Please Pray for Me: I'm Going to Prison

How's that for an attention-grabber?? I actually AM going to prison soon..and I really do want your prayers. But it's not a bad thing. In fact, it's an absolutely amazing thing. About 6 years ago, I got involved with an amazing ministry called Kairos. It's about sharing God's love with those in prison. For about 4 years, I was was a part of this ministry at our state's women's prison. Our team of women put on two big retreats a year, as well as two smaller (as in shorter) retreats a year, and held monthly reunions for the residents (the word we call those who are incarcerated) who have participated in our Kairos weekends. I'm telling y'all - God works incredible ways on these things. Every. Single. Time. I didn't do all those events - but did head to the prison several times a year. Then, when Hannah came home, I stopped. I supported them in other ways (the ways I'm going to give you an opportunity to help!), but I didn't personally go for about two years. Well, I now have the opportunity to go back. So, the third weekend in March, I will be heading in to prison to help put on this Kairos retreat weekend. And I am so excited!! I have witnessed many miracles in the tiny chapel of this prison. I have seen hearts of stone melt and women cry for the first time in years. I have seen women who were black, white, young, old, inmates, "free world" people (what they call us), rich, poor, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, been to church their whole life, never walked in the door of a church before, and EVERYTHING in between join hands together in a small chapel and praise God with ONE VOICE lifted in song. I have seen women forgive someone for hurts unimaginable. I have seen other women accept God's forgiveness for the first time. I have seen enemies in the prison sit at a table together and hug and ask for each other's forgiveness. I have heard women get up and say "I never knew other people loved me. I never knew God loved me. I know now". I could go on and on and on! But, I won't. Well, actually, I will for a minute. It's not just prisoners lives who are changed. Team members lives have been changed as well. My life has been changed by this ministry, mostly in ways I can't quite describe. But, if you've ever experienced God's power and love in such an intense way, you'll know what I mean when I say you can't leave that experience the same as you came.

With all that said, we need your help. God calls us to visit the prisoners (Mathew 25). I don't think it's a call for only a few Christians. I think it's a call for all of us. That does not mean I think everyone has to physically enter prison. Just like I don't think everyone has to personally adopt a child to fulfill God's call to care for the orphan. But many of you (I'm speaking to other adoptive parents) can remember that when you adopted your child, you had support from those around you. I did. It's the same way. We need your support. I'm going to list the ways you can help, and invite you to prayerfully consider how God might use you to change the lives of the 36 women I will have the opportunity to meet that third weekend in March.



*****1 - PRAY for us! This is not meant to be the "easy way out" as in, "I don't want to do anything else, but I guess I can pray". This is BY FAR, the most important thing you can do for us. I'm thrilled with whatever you can / want / feel called to do to help, but my hope is this one gets the most responses by a HUGE AMOUNT! We (the team of this Kairos weekend) work very hard to ensure that the entire weekend is covered in prayer. Start praying now. Please pray for us (the team - that we would be open to however God chooses to use during this weekend and that we would put Christ first in everything we do. Our intention is to draw the residents to Jesus Christ, not to impress them or draw them ot us) and for our families (for me, I'd appreciate you praying for Hannah, who will be staying with my parents that weekend), pray for the chaplain and warden to select the women God wants to be there, pray for the logistics of putting this on (there is so much RED TAPE, and obstacles, but God works through them every time!!), Pray for the women who will participate in our retreat. Pray for these precious children of God to know that - to know they are God's children. Pray for their hearts to be changed. Pray for their families - to participate in our weekend retreat, the women are required to be there for the whole event, which means giving up weekend visitation with any family for that weekend. Pray for the officers who will be assigned to us during the weekend. Just pray. :-)



If you will pray for us before and during the weekend (3rd weekend in March - I'll put a reminder on this blog), please post in the comments. One of the really cool things we do is make a prayer chain. Think paper chain like you used to make in school. But our prayer chain is made of bright colored strips and it's huge! It goes all the way around the chapel. Each strip has the name of a person outside of the prison who is praying for the residents. When it's brought out, it's one of the first things that begins to melt some women's hearts - to know THAT MANY people are praying for them. Our chain is attached to a similar white paper chain. The white paper chain represents the other inmates who are praying. Other Christians in the prison, including those who have previously participated in our weekends agree to pray as well. It's breathtaking to see! It's a tangible, visible sign of God's love. So, if you will pray for us, I'd love to write your name on a prayer chain strip. If your husband / sister / brother / cousin / son/ daughter / co-worker /etc. will pray for us, leave their names as well. (We will only use first names).



2. Sponsor a meal for one of our participants - this is the money one. :-) I hate asking for money in general, but this is not for me. The fact is, it costs money to put a Kairos weekend on. We need many supplies, and the big expense: food. We provide all the food for the weekend. These women get home-cooked meals, many for the first time in years. I have eaten a prison meal once before (We used to have mini-retreats where we ate one meal with the residents in their cafeteria). I don't know any other way to put it except to say I am not a picky eater at all. I had no problems eating in China. I had no problems eating in Lithuania. But in prison, all I did was push the food around my plate to make it look like I ate and then went out to eat after we left the prison. But, for 2.5 days, these women get home cooked meals. We have a kitchen team that cooks meals at a nearby church and brings them to us. Real fruit. Real vegetables. Real meat. Real bread. Real milk. Real cookies, and brownies, and ice cream, and ...It's just one more way we show them that we care about them in hopes they will begin to realize that God cares about them. If you'd like to donate to help provide a meal, please e-mail me at DeEtte530@juno.com and I will send you my address to mail a check (make it out to Kairos Prison Ministry). I can provide receipts for tax purposes if you would like, just send me an address to send it to. For a donation of $5 or more, we will put your name (first name) and where you are from (generally..like "John from Birmingham") on a piece of paper that will be at a resident's seat when they sit down to eat a meal. Again, it's just way to show them that people outside that prison do care about them.



3. PRAY for us (see #1)



4. Make Cookies..this is better if you're at least somewhat local. We need homemade cookies that we will take to serve the residents through the weekend. If you'd like to make a dozen, e-mail me and let me know. I'd have to get a way to get them from you a day or two before I leave, but if you're fairly local, I can do that.



5. PRAY for us (see #1)



6. Provide written expressions of God's love. We give the women a bag of special letters during the weekend that express God's love for them. These can be poems, inspirational sayings, or general letters. They have to be paper only (no staples) and we need 40 that are identical (we really need 36, but we usually ask for 40 just in case). Everyone is treated the same, so we can not use them if they are not identical. It's really special for them to receive hand-written letters. The team used to write these letters. We would each write 36 letters and sign them and they were so special. We are no longer allowed to do that (rules change often in the prison environment). The rule now at this prison is that if you have the priveledge to volunteer, you can not write letters. If you write letters, you can not volunteer. So, because I volunteer, along wiht the rest of the team, I (and they) can not write these letters. It's asking a lot I know to write 36 identical letters on the same stationary..but if you'd like to do that, know that it will be tremendous blessing. They do not need to be long..a couple sentences expressing God's love and your prayers, etc. would be fine. They can be signed by a first name. I would need these letters no later than Wed. March 12. You can mail them to me (DeEtte530@juno.com for my address)or if you're local, I can pick them up. If you do a poem, or saying, etc. that you type, you can e-mail it to me and I can print it off and run copies for you..unless you want to do it on special paper or something.



7. PRAY FOR US! (see #1)



8. Ask Someone else to PRAY FOR US!



Know that anything you do, and especially your prayers, will make a difference in the Kingdom of God. I know many of you may have a variety of opinions on prisons and prisoners and why they are there, etc. That's not our point. We honestly don't care why they're there. We don't ask them either. I won't argue or discuss whether they should be there or not. I'll leave that to our government. Fact is, they committed a crime. Fact is, they are sinners. Fact is, so am I. Fact is, God loves me anyway. Fact is, God loves them anyway too - only so many of them don't know that. That's why we're there - to tell them.



For more information about this ministry, visit http://www.kairosprisonministry.org/ Our weekend is March 13-15. Don't forget to leave a comment if I can add you to our prayer chain! Thank you!!