their items in the bags. Saturday morning I have to get them taped up, grouped into table families and bagged by table family in jumbo trash bags. Then I get to take them up to the prison by 10AM.
This time, as I came to the prison gates on Saturday morning, my name was not on the gate pass. One of the security ladies remembered me from the last time I was on a team so she had her partner take my license and call to the back where they were holding the workshop. By the time the message got back there, through telephone wires and radios,my first name had become garbled into "Francine." My husband was asked if he knew anyone with that name and of course he said, "Never heard of 'em."
The ladies in the culinary school kitchen were called and my good friend the head cook said, "Well, that is Kathy's last name but maybe that is her middle name. But, yes we are expecting a lady with that last name."
At any rate I was allowed to drive back of Main Prison Complex to the culinary school with my garbage bags. "Franceeeeeeen is in the house!" I said when I arrived. Among by kitchen friends I am now Francine with extra emphasis on the "eeeeen." One cannot say a simple Francine. It has to be said in just that way---or I do not answer. Perhaps I will start another blog for that alter ego and include just the right amount of Es in the title which is at least 3.
Saturday evening is the most relaxed day. I was able to stay at the culinary school with the ladies and the two residents who man the culinary school kitchen for a couple of hours. The two culinary school residents are lovely, soft spoken guys who love it when the Kairos ladies come. We had lunch after the workshop lunch was taken over to the guys and then a few minutes to play the spoon game. Then it was back to work at the hotel for Franceeen!
Saturday night is the best! That's when we get to hear the reflections of the new people on the team. I took plenty of pictures which I intend to share with the team on either flicker or Kodak. I have a special surprise for Morris, our team leader. At any rate, the leader is given a plaque and we all share the wonderment of the Holy Spirit as we witness it over the weekend.
Then we get ready for Sunday!
Well, I have used two breaks to write this much. Part 3 at a later time.
The prayer chain on Thursday night was most involved. In the past I have had to get a physical chain ready with blanks for names and times written in. Each team member was given a two-hour block of prayers to collect from church members, friends, etc. I would have to go on line or email my friends in South Africa and Ireland whom I have met via this ministry and ask them to take our wee hours of the morning slots that are the middle of the day for them. Ultimately, the guys on the team would forget their chains, have them partly filled or just not do them. This time, I had the chain on line at 3dayol.org. It made for the most complete chain we had ever had. I took my net book and a little printer and I was able to download the prayer chain from the web site and print it on colored paper at the hotel. Two other sisters helped cut them out and we stapled together 468 links n the prayer chain. If it had not been for them I would have been up half the night trying to cut and staple the chain.
The other way, the men cut and staple their own assigned parts of the chain but I don't always get all the parts. This way every prayer is accounted for.
The purpose of the chain is for it to be a visible representation to the inmate participants of the prayers that are being lifted up in their behalf during the 3 1/2-day weekend. With an orderly chain they can walk up to the chain and see who is praying at that particular hour. They are overwhelmed by this to be sure.
On Fridays I get the agape bags ready. We have collected items from all over for those bags. I will not say what except to say that when you are asked, it's a cool thing to do. i don't want to spoil the surprise in case there is someone who may receive such a bag at a similar spiritual walk. When the guys leave the prison on Friday night they load the bags with their letters. Some of them are up half the night. I give them until Saturday morning before they leave for the prison to get their items in the bags. Saturday morning I have to get them taped up, grouped into table families and bagged by table family in jumbo trash bags. Then I get to take them up to the prison by 10AM.
This time, as I came to the prison gates on Saturday morning, my name was not on the gate pass. One of the security ladies remembered me from the last time I was on a team so she had her partner take my license and call to the back where they were holding the workshop. By the time the message got back there, through telephone wires and radios,my first name had become garbled into "Francine." My husband was asked if he knew anyone with that name and of course he said, "Never heard of 'em."
The ladies in the culinary school kitchen were called and my good friend the head cook said, "Well, that is Kathy's last name but maybe that is her middle name. But, yes we are expecting a lady with that last name."
At any rate I was allowed to drive back of Main Prison Complex to the culinary school with my garbage bags. "Franceeeeeeen is in the house!" I said when I arrived. Among by kitchen friends I am now Francine with extra emphasis on the "eeeeen." One cannot say a simple Francine. It has to be said in just that way---or I do not answer. Perhaps I will start another blog for that alter ego and include just the right amount of Es in the title which is at least 3.
Saturday evening is the most relaxed day. I was able to stay at the culinary school with the ladies and the two residents who man the culinary school kitchen for a couple of hours. The two culinary school residents are lovely, soft spoken guys who love it when the Kairos ladies come. We had lunch after the workshop lunch was taken over to the guys and then a few minutes to play the spoon game. Then it was back to work at the hotel for Franceeen!
Saturday night is the best! That's when we get to hear the reflections of the new people on the team. I took plenty of pictures which I intend to share with the team on either flicker or Kodak. I have a special surprise for Morris, our team leader. At any rate, the leader is given a plaque and we all share the wonderment of the Holy Spirit as we witness it over the weekend.
Then we get ready for Sunday!
Well, I have used two breaks to write this much. Part 3 at a later time.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Kairos Weekend (part one)
It works!
I'm in the middle of my duties as the agape chief for Kairos Prison Ministry at Louisiana State Penitentiary for men at Angola. The men on the team go inside the prison and give a 3 1/2-day workshop to 42 residents on the love of Christ.
Inmates are used to people coming into the prison, thumping the Bible at them, telling them they are such sinners and then leaving. Kairos is a different type of ministry where the volunteers become the Bible and they demonstrate the Bible by becoming its hands and feet.
We have a special cook team who remain outside of the workshop. My friend Juanita has a gift for cooking large amounts of home cookin'-style food. We had a lady who cooked fancy gourmet stuff but the best for the ministry is to cook food that reminds them of home. Since this is south Louisiana, that may include fried chicken, barbecue, jambalaya and white beans, banana pudding and the like. There may also be men on the outside team who help with cooking or running the food from the outside kitchen to the workshop. Women's teams are just the opposite.The men stay outside and cook while the women go inside and do the workshop hands-on.
My job during these weekends is to handle agape. These are physical items that remind the prison residents that people are thinking about them and praying for them and that God loves them. I start a few weeks before we start having team meetings, which are six to eight weeks before the team goes to the prison. I go to the national web site and let other Kairos groups know that we need prayer and wall agape. Wall agape are posters from Kairos groups that are posted as greetings on the walls during the special workshop. I also make a kit for each team member so that they can collect prayers, cookies and money for the special weekend workshop.
In the past, local churches allow us to use their facilities. The Ladies have even used the kitchen of a nearby school and the hotel's old abandoned kitchen. Now the warden allows us to use the culinary school kitchen at main prison. They love this. It leaves me behind to coordinate agape at the hotel but when I'm done I get to go to the culinary school, too. I also stay behind on Sunday to greet guests and coordinate our convoy of vehicles up to the prison for the closing ceremony.
My husband, whom I met in this ministry, is usually the music leader. He has been so tired when he comes in that he goes right to the hotel room and conks out like a brick. He has not been sleeping well, lately because his daughter is sick and that has been on his mind. He has slept better and far more here each night than he has at home.
Speaking of sleep, I'd better get my nap in while I can. I will post more on what's happening here later tonight or tomorrow.
I'm in the middle of my duties as the agape chief for Kairos Prison Ministry at Louisiana State Penitentiary for men at Angola. The men on the team go inside the prison and give a 3 1/2-day workshop to 42 residents on the love of Christ.
Inmates are used to people coming into the prison, thumping the Bible at them, telling them they are such sinners and then leaving. Kairos is a different type of ministry where the volunteers become the Bible and they demonstrate the Bible by becoming its hands and feet.
We have a special cook team who remain outside of the workshop. My friend Juanita has a gift for cooking large amounts of home cookin'-style food. We had a lady who cooked fancy gourmet stuff but the best for the ministry is to cook food that reminds them of home. Since this is south Louisiana, that may include fried chicken, barbecue, jambalaya and white beans, banana pudding and the like. There may also be men on the outside team who help with cooking or running the food from the outside kitchen to the workshop. Women's teams are just the opposite.The men stay outside and cook while the women go inside and do the workshop hands-on.
My job during these weekends is to handle agape. These are physical items that remind the prison residents that people are thinking about them and praying for them and that God loves them. I start a few weeks before we start having team meetings, which are six to eight weeks before the team goes to the prison. I go to the national web site and let other Kairos groups know that we need prayer and wall agape. Wall agape are posters from Kairos groups that are posted as greetings on the walls during the special workshop. I also make a kit for each team member so that they can collect prayers, cookies and money for the special weekend workshop.
In the past, local churches allow us to use their facilities. The Ladies have even used the kitchen of a nearby school and the hotel's old abandoned kitchen. Now the warden allows us to use the culinary school kitchen at main prison. They love this. It leaves me behind to coordinate agape at the hotel but when I'm done I get to go to the culinary school, too. I also stay behind on Sunday to greet guests and coordinate our convoy of vehicles up to the prison for the closing ceremony.
My husband, whom I met in this ministry, is usually the music leader. He has been so tired when he comes in that he goes right to the hotel room and conks out like a brick. He has not been sleeping well, lately because his daughter is sick and that has been on his mind. He has slept better and far more here each night than he has at home.
Speaking of sleep, I'd better get my nap in while I can. I will post more on what's happening here later tonight or tomorrow.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Prayers Needed for Kairos!
| We need more names added to our prayer vigil chain at this link: http://www.3dayol.org/Vigil/GetVigil.phtml?pvid=3859&commid=1462 Pray that our Kairos Prison Ministry weekend workshop goes well. Pray for traveling grace up to the hotel and back and forth to/from the prison and for the 42 resident guests to have a God-breathed experience. Thanks! |
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Prayer Vigil Notification-- Louisiana State Penitentiary - Angola
|
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Manny's Request
|
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