Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Thursday!  All is well here at 811. I am giving a talk at the Kairos Team Meeting on Saturday on the topic of gratitude.  I did a trial run of the talk today and it is almost ready for offering.  Please begin praying for the team that brings the gospel into the prison. Please pray for the team that works in support of those who bring the Word inside and those who are chosen to receive the glorious Word of God. And above all please pray for the 42 men who will walk a spiritual journey in just a few weeks. Ask God to prepare their hearts and minds to receive the Gospel and find ways to live a forgiven life rich in the love of God while separated from society.

The candle is lit…

Dear God, keep my feet on the path of what is right and good. Lord, when you put that rainbow in the sky you offered second chances to each of your human creation. Grace my life with your miracle touch and help me begin again beneath the rainbow of your faithful love. Thank you Lord that each time I ask forgiveness I am allowed the opportunity to begin again. Help me to walk the road of forgiveness and to follow you always. Thank you Lord. I love you Lord, in Jesus name. amen.

The men that will be chosen to participate in the Kairos weekend have made terrible mistakes.  The mistakes were sever enough that the legal system believed that the community was safer if they were secluded from community behind razor wire and under armed guard 24/7 with some for the remainder of their lives.  These men could be facing a life of despair and “enslaved by their misdeeds of the past.”  Kairos Prison Ministry is not a ministry that works on prisoner release.  Quite the contrary, Kairos seeks to share the love of God through faith in Jesus so that these ones in seclusion have an opportunity to live an abundant and faithful life. These men will be introduced (some for the first time) to God’s love and forgiveness and in that forgiveness will be given a second chance to begin a new life right where they are. They will be introduced to the God of love and second chances. Their mistakes were so devastating that many are not able to return to the community they once knew, but the light of God breaks through and they are soaked in a love that many of them have never known. In their participation in a Kairos weekend they will be afforded weekly time with other members of the Kairos community for prayer and sharing what God has done in their lives. These men have been deemed unlovable by society, but God looks at them with love knowing their hearts and their past while still offering them a godly life in an environment deemed ungodly.

God looks at those men the same way He looks at us and offers us the same, love, forgiveness and unmerited grace no matter what our sin.  We are all children of God and we should each of us humbly give thanks that no matter what we have done or left undone God still found us worthy of the life of his Son. Thanks and praise to you oh God.

“The Lord has mercy on those who respect him, as a father has mercy on his children.”

Psalm 103: 13

“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established.”

Psalm 40: 2

Take joy in the journey praying and asking for forgiveness as you go not being afraid to begin again. Wear comfortable shoes and get some sleep. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene