Thank you for all of your help.
Open Mike Stories - Buckingham 30
Many men shared their feelings about the weekend during "Open Mike"....
Cain - "I am grateful to be able to take my walls down and to remove my mask."
Robert - "It has been a good weekend - sharing and coming closer to God. I showed a different side of me and found I could actually be a human being. I had been looking for something to keep me from coming back into prison. I found it."
Lawrence - "I was amazed by all the agape, place mats, and posters prepared by people who didn’t even know me. One place mat had pictures of crabs with blue eyes. It read ‘God loves crabs too.’ Another read ‘I don’t know you but I love you.’ They will help my soul get on the right path."
Kerry - "A non Christian friend told me that Kairos would shove Christianity down my throat. Not so...it soaks into your pores and will be sweated out as cookie dough for weeks."
George - "It has been a long time since I have cried. Today I cried like a baby. Accepting God is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. Thank God for something special and for ensuring we were here."
Milton - "Kairos has helped me to feel free. Today, I don’t feel like I am in a prison. I feel like the men at my table are family, even though we just met. The team came from the outside to fellowship with us, now we can do it on the inside."
Jonathan - "The atmosphere is like the taste of heaven."
Cornelius - "Thank goodness I can be a Christian without feeling ashamed."
Jewell - "I was skeptical. I came to see what I could get for myself - cookies. I am now sick of cookies. We shared laughter and tears. I opened my eyes and my heart."
Wayne - "During the past seven years I have not felt much loved. I thought love was gone from my life. What was missing from my life was sharing love with others. As a child I was taught that following God was good. I have been praying for months to be closer to God. I turned down going to Kairos in the past because I thought it was a cookie ministry but I found it was an answer to my prayers."
James - "I shared with the man at my table that I am not supposed to be here or even be alive. I had everything, car, house, and money. While driving my car, I fell asleep and my car slid under an oil tanker. It took them three hours to cut me out of my car and a half an hour later the car exploded. At the hospital they told me I was not supposed to survive. I walked away. Three months later, I got a call from my girlfriend. Someone tried to throw a brick through her patio door. I responded by driving 90 mph to get to her. It was raining and I lost control of my car. My car was cut in half by a light pole but I walked away. God saved my life twice. He put me back in prison to realize I had to go through Him. I need to serve God like I am supposed to. I realize God gives me what I need ...a purpose and a journey."
Trevone - "My heart went out to Reinhardt who is blind. What we go through does not compare to the challenges he faces. As a team member, he is a powerful witness for God." (Trevone asked for and got a standing ovation for Rinehart.)
Jewell - "A friend told me I was not brave enough to share my story. I was first arrested in 1987. I served time the hard way...fought and stood alone. I was released after thirteen years and went after all the things I missed during my incarceration....women, drugs, money. I conned a woman into a relationship and we had two children. I conned a man into a good job. It was all built on a house of cards so high it eventually fell out from underneath me. Fourteen months ago I was addicted to crack cocaine and I lost my job, land, and my truck. A week before Christmas I realized it was all gone and I decided to rob a bank. It did not work out very well. But thank God I robbed that bank for while running away I fell over a 50ft. cliff and shattered my arm. I can no longer fight. God broke me down and now I have found a community."
James - "I had a hard heart...I cared for no one except myself. All those letters and agape posters broke me down and I realized people care."
Michael - "I wanted to see the face of Jesus. The Kairos journey helps me see His face and how He is present in this institution. You are in my prayers."
- Thanks to Paul Becker for taking notes on this and distributing them to the team!
