God has certainly challenged the Kairos Fulham prison team in Victoria to ‘never give up’. Fulham prison (near Sale, which is in Gippsland, Victoria) is the only prison in Victoria allowed to offer the Kairos Inside program. Pre Covid, there was a functioning Regional Committee that oversaw the presentation of 19 programs. Then along came Covid. Prison staffing issues post Covid resulted in many Journey programs being cancelled at short notice, i.e. when the team arrived at the prison. For most of the team, the round trip to the prison takes 3 – 4 hours. The last minute Journey program cancellations, along with the inability of the prison to approve future short courses due to the Covid restrictions, resulted in some long term volunteers ‘pulling the pin’.
Despite these difficulties, and with the support of the Kairos National Office, volunteers have continued to present a fortnightly Journey program. The most recent evidence of support from the Kairos community was to send Rob who is Kairos’ acting Victorian State Chair from South Australia (who also happens to be an AKT trainer) to run a one day refresher workshop. The purpose being (a) to acknowledge their dedication and commitment to sharing the love of Christ with the men inside and (b) as a Kairos program ‘health check’.
The enthusiasm of the volunteers, and their willingness to engage was a powerful reminder to all of us that anything is possible when we put God ‘front and centre’.
Paul, a volunteer at Fulham said “In addition, thanks for sending Rob to conduct refresher training for us a few weeks ago. We were encouraged.” I think this really encapsulates the heart of these faithful volunteers.
Let’s pray the momentum keeps going and we will see more green shoots appearing in Fulham and other Regions.
Deb Poulton
COO
