My Time in Prison

I recently spent 3 days in prison. No, I wasn't arrested. It was fully voluntary and an amazing experience. I was part of the team for a Kairos Prison Ministry weekend at Maryland Correctional Institute - Hagerstown. 

What is Kairos? First of all, it is one of two Greek words for time. While chronos refers to the chronological measurement of time, kairos refers to the more subjective aspect of time - the right or opportune time. This is how it is used by Kairos Prison Ministry International (KPMI) – more specifically, a special time with God. According to their website, KPMI “is supported by a staff of 9 and has over 36,000 volunteers donating more than three (3) million hours of service each year. These volunteers serve in over 400 prisons in 35 states and 9 countries: Costa Rica, Australia, Canada, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa and the United Kingdom.”

In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46 - NIV), Jesus says, "I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. ...Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

On Thursday night, we met the men for the first time.  Some had been trying to attend a Kairos weekend for some time, some came at the recommendation of others, one admitted he only came for the famous Kairos cookies.  Some were on fire for the Lord, some were ambivalent and some felt they were beyond even God's ability to love or forgive.

It was amazing to watch the transformation of so many of these men as they were touched by the Holy Spirit and came to understand that God loves all of us as His children and desperately wants to have a relationship with them.  And that He wants that relationship so much that Jesus allowed Himself to be killed on a cross as payment for all of our sins and all we need to do is accept His free gift of forgiveness.  Black, White or Hispanic, by the end of the weekend they were truly brothers in Christ, ditching the normal prison segregation.

I wish I could share some of the actual testimonies given at our closing ceremony on Sunday afternoon, but the following testimonies from Kairos alumni are typical of what was shared on our weekend...

“I can never repay Kairos for what it has done for me. I came to the Kairos weekend filled with hate, anger and deceit. I only came because I heard that there would be good food, but I didn't want anybody in my face about God. But as I began to hear these volunteers talk about how God loved me so much that he sent Jesus, His own son to die in my place so that I would be free, something started to happen to me. I began to experience a kind of love that I had never seen or felt before. I now understand that it was the love of God, offered to me by His people.

“I made a mess of my life and ended up in prison. My family abandoned me and society had written me off. I was worthless, and I felt that way. Life had lost all meaning for me. I was like a balloon with nothing inside. But these Kairos volunteers fed me with the Word of God, and now I hunger after Him. I will be forever grateful to Kairos for showing me that the way to freedom is through the cross of Christ.”  -Anonymous

Testimony Letter 1, Testimony Letter 2, Other Testimonies

I truly feel I had a front row seat to God at work on holy ground, but even the more experienced team members thought it was an exceptionally powerful weekend.

"In nearly 20 years in Kairos, this weekend tops them all!  What an outpouring of the Spirit on these men, and on us volunteers!"  -Anonymous

"Saturday God's Holy Spirit took over, kicked Satan's ×%=€ butt :-)! I felt the Spirit moving me to uncontrollable tears, I wasn't alone, many of us say that God 'showed up' on our outside weekends, but wowsers!"  -Anonymous

"Yes, God came to us there in that prison as a mighty wind taking us all on. What He started He will continue. Halleluja. I am still in a daze."  -Anonymous

Starting in the spring, I am planning to volunteer in Jessup (it's just a tad closer) and am praying that some of my friends in the area will prayerfully consider joining me.  Kairos of Maryland holds weekends at both the men's and women's prisons in Jessup.  So, whether you would like to server inside, as part of the support team, with your prayers, monetarily (each weekend costs about $8000), by writing letters or by creating posters, there is a role for anyone who is interested.  

If you live elsewhere and would like to get involved, Kairos is active in 36 states and 10 countries.

2012 award winning documentary, Changed on the Inside, doesn't mention Kairos by name, but the men in the video are Kairos alumni from Ohio.

Finally, some of the folks my team made the following (bilingual) informational video.

With that, I'll close, but even if you think you might want to get involved with Kairos, please let me know and I'll be happy to talk to you more about it and answer any questions I can.

Dave

A Busy & Historic Geocaching Weekend

I had planned to join a group of cachers on Saturday for a foray into Pennsylvania.  Our primary targets were a couple of special caches, Raiders of the Lost Cache (GC2HN2H) by mikehoffman and Centralia, The Burning Town (GCPK46) by MickEMT.  I've wanted to visit Centralia for years.  It is a largely abandoned town due to underground mine fires that started in 1962.  However, because of the snow that came through late last week and dumped close to 2 feet of snow in that part of Pennsylvania, the trip had to be cancelled.

I had hoped to make Raiders my 4000th Groundspeak cache find, so I had to think of another special cache to mark the milestone.  After picking up a few local caches on Saturday and after church on Sunday, I was able to finally hit #4000.  I decided to use Military Intelligence, Then and Now by Nighthawk700.  It was special for a few reasons.  First, it was created just for me as one of Groundspeak's I <3 Geocaching Lab Cache program.  These are an experimental cache type that Groundspeak allowed each Premium Member to create one this month that could be found one just one other player.  I worked with both Nighthawk700 and globaltreckers to each create and find one of these caches.  The area was also special since it was the first stage of my 200th cache find, They Served in Silence (GCQVMJ) by dragonsear, and the National Vigilance Park.

C-130 at National Vigilance Park

From the NVP website: Dedicated on 2 September 1997, National Vigilance Park and its Aerial Reconnaissance Memorial stands to honor those "silent warriors" who risked, and often lost, their lives performing airborne signals intelligence missions during the Cold War. The backdrop for the park is a semicircle of trees, each representing the various types of aircraft downed during U.S. aerial reconnaissance missions. 

I was also off Monday for Washington's Birthday (AKA Presidents' Day) and had a great day caching with my friend Charlie (sfcchaz).  We were primarily after a few TerraCaching hides, but also got in some GeoPoker, GeoDashing and even a couple Groundspeak caches.

Reconstructed Original Statehouse

After we each grabbed a new card in our poker game, our first stop was Maryland's First State House (TCE6R), a virtual cache by ziawoods in St. Mary's City.  

From the cache description...
The original building was completed in 1676, and the Maryland Assembly and the courts of law of the colony met here for twenty years until the capital was moved to Annapolis. The first floor of the building is one large chamber for gatherings of the Assembly and the Provincial Court.  After the capital moved, the building was used as the County Court building, then for more than a century starting in 1708, as the meeting place of the local Anglican Parish. The original building was demolished in 1839, and rebuilt in 1934 as part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Maryland. 

Despite having been right by here before and having parked in the same lot and walked right past the building, I hadn't realized what it was.  That's what I love about geocaching (well, one of the things).  You're always discovering something new, no matter how familiar you think you are with an area.

Drayden Shoolhouse (photo by ziawoods)

From a "big example" of state history to something much smaller and out of the way, our next stop was Historic Drayden Schoolhouse (TCEMK), also by ziawoods.

[It is] one of the earliest extant schoolhouses for the teaching of African American children in Southern Maryland. [It] was built on land donated in 1889...first holding classes in 1890...[and] was one of only three in this district. 

Up to forty students attended each year, with all seven grades taught by one teacher. School days here started with a devotional song, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance. The teacher taught each of the grades in turn, and some days had trouble getting to all seven classes in a day. For its first 44 years, there were no high schools in the county for graduates of Drayden... In many cases for the early students here, children or grandchildren of former slaves, they were the first generation of their family to learn to read or write.

George Washington Birthplace National Monument

Since it was George Washington's (observed) birthday, we thought it appropriate to jump across the Potomac and pay a visit to George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Westmoreland County, VA for another ziawoods virtual cache, Washington Family Burial Ground (TCEK2) by ziawoods.

From the cache page:
The family originally settled in 1657 on Bridges Creek. ...[and] acquired additional land located on nearby Popes Creek, and some time before 1718 John Washington, George Washington's great-grandfather, built the first section of the house in which George Washington was born. George’s father enlarged that house between 1722 and 1726. It was further enlarged by the mid-1770s to a ten-room house, known as "Wakefield". But this cache does not take you to the main plantation buildings; instead it takes you to the site of that first cabin and to the family burial grounds.  Members of five generations of the Washington family, including George Washington's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather are buried here. In all, thirty-two graves of Washington family members have been found at this Bridges Creek cemetery plot. Replicas of two original gravestones, along with five memorial tablets placed here in the 1930s, may be viewed.

Horne's Restaurant

I was a little surprised not to see more activity here, today, but maybe they do something on his actual birthday, February 22.

After this, we stopped for a few more physical caches and swung by Horne's to pick up some snacks for the road.  They're at the intersection of US 17 and US 301 in Port Royal and I always try to stop when going by.  

TCing Snowman

We grabbed a couple traditional Groundspeak caches and then stopped to claim a GPSgames Dashpoint - a first for both of us.  I was even able to claim a TerraCaching Locationless Cache, TCing Snowman (LC74I) by JAYMEDINC, in the same neighborhood.  

We'd decided to just head home after my meetup with Frosty, but as we were pass Fort Belvoir, we got an alert that SoccerFanatics had placed our GeoPoker cache near my TerraCaching virtual, FortWillard (TCEMJ) that Charlie hadn't found, yet.  It was an obvious decision to swing by since it would be a 2-fer for him.

Fort Willard

Fort Willard was a Civil War fort constructed in 1862 as part of the Union defense system for Washington, DC. It is now located in the Belle Haven area of Fairfax County. It was the southernmost fort built to defend Washington.  The principal features remaining on site consist of earthen fortifications, cannon embrasures or platforms and the remains of a bombproof (bomb shelter) and magazine (arms and gunpowder storage) area.


After that, we finally headed straight home to get ready for the work week ahead.

Even though, the trip I'd been looking forward to ended up being cancelled (postponed, at least), this weekend included much of what I love about geocaching.   I had some solo caching time in the snow on Saturday, a special milestone on Sunday, and a full day of exploring interesting locations on Monday with a good caching friend.

Happy Trails!

Giving It Another Shot

I've decided to try the blogging thing again.  It's been 7 years, since my first brief experiment. 

It'll just be occasional ramblings on whatever is on my mind at the time.   More of a journal than an attempt to develop a major following.  While I imaging that my geocaching adventures will feature prominently, I will be as likely to discuss issues of faith, scouting or geek stuff.

I was partly inspired by the recent Christ is All podcast from Frank Viola I listened to at lunch, this afternoon.  I was also looking for a way to organize the blogs that I try to follow, but never seem to keep up with.

Well, this was just a way to say I'm back and to get myself started.

Happy Trails!