Recently Libbye, a member of St. Bede’s, participated in Kairos #58 inside the walls of Mable Bassett.  This is her eleventh year serving in this ministry and has seen some amazing work of the Holy Spirit and the remarkable transformation of women’s lives from the inside out.

Kairos, a word from New Testament Greek, means “God’s special time.”  Inmates can apply to participate in the Kairos weekend but only forty are chosen by “lot” which is matched be an equal number of volunteers.  The volunteers often include graduates from previous weekends who have found new life in Christ.  The volunteers spend forty hours training and community building before the weekend.

The three and a half days of the Kairos consist of a series of talks, meditations and music designed to help the inmates know that Jesus loves them with an unconditional love.  This includes an emphasis on learning to forgive and be forgiven; to love others without judgement; and to build community based on compassion, grace and a common faith.

Over the years countless lives have been redeemed and changed.  This Kairos weekend was no different.  Below are some of the stories Libbye shared at St. Bede’s on a Sunday morning.  Surely the Presence of God was there at Mable-Bassett and then again as we listened as Libbye shared her experience. 

The message inside and outside of prison is the same:  God love us – all of us with no exceptions,  Fr. Lee+

Here are some of the words that the participants used when they shared their reflections of the weekend just before we moved over to the Chapel for the closing ceremony on Sunday:

• I have found "my people," found strength, self-control, joy;

• I worked through resentment, pain, and grief and was moved from hate to love;

• I knew God but I discovered that I had some empty spaces that I am taking back;

• I found freedom;

• I found love;

• I moved from broken, empty and resentful to finding peace and acceptance in God's love;

• I couldn’t believe 42 inmates from Mabel Bassett could be in the same room with no fighting, no back-biting, no judgement;

• I came cold as ice, anxious and alone, and found love and compassion.

The Saturday after the Weekend, the participants come back to the gym, our “Holy Ground”, for instruction on Prayer & Share and support after coming off the mountain top back into the darkness of the yard.  All of the participants came.  They were asked to answer 3 questions.

• How did I arrive at Kairos?

• What did I learn at Kairos?

• What am I taking back with me?

The names in the following stories were changed to protect their privacy.

One of our participants Jan murdered another participant Ann’s sister who was 7 months pregnant. Through the forgiveness talks and ceremony, they found forgiveness, love and sisterhood.

Ann wrote:  

• Confused, lost, hurt

• How to truly forgive

• Tools to use to give to someone that‘s in need.

Jan wrote: 

• Burdened—heavy heart

• Love compassion forgiveness

• FORGIVEN, loved, how to be a better Christian

The responses to these 3 questions from other participants:

• I was broken, more lost and confused than I realized.

• That God has a plan for everyone. It is our choice to go with those plans.

• Real love, Truth, The word.

• I knew of God but after my brother and my dad passed away, I lost sight of God and myself and my love for anyone.

• What family is, agape love, no matter where we come from God loves us no matter how much we have done bad or good.

• Everything. My new self, my new faith in God, agape love, my sister-family, my new life, to teach people about God and to show everyone that God loves them no matter our background.

• I came in here still wanting and seeking God, to fully trust and let go.

• I learned everything here… being spiritually fed and learning to forgive myself.

• Being a walking light to and for others.

• Poor

• To love myself and others, the church and family in Christ.

• Jesus, agape love, family, myself. How to bring a friend to Christ.

• Weighed down.

• To let go and let God!

• Jesus’ love

• Lost, seeking, angry, sad

• I learned to forgive and to love and to have faith.

• I took forgiveness and agape love I never had before. I also took the love of Jesus with me.

• Excited to see what God was going to do.

• More love for others that I had been trying for.

• Forgiveness of the guilt I have had for years.

• Broken, lost, hurt, lonely, being here missing my kids knowing my kids needing me the most. Knowing that there is no one to care for all my 4 kids and grandbaby, so 5 total. Sad cause DHS wants to separate my kids cause they really need me. Am the only person who’s been taking care of my kids since day one from domestic through homelessness, struggling cause of my diagnosis.

• I learned that forgiveness for abandonment from my kids; asked them for forgiveness.

• Faith. Love. Peace.

• Lost, alone, needing someone, unloved.

• Everyone needs love, meet people where they are in their journey and be kind and a true friend to those in need.

• Agape love, peace, faith, hope, new walk to my purpose, a renewed relationship with God.

• I came in sad, lost, broken.

• I learned love, compassion, forgiveness.

• I took a new outlook on life, agape love, and a new family.

• I arrived eager to grow with other women in God’s love.

• I learned about true forgiveness. I found compassion among other women. I found community.

• I took with me a new meaning of life. How God allowed me to be His vessel. I found family.

• I arrived broken, poor spirited, sad, discouraged, and a little blinded.

• I learned here the power of forgiveness and about how important the impact of our choices can be on our lives. And about how important agape love is.

• I’m taking with me a hopeful and more peaceful mindset and lighter heart and a better outlook on life.

• Lost, broken, confused

• Compassionate. How to let go and forgive

• Forgiveness, different outlook

• When I first came to Kairos I was in a lost, hurt, and lukewarm state.

• What I gained was agape love, new found freedom, and new sisters in Christ.

• What I’m taking away is peace of mind, security, God’s precious word.

• I showed up to Kairos nervous, stressed and a little discouraged.

• I gained new friendships and connections and perspective.

• I am taking everything I learned here especially agape love.

• I was nervous, discouraged

• I’m not alone, agape love, spiritual love

• Sharing is caring, agape love, understanding hope, joy, love

• My spiritual condition when I got to Kairos was pretty shaky. I was nervous and excited.

• I gained confidence and feel accepted and really feel loved. I learned I am loved and I’m not alone.

• I’m taking Christ’s love to others.

• I came into Kairos with a hopeful spirit. With a love of God, yet searching for an even deeper understanding of his love for me.

• I learned what I was hoping to learn, and so much more. I gained an understanding I didn’t know I needed. I learned how to show others the love God has for them through me.

• I’m taking everything I learned and felt with me to spread freely with everyone I encounter, with a goal of bringing anyone who needs it to Christ. Spreading the Good News.

• When I arrived, I felt real good, a little anxious and nervous.

• While I was here I began to feel peaceful, confident and a lot more open and trusting of others.

• I am taking AGAPE love to spread out into the world.

• I arrived feeling open, anxious, and willing to learn.

• I found knowledge, trust, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, and so many women who were different but yet so alike.

• I am taking a new, beautiful and higher spiritual version of me.

• I was lost, alone, and broken. I had turned away from God thinking I was unworthy of his love.

• Agape LOVE!

• God’s love! My sisters in Christ.

• Empty

• I learned that as a disciple, you get tired and that’s okay. But it is also your responsibility to keep your cup full with prayer, study, community.

• I am free.  I am back on track and I have a community.

• I came in broken and lost

• I learned agape love.

• I am taking away forgiveness and agape love.

• Hurt, anger, hate

• Agape love. Listen to others.

• Peace within.

• Arrived broken

• Learned not alone

• Took forgiveness and feeling free

Each participant is assigned a volunteer as their greeter. The greeter’s job is to make sure she is comfortable with what is going on and feels “seen” and welcome. I was assigned Fay. She was a delight to visit with, asked questions, and was always very polite.  She was always THE last participant to arrive, so I always worried that for some reason she wasn’t coming back. The last day while I was waiting for her, one of the angels (Kairos graduates who are selected to attend as helpers) told me that Fay was in Mabel Bassett because she had murdered her cellmate while in county jail and that she had beaten up at least 8 of the other participants. I never would have guessed. We didn’t see the result of Fay and her victims being in Kairos together but I know that seeds were planted. 

Please pray that Fay will be able to handle her “anger issues”, ask for forgiveness, and be accepted like we saw with Ann and Jan.

My job on #58 was Chapel Coordinator. I was responsible for preparing the Chapel for Chapel events, handing out reminders so speakers knew when they were to speak and who they followed, and praying with the Agape team for each speaker before and after their talk.  I was in the agape room with 2 other volunteers and 3 angels.  I knew 2 of the angels but it was Sue’s first time to serve as an angel after attending Kairos in 2004.  When I met her she asked if Kay was on this team.  I told her she was and tried to spot Kay to point her out to Sue but didn’t see her at that time. Kay usually leads the music but for this Kairos she was sitting at a family table and a speaker. When Kay came into the Agape room for prayer before her talk, we all gathered around her, laying our hands on her. She looked up and saw Sue’s nametag. Her eyes opened wide and she said “Bigfoot”.  Sue smiled and said “that was my street name, now I go by Sue.”  On Kay’s first time as a volunteer, she had been at the family table with Sue. After over 20 years Sue has started attending Kairos Prayer & Share and was chosen to be an angel.  They held each other and cried. Kay came back to the Agape room whenever she could and they would hold hands and whisper to each other.

One of our volunteers Joyce always tells the new team members her story.  She says if you think someone at your family table is high, she probably is, but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be there.  Joyce told us that she was high every day of the Kairos Weekend she attended at Mabel Bassett. After the Weekend, she went right back to being the negative leader she was before.  When she got out of prison, she went right back to the negative lifestyle she had before. In the back of a police car on the way back to Mable Bassett, she remembered everything she heard on her Kairos Weekend and vowed to change… and she DID!  I was on team with her the first time she went back into Mabel Bassett as a Kairos volunteer. When the gate slammed closed behind us, she grabbed my hand and said “I sure hope they let me out again.”  The officers and inmates were all surprised and delighted to see Joyce wearing a Kairos t-shirt… a Kairos lady as they call us.  Joyce now has a cleaning business and has purchased a home where she lives with her mother and daughter. 

Another volunteer, who served on the #58 Outside team preparing food and “running” it into the prison for meals, was Rhonda Bear. I am using her real name because she published her story online. From an early age, Rhonda struggled with drug addiction—resulting in numerous arrests, losing custody of her children, and serving time in prison at Mabel Bassett where she attended Kairos in 2001.  After regaining custody of her kids, Rhonda began working with other organizations in the area to uplift and encourage women like herself through the transition from incarceration back into society.  She founded SheBrews as a way to provide stable employment and housing, life skills, and mentors to walk alongside women transitioning from incarceration back into society. She Brews Coffee Roasters – Truly Transformative Coffee

Rhonda is the founder and director of His House Outreach Ministries, which operate multiple transitional homes for women recovering from addiction and incarceration. These faith-based homes focus on reuniting mothers with their children and providing a stable, sober environment. His House Outreach Ministries Facebook

She is also the Women in Transition Program Director for Stand in the Gap which serves three distinct populations, orphans, widows, and prisoners. Home - Stand in the Gap Ministries

Rhonda will tell you her goal is to reunite children with safe, sober, healthy mothers after incarceration and to reduce Oklahoma’s rate of incarceration.  Because of her work, she received a full pardon from Governor Stitt so he could appoint her to the Pardon and Parole Board.  When Rhonda walks into Mabel Bassett with the other Kairos ladies she is greeted with smiles and hugs.

So many of the graduates tell us that it is their dream to someday be a Kairos lady.

Volunteers will tell you that being on a Kairos team is as transformative for us as it is for the participants.

Like we prayed in our Collect Sunday, Grant that when the ladies of Mabel Bassett hear his voice, they may know him who calls us each by name and follow where he leads.

Please pray for our Kairos graduates, and the whole Mabel Bassett Correctional Center.