Heartfelt Thanks

A note of immeasurable gratitude to all of you who supported me this past weekend during our Kairos team’s work at Pendleton Correctional.  I’d love to share a few things that made the time with the 42 offenders a blessing.

Moments of Joy

• Receiving 60+ dozen of baked chocolate chip cookies from a good friend and brother to take into the men.  Robert - My thanks to you and your wonderful wife for this gift.  All in, we took in 2,954 DOZEN cookies (that’s 35,448 cookies for those doing the math). Lots were eaten and we hand-delivered one dozen cookies to each inmate in their cells at the facility.  Your prayers were felt.
• Being surprised almost daily with a check in the mail from many of you.  WOW!
• Seeing your names on the prayer chart, and being able to point and say “that’s my mom/best friend from college/friend from church/aunt/uncle” praying for you right now.  It allowed me to see hardened men eyes wide, full of tears and speechless.
• Sitting down for a meal and seeing placemats with my nieces' and nephew’s names on them, or beautiful quotes and art drawn by the girls in the Junior Daughters of the King group from my church.  Many of these became keepsakes that the men took with them.
• Witnessing the prayer chain ring that ran the circumference of the gym, each ring with your names and the names of others who support this ministry. 
• Being there for the moment when God pointed all of creation over years and years in order to save one young man’s life…literally.  My Dad or I can tell you the story next time one of us is with you, and it is powerful!  Romans 8:28 in full force.
• Sitting at the closing ceremony with family and friends who were there rejoicing in seeing lives changed, souls redeemed and men with new names.

Favorite Quotes

• Whenever someone would say, “God is good!” there was resounding response of “ALL THE TIME!” from the men.
• Shortly after my Dad told the story of how much he paid for me to be born at an Air Force hospital ($1.38), one of the volunteers brought me and another volunteer, whose name was Buck Small, to the front of the room and said, “Meet my two new best friends…Buck Small and Buck Thirty-Eight!”.
• As the common misconception of The Church (buildings, organizations, religions, denominations) was set aside, and we asked the question, “Who is The Church?” and the men shouted “WE ARE THE CHURCH!"

The blessing our team was able to be for these men, and the manifold blessings we received in return, will resonate out from all those who played some role in the weekend…volunteers, inmates and you.

The weekend was heaven, God’s Kingdom here on earth, real time.

My most sincere, deepest and heartfelt thanks to each of you.  I am truly blessed to have you as a part of my life.

Scott

Kairos Prison Update - Prayer Vigil and Closing Ceremony

Friends, Family and Loved Ones - 

First and foremost, my most sincere and humble thanks for your support of this ministry.  The notes, calls and words of encouragement have been a blessing beyond measure.

As some of you noticed, the prayer vigil signup on the 3dayOL website had the wrong dates.  I have good news and bad news on this.  Bad news, we’ve been unable to fix this on the web site, so the file will be removed.  But, the GOOD, news is that we have a new link…and ALL of the spots are pretty much open.  If you were previously stuck with a time in the middle of the night, now is the time to get yourself a better one!  :-)  For those of you familiar with Doodle, it is an easy to use sign up site.  See the instructions at the bottom of this post.

If you are interested in attending the Closing Ceremony on Sunday October 19th, email me and I can give you details.  I will need your name as it appears on your driver’s license.  Even if you are not sure you can come, getting your name on the gate release list is required, but it has no obligation; you can cancel.  But, if you’re not on the list, you cannot be added last-minute.

And, of course, if any of you want to send cookies, placemats, donations or just a prayer, reply to me and I’ll give you details.  My heartfelt appreciation for those who have done this already.

Thanks again for your support.  Blessings to each of you!

Scott

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DOODLE INSTRUCTIONS

Link: https://doodle.com/6q3ima65yuaeqydq

When you follow the link to our chart, you will see all of the time slots listed in a horizontal line.  The time listed is the start of each 30 minute time slot.  To sign up, scroll to the bottom of the name list and type in your name, followed by a “/” then the city and state where you are located .  This will show the men how far our prayer vigil reaches geographically.  Then scroll to the right and click each time period you would like to pray.  You can choose more than one time period for your name, however, each time period can only be filled by one name.  If you see “0/1” under the time period, it is still open.  After you have picked all your times for prayer, scroll all the way to the right and select SAVE.

This system will not send you a reminder of the time you have selected, so keep the link handy to go back to check your times.  

After you have saved your selections, you will be asked for your address and email.  This information WILL NOT be posted on the prayer vigil chart but it will be helpful for us in case we need to contact you regarding this prayer vigil.  

If you have any questions, please contact Kirk Hunter atkrhunter@msn.com.

Off to Prison Again

Now that I have your attention...    :)

As many of you know, I have been on an interesting and wonderful journey over the past four years related to Prison Ministry.  I have been richly blessed by spending time with inmates at Hamilton County Jail and Hamilton County Community Corrections (a.k.a. Work Release) through an organization called "Jehoshua House".  Both of these groups focus on capturing hearts for God, building up men's spirits with love and helping them successfully reenter the "outside word" after serving their sentences.  Lastly, many of you supported me financially, by baking cookies or by praying for me and my team during my previous Kairos weekends in October of 2011 and 2012 at Pendleton Correctional Industrial Facility (PCIF).

For those of you not familiar, Kairos is a weekend-long ministry event where a group of us go into the prison and spend time in prayer, praise and thanksgiving with the inmates.  Our sole goal is to bring the Good News to them and love them; we let the Holy Spirit do the rest.  If you are familiar with programs such as Great Banquet, Cursillo or Walk to Emmaus, it is very similar to these intensive, faith-building weekends.

Once again, I have been asked to serve on a Kairos team at PCIF over the weekend of October 16-19.  I am writing to you today to ask for your support.  Some ways you can help:

Prayer Chart: 
Here is a link (http://www.3dayol.org/Vigil/GetVigil.phtml?pvid=10008&commid=1394) where you can sign up to pray at a specific time over the weekend.  Once it is filled, we actually post this chart on the wall in our meeting room at Pendleton.  The men look at this chart all weekend are amazed that so many people would be praying for them and our Kairos team.  It is sometimes the one thing that pushes them over edge and softens their heart to hear the Good News.  Each section of the chart is only 30 mins.  You can sign up for one or for as many as you like.  On my previous two Kairos weekends, it was so awesome to see your names on the chart and show the offenders that my own friends and family were praying for them!  Sign up quick because the "good times" go fast and you might be stuck praying at 230 a.m.  :-)

Cookies: 
Over the course of the weekend, we feed the men...A LOT...with food from the "outside".  We also walk the halls and take a dozen cookies to each inmate at Pendleton, regardless of whether they are participating in the Kairos weekend or not.  To do this, each member of our Kairos team (about 40 of us) will bring 60 dozen cookies for the weekend.  That is not a typo...yes, 60...6-0...sixty...6 x 10...sesenta.  For those doing the math, that's 720 cookies I am responsible for!  Here is a link for the recipe that we use which will make about 3 dozen cookies (http://www.mykairos.org/docs/kpmi/cookies.pdf **PLEASE NOTE** we use the CHOCOLATE CHIP recipe for our weekends; we can't bring in any other kind).  The recipe must be followed EXACTLY and the cookies must be packaged EXACTLY as described in correct type of zip lock bags.  The specificity of this is important to make sure one inmate does not feel like he got something more or less than another (more chocolate chips...less...bigger cookie...smaller...etc).  The dynamics of the prison setting require us to make sure we don't show favor in any way, hence, the specific nature of the preparation.  If you are interested in baking a batch and washing them in prayer during the preparation and packaging, let me know.

Placemats:
At all meals over the course of the weekend, we put placemats at each table. The placemats we bring in have been decorated by children with pictures, sayings, Bible verses or just words of love and support.  You can get bulk packages of plain, white placemats at GFS, Sam's or other party stores.  If your family or Sunday School class would like to buy a package of these and color them with pictures, it is another great way to show love to the men at Pendleton.  It is a dark place and anything which brings light and love into the facility is a good thing.  Children who decorate placemats can put their first name (ONLY) and age on the placemat.  Many of the men have children and when they see a name on the placemat which is the same of their own child, it truly touches them.

Financial Support:
Each weekend costs about $4,000 to host.  I am personally responsible for contributing $320 as a member of the Kairos team.  My first year, I just wrote a check, but many people expressed interest in financial support.  If you feel called in this way, you can send me a check made out to Kairos of Indiana in any amount.  The donation is tax deductible as Kairos is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Closing Ceremony:
From 2p to 5p on Sunday October 19th, we will wrap up the weekend with a ceremony/worship service where the inmates who participated in the weekend will have the opportunity to give testimony to what they have experienced.  This is open to the public.  For anyone on this email, I would welcome you joining me on that day.  If you are interested, let me know (I'll only ask this one time) and I can give you more details as the date approaches. Those who have attended with me previously can speak to the power of this event.  The Holy Spirit moves big time on these days!

BUT, if you do not feel called to support with cookies, specific prayer time or observing the closing ceremony, that is TOTALLY OK as we are all called to serve and use our gifts in different ways and this may not be where your heart is.  I will not be hurt or offended in the least.  If you would like to forward this email along to friends of yours who may want to support, feel free.

If nothing else, simply, I ask your prayers for me that God will use me as an instrument to do His work.  As you consider supporting this effort, please read and pray on Matthew 25:34-40 and James 2:1-13.  Both of these scriptures have become foundational concepts to me in supporting this path God has laid out for me.

God's blessings and all of my love to each of you!

Scott
Scott D. Wilson
scottdwil@yahoo.com
317.473.0020 mobile