Even though prison sentences in the U.S. and Canada are long compared with
other countries, most inmates
will return to society in less than three years. Ninety-Six percent
of them will eventually be walking the same
streets which you walk.
These men and women will have been convicted of crimes ranging from rape
to murder to burglary to extortion
to assault to armed robbery, and many of them convicted will have been
drug addicts or alcoholics.
Because our prisons do not rehabilitate but tend to increase the tendency
to be anti-social among inmates,
from thirty to seventy percent of those released will return to prison
again.
.....with whom do you wish to share the streets you walk?
with what kind of men and women?
No one can guarantee a "safe" street anywhere in the world, but the ministry
of KAIROS Inc. disarms the
potential "second timer" while he is still in prison.
A Primary result of Kairos ministry in an institution is the defusing and
tranquilizing of the environment in that
prison, not just among the men and women who participate in the Kairos
Program, but also among those with
whom they have contact within the prison.
The purpose of Kairos is to enable inmates to enjoy a personal experience
with Jesus Christ and to provide a
framework by which a life-changing encounter can be integrated into their
daily lives. This is done by a support
system which encourages growth in vertical relationship with God and a
horizontal relationship with other
Christians, both in and out of the institutions.
KAIROS is no panacea for the burgeoning prison problem in the U.S.A. or
Canada, but it seems increasingly to
be one of the best answers available to bring about basic attitudinal changes
for the good.
One prison superintendent in Florida has said that Kairos has done more
to change the quality of life among
the inmates in his institution for the good than all other programs, both
spiritual and secular combined. Another
says that, without qualification, Kairos is the most effective instrument
for changing men's lives which he has
seen in his many years as a prison administrator.
..... how is this financed?
It is done through generous contributions of hundreds of hours of time
and considerable personal expense
donated by trained Christian men and women and by the selfless giving of
many others in order to bring
KAIROS to inmates in prison.
..... What is Kairos?
KAIROS is a movement in the church which begins with a 3-day experience
in Christian community and
develops into a life-long anchor in small group sharing and commitment
to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Ecumenical in nature, Kairos teams are made up of Christian men and women
from all major denominational
backgrounds both lay and clergy. All deeply committed to their own
denomination in which most of them are
significant leaders.
A team comprised of some 45 to 50 laymen, meeting weekly over an 8 week
period span, builds a Christian
community, to create small (3 to 5 persons) groups who will get together
once a week to share their lives, their
successes and their failures in Christ, their hopes and needs with each
other. By making themselves
vulnerable to one another, they become able to not only love one another,
but to accept each other's love, and
through this love to support and build each other up in their daily walk.
This is done in order that they might be
better instruments to take Christ into the far reaches of the prison in
which they live. As their love grows they
become the leaven about which Christ so often spoke, and the breath of
the Holy Spirit scatters that leaven
throughout the institution, drawing more and more inmates into the Christian
community until the basic
standard of behaviour within the prison comes to be measured according
to the Christian ethic.
It is a life changing experience..
..... how do we know it changes men?
From their own witness ...
LARRY: "If I had known this love when I was growing up, I would have
had a different kind of life, I began in
confusion and have found new brothers and faith, and hope and joy."
SAM: "I came to realize that I am an apostle of Jesus Christ and
that my life is the only Bible other inmates
may ever read. It's an awesome responsibility but with Christ I can
do it."
STEVE: "I was Lost .... without hope .... no guide, no friend.
I have found the path to freedom, hope with
vision, guidance towards happiness and more kindness, love and fellowship
than I had ever seen."
ART: "I'm glad I got caught, because if I had not been caught and
sentenced and send to this place, I might
never met Jesus Christ on this weekend, never have known God was real."
JIM: "In the past I couldn't cry. Now I can cry."
CARL: "I arrived eager, looking, searching. The greetings when
we arrived were as if we were walking into the
Kingdom of God. I am going to take the Christ in you to all my brothers
in the compound that they may see
the light in me."
JOE: "I was a wreck when I came found something I never had before,
never experienced before .... it was love,
true love. I'm going to take it into the compound."
MIKE: "People kept asking me a question, "Who cares? I care.
You all (the team) had to care, Jesus Christ
had to care or He would be in had shape. How can a brother tell me Jesus
doesn't exist when he sees the
things going on here?
From having been operating in only one prison at the beginning of 1979,
KAIROS has expanded to where the
movement is now underway in prisons from Florida to Canada and from the
East coast to the West coast. The
program has been successfully introduced in various types of correctional
Institutions, ranging from maximum
to minimum security, from prisons for youth offenders to general population
prisons in both Federal and state
systems.