The Kairos goal is to teach Christ’s love to the 30 women who attend our weekend short course within the prison facility, so that they will be able to live in Christian community within the prison. This has tremendous personal results for these women and their families, not just while they are still imprisoned, but even after they have been released. The recidivism rate is reduced from 80% to 18% in women who have completed our Kairos weekend short course (ie - without Kairos 80% of women released from prison will return to it, with Kairos, only 18% return). The program does make a difference to society.
Here are the various ways you can support Kairos:
Prayer: Every minute of the weekend is covered in prayer and our prayer support is extremely important. Early in the weekend, the super long prayer chain is brought out to show the residents how many people are praying for them – even through the night. It is a powerful moment, and the women find it hard to believe that folks on the “outside” are praying for them.
Cookies: Each team volunteer is responsible to bring 35 dozen cookies. We have five members from Covenant on this team, so we need 175 dozen cookies! We give cookies to every resident of LCIW on the first night that we are there. Those women attending the Kairos weekend receive a dozen cookies each night, with an extra dozen given on Saturday night. They are instructed to share the extra dozen with someone whose forgiveness they seek or someone who they need to forgive. The cookies have to be home baked, but not necessarily from scratch - any pre-made dough is fine. We ask that you pray over your cookies as they bake – that whoever receives them will feel God's love in a mighty way.
Money: Each of us on the team is asked to raise $225. Total our Covenant participants, need to raise is $1,125. We are asked not to just pay the amount ourselves, but to give others the opportunity to be a part of the Kairos ministry with their gifts. While the cost of putting on a Kairos weekend has increased greatly, the amount to be raised by each team member has not. So, as always, we know you will be generous to meet our expenses.
Children’s Drawings: If you would like an activity for your kid’s Sunday school class, preschool, girl scout/ boy scout troop, Club 456, Mission Possible, we need children’s drawings. They can be of anything that depicts God’s love and encouraging thoughts: ie - angels, pretty pictures with “God loves you”. Whatever a child thinks would cheer people up and show God’s love. It can be poster sized, or drawn on regular 8 x 11 paper. Markers, pencils, or crayons are great, but no stickers or glitter please.. Many of these women have children and grandchildren that they are estranged from, so it is really powerful for them to receive drawings from children. We ask that the child put only their first name and age on the drawing. Any age and talent level is welcome and appreciated!
Personal Notes to those attending the Kairos weekend:
You may also get involved by writing personal notes to either one or all 30 of the women attending Kairos. These notes would also go in their paper bag with many others to help them realize how much God and the outside world really do care. We will have instructions and a sample note on the Kairos table in the foyer.
We want to thank you so much for all you have done before and for all you will do in the future for Kairos Prison Ministry.
Susie Blanchard, Jennifer Blanchard, Mary Fontenot, Donna Guidry and Lisa White
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