Kairos Prison Ministry reaches out to incarcerated

Once a year, Trussville First United Methodist Church comes together to bring hope to incarcerated individuals.

Through Kairos Prison Ministry, a Christian faith-based ministry that aims to transform lives, according to its website, the church provides meals and a message of hope and forgiveness. Trussville FUMC first started partnering with Kairos three years ago, church Missions Director Cindy Nielson said, and gives back through donations, time and cards that travel to the prisons on Kairos’ “walks.”

These walks are three-and-a-half-day weekends during which incarcerated men can hear the Christian message, Kairos volunteer Joel Brombach said, as well as learn more about themselves. Also during the weekend, Kairos participants can feel the support of a community through meal tickets, posters and other handmade items.

“About six weeks out [from the visit], what we do is we offer our congregation a chance to buy a meal ticket [for one of the prisoners],” Nielson said. “The meal ticket is $5 … and it’s really touching for them. Joel has told me that it has brought tears to their eyes.”

Brombach said something as simple as a paper placemat decorated by a child to say, “I will pray for you,” can bring some of the Kairos participants to tears.

“It means everything,” said Brombach, who is a Trussville resident. “Because they don’t know them [the incarcerated men], but they’re sending them.”

Although Trussville FUMC’s connection to Kairos is still young, the organization was established in the 1970s. 

Brombach became involved after sitting in on a Kairos weekend during his time as a prison chaplain. 

In his time with the ministry, Brombach said, he has experienced change in others’ lives, in addition to his own.

“Transformation of lives only happens when people change radically,” Brombach said. “And when people change radically and become a follower of Jesus, they understand a little bit about what this earth is all about, and what it’s about is loving other people.”

Passing along a message of Christianity and forgiveness, Brombach said, can show the men that there is hope. Even if they cannot forgive themselves of the crimes that led them to prison, he added, they can know they have a chance of redemption. 

While those messages are interlaced throughout Kairos weekends, they are not where the ministry ends.

“We don’t go in for three-and-a-half days and leave and never see the men. We’re dedicated to being a community,” he said, adding that a few weeks after the weekend, they will have an instructional weekend with the men, during which they teach the men how to take what they’ve learned through Kairos and bring it to wherever they are in the prison. 

For those who leave prison, Brombach said, Kairos can make a lifelong impact. Some of the participants have continued going to church after leaving prison and stayed with the Kairos ministry outside the prison walls.

On a national scale, individuals who go through a Kairos ministry have a lower recidivism rate — around 15.7 percent for those who participated in one Kairos session or 10 percent for those who participated in two or more, versus 23.4 percent for non-Kairos participants, according to Kairos International. 

By helping to decrease the percentage of inmates who are released and then return to prison, Brombach said, Kairos aims to help not only the individual participants, but also their families and their communities. 

That message, Nielson said, is also what Trussville FUMC hopes to accomplish.

“With Kairos, we feel like the biggest thing there is letting the incarcerated men know that there is hope for them,” Nielson said. “When we talk with Joel and we see the actual results of the prisons that have had Kairos involved, the recidivism rate is pretty outstanding compared to states that don’t have Kairos. So our hope is that we can bring hope to others that are incarcerated.”