KAIROS: How you can connect. Send God’s Love to Prison
Homemade cookies needed for Kairos Prison Ministry at Dick Conner Correctional Center at Hominy, OK
Cookies Due May 1st in the Church office by 1 p.m.
We need approximately 3000 Dozen Homemade Cookies (Yes your math is correct, that is 36,000 individual cookies.) for each Kairos 4-day Weekend! James Bond is participating in a Kairos Weekend this spring at Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy so we need your help. Of course we don’t expect any one organization or church to supply all the cookies needed since we do have help from other churches and individuals throughout the state as well.
Below are recipes for the 3 kinds of homemade cookies that are allowed in the prison. These cookies are the only tangible evidence of God’s (and our) unconditional love that we can give ALL the residents! Please help us send God’s Love into the prisons with your cookies.
Homemade Cookie Important Guidelines:
Please do not add any additional fruit or nuts to the cookies and do not sprinkle sugar of any kind on top of the cookies. Cookies should be between 2″ and 2 1/2″ in diameter.
Be sure cookies are cool before placing in boxes or quart baggies. Please only put one type of cookie per box or baggie.
Label each box/baggie with the cookie type and the number of dozens in that box. Please put wax paper between layers in box to prevent sticking.
Cookies may be baked ahead of time and frozen. Make certain they are completely done and cooled before placing them in the freezer.
Chewy Oatmeal
3/4 C Butter flavored Crisco
1 1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 C milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
Combine in a large bowl and mix at medium speed
until well blended.
Combine: 3 C Quick Oats
1 C flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
½ t cinnamon (no raisins)
Add to above mixture until just blended. Drop by rounded tablespoon of dough onto baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-12 min. or until lightly browned. Makes 2 1/2 dozen.
Kairos
Kookies
Peanut Butter
3/4 C Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 C Crisco Shortening
1 1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
3 T milk
1 t vanilla
Combine in a large bowl and mix at medium speed
until well blended. Add 1 egg and mix well.
Combine: 1 3/4 C flour
3/4 t. salt
3/4 t. baking soda and add to the above mixture just until blended.
Drop by heaping teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet and flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork. Bake at 375 for 7-8 min until set. Makes 3 dozen.
Chocolate Chip
3/4 C Crisco Shortening
1 1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
Combine in a large bowl and mix at medium speed
until well blended. Add 1 egg and mix well.
Combine: 1 3/4 C flour
1 t. salt
3/4 t. baking soda
and add to the above mixture until well blended. Then stir in 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded tablespoon on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8-10 min for chewy cookies or 11-13 min for crisp cookies. Makes 3 dozen.
If you’re deciding what kind to make, we normally need more peanut butter and oatmeal to have 1/3 of each kind for each resident.
These cookies represent your love for all God’s children regardless of their situation or what they may have done. These expressions of love touch the hearts of the people who receive them and open them up to God’s Love.
Thank you for caring and sharing God’s God.
For more information contact George Warren at 918-332-0350 or email at gtwarren@clergy.okumc.org God’s Special Time
“…(I was) in prison and you visited me….I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these, you did it for me!” (Matthew 25:36, 40)
What is KAIROS? It is an ecumenical, Christian, lay-led, grace-filled ministry with incarcerated men and women, their families and those who work with them. The volunteers’ motto is “Listen, Listen; Love, Love.” The goal is for the prisoners’ discipleship and growth in living a Christ-like life.
What happens? There are periodic, 3-day weekend spiritual retreats inside the walls of the correctional facility. There is normally a 2-to-1 resident-to-volunteer ratio. Typically about half of the residents are the “hard-core” criminals, those with little chance for change. The other half comes from the normal prison population, many of whom know they’ve made a bad mistake and sincerely want to change. The weekend is followed by weekly and monthly meetings for the new “pilgrims” with outside volunteers coming into the facility for fellowship, prayer and worship with the residents. The real result is that men and women find a new or renewed relationship with Jesus Christ, and lives really are changed.
What is the “practical” result? Mere participation in KAIROS gives the inmate no preferential treatment or consideration for parole. However, the individual’s behavior change is often so marked that even hardened correctional officers admit that KAIROS makes a real difference in inmates’ behavior. This results in earned earlier release than the average prison population. After parole, the recidivism (repeat offending) rate for KAIROS graduates is much lower than for the general prison population. In prisons served by KAIROS for several years, the climate of the entire facility is affected for the good, with fewer incidents of violence, etc.
Why give cookies? The cookies are a simple reminder of God’s unconditional, unlimited love. (Prisoners may eat as many cookies as they like, and often toward the end of the weekend may joke, “Oh no! Not more cookies!”) Cookies are on the discussion tables all day, every day. Also, each inmate is given a sack of cookies to take back to his roommate the first evening. One night, “forgiveness night,” the inmate is given a sack of cookies to take to the one he needs to forgive the most as a “peace offering”, indicating his desire to forgive and be forgiven. Also, one dozen cookies will be delivered by Kairos volunteers to every offender and guard and staff member in the entire prison so that everyone will know we are here and are glad we are here.
For further information, go to www.kairosprisonministry.org
Contact George Warren (918-597-8830) or James Bond (918-456-3667) if you are considering serving on an outside or inside team
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