Kairos Briscoe #1 - WOW ! ! !

Dear reader, for almost a week I've been unavailable to post on this blog, or even check my e-mail. You see, I was in prison. And I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else!

Do you remember my earlier postings about my clergy service on the Team for Men's Walk to Emmaus #1327? And how I made mention of my participation in Kairos Prison Ministry? (See, e.g., 18 September post about "San Anto - Always something to do".) Well, Kairos is a version of Emmaus (or Cursillo or other 3-day renewal retreat with "4th-Day" follow-up), tailored to the prison environment, for Candidates from among the inmates.

In September of A.D. 2002 I had attended the Closing Ceremony for Kairos Weekend #8 (the 3-day retreat) in the Torres Prison Unit outside Hondo (west of San Antonio). When I heard the joyful praise singing of the brothers in white (Texas inmates wear all white) who had already been on a Weekend, and then the powerful, moving testimonies of the candidates as to what that Weekend had done for them, I was "hooked"! I could not get on a team fast en'uf, so that I could witness this three-day transformation first-hand!

Service on Kairos #9 and #11 and attendance at various "4th-Day" follow-up Kairos activities had been such a blessing. I came to dearly love both my brothers in white (Monty and Kelly with whom I served as "chapel crew" during #9 are particularly close to my heart) and my fellow volunteers. When the TDCJ permitted Kairos to enter the Dolph Briscoe Unit outside Dilley (between S. A. and Laredo), I got involved at once. Kairos Prayer & Share began in July of A.D. 2005 on first and third Thursdays. (P & S is supposed to be a weekly small group prayer exercise, but for whatever reason Briscoe only allows twice monthly).

As soon as I learned that the dates had been set for the first Kairos weekend for Briscoe, I signed up for the Team. Then I began to pray. After returning from Walk #1327, I prayed all the more fervently: that ABBA, Daddy God, pour out His gracious Spirit so powerfully that we volunteers individually would become vessels and together a unified vessel for His amazing grace to reach the 42 Candidates. And that He make this THE BEST first Kairos weekend retreat ever, anywhere!

And ABBA heard and answered our prayers! True, we actually ended up with 41 Candidates (a Steward's name erroneously got on the Candidate list). And NO Chaplain working in Briscoe (he'd resigned in October). BUT laying aside such little difficulties -- this was the first Kairos in the unit. . . Briscoe #1 was AWESOME!

Here are just a few ingredients of the "proof in the pudding". All elements of agapé were outstanding: the hundreds of dozens of homemade cookies (EVERY inmate in Briscoe received at least one dozen, in a ziplock bag delivered to his cell), the colorful and uplifting placemats made by children to grace the meals (lunch and dinner) served during the retreat, fliers and posters sent by Cursillo-style groups (to include Kairos communities within other prisons) to express the unconditional love (agapé in Greek) of ABBA God. We even had a flier written in beautiful Portuguese da uma comunidade do Cursilho no Brasil (from a Cursillo community in Brazil)!

And then there was the Prayer Chain! Each paper link on the chain is signed by someone who agreed to pray for the half hour indicated on the link, for the Kairos weekend experience and for God's blessing on the candidates. When the first portion of the Prayer Chain was drawn from a bag on Friday, it was quite long (tho' it was only for the first two days) and contained dozens of links signed by men in white who are the Kairos community inside the Torres Unit! You see, each link's volunteer also writes his or her city or country on the link. That's right, "or country"! Now, I was used to Kairos weekends getting prayer and agapé support from Canada and even Great Britain. But THIS, the very first one in the Dolph Briscoe Unit, had links from INDIA, too! Praise God, and Lord bless those Indian Christians, who had completely filled someone's prayer chain packet!

There'd been some concern, on this Briscoe #1, about matters which are of no concern on later weekends (#2 and subsequent). For example, how would the men in grey (officers, guards) respond to a Kairos weekend actually going on in their prison? Well, whatever reluctance or indifference there might have been on Thursday vanished by the setting sun on Friday; attending officers were actually singing Kairos praise songs and vying to be escorts! How about Stewards? There are usually at least 20 of these weekend retreat veterans serving on any given Weekend. By end of October we were aware of only a half dozen inmates in Briscoe who had experienced the Weekend elsewhere and could thus serve as stewards. However, someone ferreted out a few more, so we had a dozen, including that one who'd been mistakenly listed as a Candidate! Praise the Lord, bless these servants in white!

No one dropped out after Thursday evening's opening get-acquainted session! Ricky Passmore, who saw the first Kairos weekend in Torres as a candidate (yes, he WAS a criminal BUT NOW Ricky pastors a church, volunteers in Emmaus and Kairos, and wears cowboy clothes as clean and sharp as George Strait's), gave both a Talk and a meditation. I'm certain that the Candidates and the Stewards related very well and listened closely to this honest ex-offender. Ricky's meditation on Sunday was a verbatim script, like all the meditations (I recited "I chose You" and later "Who Is This Jesus?"). But after reading his, Ricky felt led to set it aside and just speak from the heart on "Sending Us Forth". Much of what he said was exhortation, like what I'd heard the chaplain give during Closing on Torres #9 and #11. Thus we actually didn't want for a chaplain. Nevertheless, there was a frequent expression by the inmates of an aching desire for a chaplain to come to Briscoe. They sometimes talked like sheep without a shepherd.

Early in Team formation concern was expressed that we would have few visitors come to Closing Ceremony for Briscoe #1. I'd sent an e-invitation with TDCJ application attached to Arlie Lammers, my roommate on #9 and #11 and likewise a Disciples of Christ clergy. BTW, my roommate on Briscoe #1 was also Disciples clergy, Ed Palow. Saturday I asked our liaison for Closing applications how many we'd received, to be cleared by TDCJ; he said about 125 and I almost hit the ceiling for joy! He added that Arlie and his wife were among them. And there they sat, on the front row at Closing, and further back others I recognized. One that greatly surprised (and delighted) me was Eunice Van Hoosen, we served together as clergy on Walk #1327.

So. . . it was a gr-r-r-reat Closing to a fantastic and blessed first ever Kairos Weekend at the Dolph Briscoe Unit outside Dilley! THANKS BE TO GOD! And TO GOD BE THE GLORY! ! !