Mid North Coast celebrates its 20th Anniversary with Australia’s 30th – by Hub!
It was somewhat fortuitus for Kairos Support Office to celebrate its 30th Anniversary this year as it was 20 years ago that the Mid North Coast commenced its first course of ministry at Mid North Coast Correctional Centre at Aldavilla, west of Kempsey.
A special technical Hub was set up to take the livestream from Sydney on Saturday 27th September with over 50 team attending! To make it special we provided a soup meal and afternoon tea as the programme progressed, with attenders learning a great deal about Kairos History in Aussie. We were blessed to have the gaol’s first Governor, Bruce Mercer speak at the Sydney celebration giving an interesting “internal viewpoint” from Corrective Services and his own journey as a Christian.
Looking back to 2004 and thanks to Bruce’s incredible generosity as the first Governor to the gaol, an invitation was extended to a recent Long Bay team retiree from Sydney to organise Kairos as soon as possible due to Bruce’s recent experience at Mannus with a Kairos graduate. An immediate Journey programme was set up after a swift scramble for a team, with the first programme held in 2005.
The rest is history as programmes have been conducted virtually each year (except for Covid) with a women’s programme commencing in 2014 as soon as sufficient women were housed. We have outlasted many Governors and Chaplains to reach 2025, our latest, Kairos being one of the best! We have just completed Women’s Short Course #6 and look forward to conduct Men’s #19 in May, 2026.
All praise to God!!
John Layton
Mid North Coast Region
