Well now… there has to be a “first time” – for them (the guys inside), and for us (the guys outside). It looks like this: We get to the parking lot and proceed to the check-in point. Sign in, leave your driver’s license, and enter the “pat down room” – only two at a time. No metal objects on your person – all that goes into a plastic container to be run through an x-ray machine. Shoes off, walk through the metal detector. Go through pat down, exit to the next room where you put on your belt, shoes, etc. and await the electric opening of the door to the interior. A PBA (Personal Body Alarm) is issued through a drawer in the wall. (You will push the button on the little pager if you find yourself in an unsafe situation – guards will be dispatched to your location, immediately. They know where you are, and who you are by virtue of the numbered PBA issued.)
Now, the inner door sounds a loud “click” and you walk down the interior hallway to the next door, into the prison compound. Look around – razor wire everywhere, and inmates hoeing the small bushes, picking up trash, carrying out barrels of trash to the pick-up area. All being done under the watchful eye of the prison guards, on duty: 3 to 11; 11 to 7; 7 to 3.
We’ll now take a walk along the asphalt road, yellow stripes on either side, signifying the exact path the prisoners must take. Pass the second fence and razor wire barrier. Come now upon the sidewalk (yellow lines yet directing) leading up to the Chapel. Enter the double, steel chapel doors into the interior hallway – sign in as you enter.
A second steel door allows entrance into the Chapel.
A stage is on your right – “Authorized Personnel Only On Stage” reads a sign. Plenteous pews on either side of the Chapel. Here you will await the forty or so prisoners as they will shortly enter the Chapel themselves from the center of the compound where their various bunkhouses are.
As you scan the Chapel area, you will notice an accordian wall separating the Chapel from the back area where the small groups will form around circular tables to undertake the main part of the KAIROS activity for the “Four Days Weekend”.
Along the right-hand wall is a red line, about shoulder high, with an arrow at the end pointing to the entrance door. “Bathroom line” are the words under the red line. Directly adjacent to the entrance door, but on the corresponding wall is another red line with the words: “Unauthorized area. No standing here”.
This is only the beginning of your “otherworldliness experience”. “Newbies” such as I was, and all are sometime or other, will find themselves wondering: a) Why did I volunteer for such as this? b) What am I in for? c) Can I even do this for four days?
Easy answers!
a) You didn’t volunteer… God called you here.
b) You’re in for the time of your life. Nothing will ever be the same for you again. You’ve now had a look “inside”, such as God Himself sees.
c) You can do it. He doesn’t give us more than we can take.
Time for the prisoners to arrive now. You’ll hear them come in the main doors to the Chapel. Much talking, much greeting from your fellow KAIROS team members and from the fellows who are about to discover Jesus, and a life they never knew existed. You are going to take them there… really!
So here we all are, at long last! You’ve been training for and thinking about this moment for the past two months. Your perception of it all wasn’t intact… well, how could it be, really? The KAIROS manuel gives an overview, as best it can: Do this…; Don’t do that…; “Realize these men can ‘read you like a book’… so don’t be phoney with them…”
All good and worthy advice, but nothing like what you are swimming in just now. A room full of fellows, all colors, shapes and sizes. All wearing blue. All kind of bright eyed… they’d heard of KAIROS. They’d signed up for the program. Now, they,re actually here… with you!
Trouble with that is, you don’t know what your doing right now… and they think you do. A wee bit disconcerting.
At the front of the Chapel is “the stage”. Two steps gets you up to the top of the platform, and there’s the wooden sign emblazoned below the top step: “No unauthorized personnel allowed”. Oh My! – These are the “unauthorized personnel”, all around you now. Hey – maybe you yourself are “unauthorized”… nobody ever said otherwise! (Just a thought… real though. You’ll have other “thoughts” too.)
Seems like this place is about “rules.” Well, it is. These guys are under the iron fist of the Department Of Corrections. Your job, right now and for the four days to which you are now committed, is to be a breath of fresh air. You can do it, an hour at a time. A day at a time. “Four days” – it’ll end. You’ll wish for it to end, driving home and coming back the next day. When it does, finally, end, you will feel sadness in your heart and soul. These men, strangers at the start, have become your own, personal brothers and friends. I say “personal” because that is just what has happened… they aren’t a “face” or “number” anymore. You are now connected to them, each one, by the love of Christ shining through you. Go for it brother!
So, the first day: Gather in the Chapel. Sing. Hear from Brother Bobby and whoever else he has placed in the introductory mode. Now, everybody transits to the meeting room in the back of the Chapel. All disburse to various circular tables: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter… and whatever Biblical name necessary to accommodate the forty-two prison participants. There will be two KAIROS guys at each table, to guide the upcoming discussions. One will likely be a veteran of these meetings. The other, you, will be a newcomer. Food and drink will be forthcoming for each of the meeting days. Very shortly, “name tag” supplies will be disbursed to each table – an index card, some yarn, and color markers. The guys can be very creative with their names! You’ll design a tag you will hang around your neck, and the prisoners will as well. All for the purpose of learning “who” we all are. My first KAIROS adventure (#38 at my facility, thus it is known as “Kairos 38”) included a fellow named Frank, at my table (“The Family of Peter”). I have now known Frank for a year and eight months. He has led his entire family to Jesus in that amount of time. Frank is a vibrant man of God. He is as energetic for Jesus as he was in his former life concerning the things that put him in prison. I love Frank as a brother. It all started at Kairos 38.
There is a slogan used in the KAIROS program throughout the four day weekend: “Win a friend to win a soul.”
We will try now to demonstrate the method(s) used from the table attendees toward the prisoners, and, conversely, having been presented and received, from the prisoners attending the KAIROS weekend toward their fellows within the compound.
Not very long ago, I had to write this letter to Brother Bobby regarding what I have seen over the almost two years of service within the prison:
“Hello Brother Bobby,
The KAIROS activity at WCI is the only place
I have ever witnessed the sowing of the seed to its becoming a fruit bearing plant.
I have enjoyed seeing this happen now, over and over again.
Truly, Tis’ wonderful!
Danke,
Nick”
