Kairos means time in Greek. There are two Greek words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos is clock time. Kairos is special time, in the New Testament sometimes it is translated as "the fullness of time." It can be thought of as those special times, when God takes a part, like the birth of a baby. We certainly were operating on God's time during Hughes Unit Kairos 4.

It is always difficult to try to maintain a tightly scheduled program in a maximum security prison. "Count Time" is shouted at random intervals, and all the "brothers in white" have to leave the room to be counted. Other security concerns can take hours to resolve; even simple things like what time the brothers will arrive to start the day are beyond the control of the team. This weekend seemed to have more interruptions and outside disturbances than any pervious weekend. At times we were hours behind schedule, yet everything was accomplished and all our deadlines were met. Some might call that good fortune, but anyone who was there could feel the power of the prayers being said for us by people here in Georgetown and literally around the world. We could not have done it without your prayers. They turned chronos into Kairos.

As always, your homemade cookies played their role. We give a dozen cookies to each inmate in the prison. This requires about 50,000 cookies. Some of the men in Administrative Segregation (the men who are locked in their cells 23 hours a day with no human contact at all) had been asking about the cookies for months. They had the day marked on their calendars, and I can't tell you what it means to these men to know that not everyone has forgotten them. It is much the same in the rest of the prison. Inmates go out of their way to thank us over and over for the cookies. These are the only "homemade" food some of these men will get for years. On Saturday night, we ask each of our candidates to take a dozen specially made "forgiveness cookies" and give them to someone they need to forgive. By this time, they have eaten so many cookies they really don't want try to "hog" these for themselves. One man reported that when he gave his "enemy" his cookies, the man started crying, something that never happens in prison. God's love demonstrated through your cookies can break the toughest heart.

The goal of a Kairos weekend is to break down the "walls" that these men have built between themselves and God. The realization that people all over the world were in prayer for them, the children's placemats at meal time, the presence of free world servants and so many other things served as repeated assaults on those walls. What finally causes those walls to shatter is different in each man, but the most common reason is the letters. Frequently, a man will get a letter from a child or a or from a "grandparent type" that sounds like someone in their own family and he will see God's hand at work. When the candidates are given the letters, the team gathers on the other side of a partition to sing songs of praise and meditation. We sing in part to cover the sounds of crying. It is a sound like no other I have ever heard. Many of these men have never received a single letter while they have been in prison. Yet they are getting over a hundred apiece from Christians telling them that God loves them and encouraging them. I have heard over and over from the men that they save these letters and read them whenever they need encouragement. I can't thank you enough for them.

We don't ever know if we have been "successful." I am not certain we ever know God's plans well enough to know what "success" is. We can only do our best to show Gods Love and trust God to do the rest. Still, by Sunday almost all of the brothers in white are reflecting that Love. It is common to see a brother reach over and spontaneously hug someone. As I was sitting in our Chapel on Sunday afternoon, I saw one inmate hug a team member several times in obvious affection. He had "White Power" tattooed on the back of his neck, and the team member was black. We had been carefully briefed that racial tensions, always dangerous, were especially high. We were given special warning about five Aryan Nation gang members, but weren't told who they were. I am pretty sure I spotted a now former gang member. God's special time was very special indeed. Thank you for all that you have done to help this ministry.

Reb