Jaime Ramirez | Kairos Prison Ministry

Giving Tuesday is Here! 5 Ways YOU Can Help Kairos Prison Ministry!

We Need Your help! Today is the Day! At the bottom of this message are several ways that you can help us by “Sharing” and “Re-tweeting” our Kairos messages to your family and friends. Happy #GivingTuesday! This day is now being celebrated around the world to support your favorite Non-profit/charity as a kickoff to this charitable season. This #GivingTuesday, we are excited about what God has in store for brand new 1st Weekends in 2017! We have several 1st Weekends planned already and know there will be many more! We are so thankful for our prayer warriors and volunteers who make things happen and allow God to use you to make an eternal difference in thousands of inmates each year! http://www.bit.ly/Kairos-GivingTuesday Our PURPOSE is to completely fund NEW Start-up costs for 1st Kairos Weekends in 2017! This goal of $30,000, includes trainings, travel expenses and other costs to help fully fund preparations for opening Weekends! With YOUR investment, we will raise these funds to remove these obstacles when new Weekends arrive on our 2017 calendar. We would love to have MORE people join in giving! Don’t think that your financial gift may be too small. God will use this to impact more 1st Kairos Weekends! http://www.bit.ly/Kairos-GivingTuesday 5 Ways YOU can help Kairos Prison Ministry and spread our #GivingTuesday message: Pray about how you can help Kairos Prison Ministry reach our Goal of $30,000 with your financial gift by clicking on our link: http://www.bit.ly/Kairos-GivingTuesday “Share” our Facebook posts from our page to share our #GivingTuesday messages with your friends and family! This simple thing can help hundreds to thousands of more people seeing our posts. Also, Follow us on Twitter and “Re-tweet” our tweets to your followers. (Social media links below) On Twitter and other social media sites, post about Kairos Prison

By Jaime Ramirez|November 29th, 2016|Inspiration, Kairos Programs, Prison Ministry|0 Comments

She Brews — A Second Chance Story (Part 2)

The Mission After her release, Rhonda Bear wanted to find a way to help women coming out of prison. According to Bear, women are often released from jail at midnight on the day their sentence ends, at which many of them don’t have a place to go, much less someone to pick them up. “If you went to jail in June and you were just getting out in February, and say you went to jail in shorts and flip-flops, you’re leaving in flip-flops,” Bear said. “If you don’t have any place to go, too bad. You’re leaving.” Rhonda cites this severity within Oklahoma’s criminal justice system as one of the reasons she decided to open a halfway house in Claremore. Her original purpose was to offer temporary housing for up to two weeks, but she never intended to offer permanent housing. “I believe God had another plan,” Bear said. “He was just getting my feet wet.” Before she knew it, Bear said, she was managing six halfway houses in Claremore, some of which had been donated. Residents of each home are provided with at least a year of permanent housing if they are willing to live by a few faith-based guidelines. But Bear’s journey to help former inmates didn’t stop there. Seven years after opening her first halfway house, Bear realized semi-permanent housing wasn’t enough to help women regain custody of their children. “Employment was a problem,” Bear said. “When people go to prison and they get a felony conviction and they do their time, many people don’t let that be sufficient. They continue to hold that against them for a long time, which creates barriers to employment.” She and a neighbor started coming up with ideas for ways to provide former inmates with employment opportunities, but she encountered a

By Jaime Ramirez|October 24th, 2016|Kairos Programs, Testimonials|0 Comments

She Brews — A Second Chance Story (Part 1)

By Ali Brooks, Anne Raun and Madison Reichert Flycatcher Media (reprinted with permission) Rhonda Bear comes out from behind the counter of She Brews, a coffee shop in downtown Claremore, Oklahoma, to gently tell one of her two grandsons to be nice to the other. The owner of She Brews, which has been open since November 2012, Bear is soft-spoken and friendly. Wearing an orange sweater and a small gold cross necklace around her neck, she is the image of politeness. Bible verses on wooden plaques decorate the walls of her small one-room coffee house as she sits down to an interview on a recent afternoon. She could be a nurse, a lawyer, a teacher. She speaks eloquently and articulately, so the first thing that she says when asked to tell the backstory behind her coffee shop is in juxtaposition with her calm countenance and demeanor. “Fifteen years ago I was sentenced to prison and saw first-hand what incarceration and drug addiction does to your children,” Bear said. “And so I went in to prison with only one thing in mind, and that was changing.” The Dependency Bear said her journey toward dealing drugs began before she reached high school. She became addicted to drugs when she was 12, and dropped out of school in eighth grade. By her mid-twenties, she was a single mother of three children without an education, job, or means to escape the vicious cycle of drug addiction. “I wanted to take a shortcut in life,” Bear said. “My whole life had been drugs, so I thought I would sell drugs and get myself financially ok so I could … be a mom to my kids.” Caught in the web of meth addiction that pervades Oklahoma, Bear was one of approximately 1.2 million Americans who use

By Jaime Ramirez|October 20th, 2016|Inspiration, Kairos Programs, Testimonials|0 Comments

5 Stories About Kairos That Will Put You in a Good Mood

Story #1: 40 Years in the Desert I entered prison here at Union Correctional Facility in Raiford, Florida in 1976. I heard a brand new program called Kairos was coming. (Turns out it was the very first Kairos Weekend ever held.) They said there would be chicken and cookies and much more, so I signed up. But I backed out at the last minute. 40 years later, when Kairos was celebrating its 80th Weekend at the prison, I finally came. I had spent those 40 years wandering in the desert. I now have a new perspective, and I found joy. These people came in, touched me, hugged me and prayed for me. Look around and see what God can do with a cookie! Story #2: Kairos Has the Ammunition! In 2010 my wife Marilyn and I were volunteering on a Kairos Torch Team in Mississippi. We were entering the facility that first day and had loaded supplies onto a borrowed trailer pulled by a borrowed truck. As we entered the sallyport area of the prison that afternoon we were surprised when a security check turned up some unused shotgun shells within the truck. The female officer conducting the search immediately grabbed her radio and reported to the Deputy Warden for all to hear that “Kairos was at the gate and has the ammunition.” The lesson here was ALWAYS search the vehicle your are bringing onto prison grounds! But this female officer just did not realize the type of ammunition we were really packing that day! Story #3: Beautiful Colors My dearest Kairos Inside Team sisters, All of last night I had dreams about the Weekend. I relived some of the high points, some of the questions remaining in my mind and some of the very sad moments that were being expunged from people’s minds and hearts. When I got

By Jaime Ramirez|May 26th, 2016|Inspiration, Testimonials, Volunteering|0 Comments

“I Used to Be a Monster”

The moving video testimony of Tommy Fisher, a former inmate who turned his life around in surprising ways thanks to Kairos Prison Ministry.

By Jaime Ramirez|May 25th, 2016|Kairos Programs, Testimonials|0 Comments

A New Beginning – Serving in Prison Ministry

Matthew 25:36: “You visited me in prison.” The mission of Kairos Prison Ministry is to share the transforming love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ to impact the hearts and lives of incarcerated men, women and youth, as well as their families, to become loving and productive citizens of their communities. Kairos Prison Ministry goes directly into prisons or correctional institutions and presents a carefully structured weekend program of talks and discussions to incarcerated men, women and youth. It is an invitation to live in a personal relationship with the living Christ. We also offer a similar program to women impacted by incarceration. Hearts are changed and lives are transformed forever. There are hundreds of prisons who want our program, but we don’t have enough volunteers to run it. The more people learn about our mission and get involved, the more prisoners we can reach, and the more our mission can be accomplished. To stay up to date with us, Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kairosprisonministry/, Follow us on Twitter at @kairosprisonmin, and Watch us on YouTube at www.youtube.com/c/KairosPrisonMinistryOrgIntl. We hope you will come back often to learn more about Kairos. Blessings, Evelyn Lemly, CEO

By Jaime Ramirez|May 22nd, 2016|Kairos Programs, Prison Ministry|0 Comments

The Anatomy of a Volunteer

Become a Kairos Volunteer! Does the above picture describe you? If so please considering volunteering for Kairos! You can: Be a Team Member Be a Prayer Partner Be a Financial Donor Be a Support Volunteer Be an Agape (artwork) Creator Be a Cookie Baker Find out more at Ways to Serve, You can also Contact Us about your interest…or help us by making a Donation. Your life will never be the same again!

By Jaime Ramirez|May 18th, 2016|Volunteering|0 Comments

A Courtroom Surprise

By Chris Callahan, Western Region Vice Chair, Kairos of North Carolina. He is an attorney in Rutherfordton, NC. It was the last case on the Department of Social Services Court calendar that day. The parents had failed to make progress on their child neglect case for over a year, so the proposed guardians of the child were introduced to the court by the Department of Social Services for examination. Judge Rob Martelle was on the bench, and read that the proposed male guardian/parental figure was previously incarcerated at Tyger River Correctional below Spartanburg. A bit surprised that the Department of Social Services was recommending a felon’s candidacy for guardian, he asked the man a question. “What changed about you?” he inquired. “I did this thing called a Kairos Weekend, while in prison,” he answered, “and it changed my life.” Judge Martelle smiled, asks me if I’d heard that. Grinning, I go over to the man and put my arm around him and spoke softly, “See, Judge Martelle has done almost 10 Kairos Prison Ministry weekends and actually led one, and I’ve done more than 30 Kairos Weekends. By the way, bet you might know the court clerk down there too?” Rutherfordton is rural area in North Carolina, but 25% of its lawyers participate in Kairos, as well as three court clerks, and three women from the courthouse who participate on teams as cookie baggers. Judge Martelle approved the guardianship and said in conclusion, “See, Kairos really DOES make a difference!”

By Jaime Ramirez|May 11th, 2016|Inspiration, Kairos Programs, Volunteering|0 Comments

Every Tuesday is Kairos Prayer Day

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt that God has responded directly to a prayer of yours. If so, then you understand the true power of petitioning God through prayer, and of feeling His love when that prayer is answered. We want to give you the opportunity to participate in our special prayer time. Philippians 4:6 reminds us “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Kairos has over 600 Weekends throughout the year in nearly 500 locations, and approximately 35 training events. Every Tuesday at 1:30 EST our staff meets to pray specifically for the success of every Kairos Weekend and every Kairos training happening that week around the world – by name, location and leader. Won’t you join us in prayer for the success of Kairos Weekends and training? It’s easy to take a few minutes out of your Tuesday each week to join us. Imagine the power of thousands of people praying together at the same time for the Weekend leaders to be guided by God in their words and actions, and for prisoner’s hearts to be changed through the love and grace of God. Visit our Prayer webpage for more information on praying with us, or our Calendar of Weekends to see what events to pray for that week. Set a reminder right now for 1:30 PM EST on Tuesdays, then share this blog post and invite your friends and family to pray with us!

By Jaime Ramirez|May 5th, 2016|Prison Ministry, Volunteering|0 Comments

Can You Live Longer By Volunteering?

Thinking of volunteering for Kairos? We would LOVE to have you join the 30,000 volunteers who are already passionate about our mission! You may even enjoy a longer life, according to this article from Forbes: 3 Reasons Why Volunteering In Retirement Is Good For Your Health What do I get out of volunteering? My heart is filled with indescribable joy to connect with tough yet vulnerable brothers and see God transform hearts and lives before my very eyes. Amazing. I leave church for a weekend and experience heaven on earth in prison. Kairos Prison Ministry volunteers come from all walks and strata of life. They all share a desire to follow Christ’s admonition of Matthew 25:36, “I was in prison and you visited me.” Learn about the many opportunities for you to get involved in Kairos Prison Ministry. All we ask is that you have a willing heart and a spirit of obedience. You can play a crucial role in God’s ministry of Changing Hearts, Transforming Lives and Impacting the World. Contact Us For More Information

By Jaime Ramirez|May 4th, 2016|Testimonials, Volunteering|0 Comments

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