Sent to all Kairos emails plus personal emails of volunteers active from 2022 - current.

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August 2025 | Issue 009

Volunteer News

Greetings everyone.

As usual July has been an eventful month. We have much to be thankful for and to celebrate. First and foremost, Praise, glory and abundant thanks to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He has gone before us to smooth the way.

Goulburn Regional Committee have commenced running Journey programs in the maximum-security section of the Centre. Twelve inmates attended the first Journey program. They were engaged and participated well. The Guards were very supportive, actually bringing the inmates some fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time of 12.30. This allowed time for an initial meet and greet. The team will now be able to go in each fortnight to conduct a Journey program for past graduates in the morning and a Journey program for inmates from Maximum Security unit 2 in the afternoon.

The Kairos Outside Guest recruitment pilot program being conducted in Western Sydney is bearing fruit. Three churches have expressed an interest in working with us and getting to know more about our ministry and ten Guests have already expressed an interest in attending. This resulted from a combination of emails, letterbox drops and the radio advertising which is running three times a day on Vision radio across Australia.  We have received many enquiries via our website because of the radio advertising campaign. Many enquiries are from people wanting to volunteer.

I was privileged to attend the Ecumenical Worship Service for the opening of the 48th Federal Parliament of Australia on 22 July. As usual the Lord had gone before me – I was seated beside a Christian man who was deeply interested in our ministry and blown away by the testimonies I sent to him afterwards. He has offered to assist us in opening doors to enable us to re-enter prisons in States where we are currently precluded from offering programs. The church representative who delivered the homily was equally encouraging and offered to help. I consider my two hours spent representing you all as having been very well spent.

As we get closer to celebrating our 30th anniversary of Kairos in Australia please join me in giving thanks for the work of the tireless volunteers who came before us with a vision and commitment to introduce the ministry to as many inmates and their female family and friends as possible.

For our celebration events, we know that many of you have not yet registered. If you are attending in person, online or going to a local Regional hub, we need to know so that we can keep you updated.  Please go to kairos.org.au/30-years now to register.

I attended the closing ceremony of the Kairos Outside South Coast Guest weekend on 27 July. The team were blessed to have twelve Guests attend the ceremony. The closing was extremely moving and joyous and I was privileged to be able to travel down to Nowra to attend it with the Kairos Outside Canberra Spiritual Director Joan Suckling. It was wonderful to be able to catch up with old friends and the leaders and team, some of whom have been involved since the Region was established in late 2014, and the first Guest Weekend was run in October 2016. We give thanks to the Holy Spirit for the way in which the Guests were touched and filled with such love and joy. They were moved without pressure to share openly. I have included a picture of their banner below.

Praise the Lord for the successful screening of Songs Inside at the Gawler Cinema in South Australia. 85 people attended the event which was organised as a fundraiser for KO Adelaide.  The feedback was excellent – a joyous film well worth watching.

Please join with me in praying for all the teams which have now commenced Team formation in preparation for conducting Short Courses and Guest Weekends in late August and September.

Please consider signing up to the prayer roster for KI Goulburn 26 – 29 August, KI Port Augusta 15 – 19 September, KI Mannus 16 – 19 September and KI AMC September and KI Alexander Machonichie September.  You can find details on the Events Page of the website here. 

I will be taking four weeks leave from 8 August until 7 September and travelling overseas to spend some time with my family. Consequently, there will be no September newsletter. Please be assured that you will be in my thoughts and prayers while I take some time to rest and then do part of the Italian Comino Walk from Lucca to Sienna to spend time with our Lord.

Thank you for your commitment and dedication, you are all amazing and my inspiration.

Blessings and best wishes for a fruitful and Christ filled journey with our Lord as you prepare to become the hands and feet of our Lord in witnessing to those, he has chosen to attend one of our upcoming programs.

God Bless and protect you all.

Training

Meet the Team

Meet the KO AKT training team:

Coordinator Coraine Sopru. Trainers Deni Harden, Joan Comino, Jenny Bothma and Rebecca Kerton. Trainee Lilya Sandaev 

An AKT training for KO leaders and volunteers was conducted in mid-July in Perth. 10 women and four trainers attended. It was well received and involved visual training on how to set up a thanksgiving ceremony and how to organise the guest birthday party celebration. A visual step by step demonstration of the flowers at dawn was also conducted.

Meet the KI AKT Training team:

Coordinator Ken Moore. Trainers Lynne Brown, Chris Gerardis, Jan Corbett Jones and Rob Rodenberg.

An AKT training for KI leaders and volunteers was conducted in late July in Brisbane.

15 people attended together with three trainers and an observer. The training was well received and involved visual training on the rock altar ceremony, the prayer circle and prayer and share breakout groupings.

Meet the Team who Support Us All Behind the Scenes - 

Plus some bonus hints!

Keith Robards – Email Help Desk

Keith became involved in Kairos after attending the closing ceremony for the Kairos Inside Long Bay Short Course #8. He began volunteering for our ministry when he accepted an invitation to join the Short Course team for Long Bay #9. He loved seeing the changes in the participants as they were introduced to the Gospel during the Short Course. In the twenty-five years since he first became involved in Kairos prison ministry works, he has been on 25 short course teams. Keith has developed a detailed pattern for Agape support, including prayer point newsletters for those who have volunteered to be on the prayer roster for his region's short courses.   He has provided support for IT operators on teams, assisted leaders with adjusting short course schedules to fit in with time restrictions imposed by the correctional centres and with their Leader's speeches. Currently Keith is providing Email help desk support to all our volunteers in the ministry.

Keith worships at Northridge Vineyard Church in Thornleigh and remains on the organ roster at Forestville Uniting Church where he previously worshipped before moving to the Hornsby district in the late 1990's.

Keith loves computer programming and has developed two programs which are in use in the Kairos ministry – a program to assist IT operators to manage PowerPoint files for projecting lyrics onto the screen during programs. The other program which is still in development is for email help desk use and it will codify policy and practice for the IT team while securely managing connection to our web management system.

Since the passing of his wife two years ago, after 52 years of marriage, Keith lives alone with his cat in his home on top of a cliff in West Hornsby where he enjoys the bush view and quietness, interrupted only by the sound of chirping birds.

Email: emailhelpdesk@kairos.org.au 

Kylie Wurst – Email Help Desk Assistant

Kylie commenced volunteering with Kairos in 2008 after attending an Emmaus weekend. Kylie has been volunteering with the Kairos Outside Adelaide community for many years and was leader of the guest weekend held in 2022. Kylie has also served on the Kairos Outside Adelaide Regional committee as it's IT coordinator. For the past two years Kylie has also been a member of the Ezra Support Group. She currently provides support for regional committees in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria. She also assists with the Ezra training for upcoming leaders which is conducted each year on zoom.  Earlier this year Kylie also agreed to join the Email helpdesk where she is being mentored by Keith.

Kylie is now in the process of stepping back from regional roles to focus on her new roles assisting the wider Kairos community.

Kylie lives in the Murraylands on 40 acres of bushland with her husband, two daughters and their three dogs, two budgies, a cat and a flock of chooks. Kylie also volunteers as a fire fighter with the CFS and works from home as an author.

Email: emailhelpdesk1@kairos.org.au

Some tips from the email help desk:

It is KPMA policy that all Kairos emails should be sent through the kairos.org.au accounts for easy authentication, to maintain a history that is available for the next role holder and to keep Kairos records under KPMA management. We need to protect our volunteers and take all steps possible to ensure that the privacy of our volunteers is protected.

For those of you who are not using kairos.org.au emails we respectfully ask that you contact us so that we can set one up for you. Thankyou in anticipation of your cooperation.

Jan Syme EZRA Support Coordinator

Jan attended a closing ceremony at Mulawa Correction Centre in 2001 and has been involved with various streams of our ministry since then. She was on team for a Torch program in 2002 and since then has been on many Kairos Inside Short Course teams before moving across to be on team for Kairos Outside Sydney.

In addition to being on team, Jan has been a member of the EZRA support team for many years and earlier this year became coordinator for the EZRA support team.  Jan lives in Sydney with her dog Buddy. Jan also provides support for her fellow EZRA support team members Lex Price who lives in Queensland and Kylie Wurst who lives in South Australia. As well as providing support for leaders and presenting online EZRA training for upcoming leaders, the support team also administer the zoom accounts for regional committees. 

EZRA is the Kairos Leaders assistant computer program which all leaders are required to use in planning their programs.

A message from the EZRA team:

EZRA support - Kylie, Lex and Jan are here to help you. Please do not hesitate to contact us to guide you through the initial stages. When you receive your email with the EZRA download on it, we'd love to walk you through the steps. We can arrange a zoom meeting with you and walk you through the process.

Contact details are:

Lex covers Queensland and Northern NSW: ezrasupportqld@kairos.org.au

Kylie covers South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria: ezrasupportsa@kairos.org.au

Jan covers Southern NSW and the Australian Capital Territory: ezrasupportnsw2@kairos.org.au 

Zoom support and training – the team administers the zoom accounts for use by your Regional Committees. The team would love to hear from you and assist you. Please give them ample warning of when you would like to book a zoom meeting - preferably two weeks' notice but at a minimum one weeks' notice please.

* Leaders, please remember at the end of the program print out your team list from Ezra and send it to Bruce at the KSO for uploading into our data base for safe keeping - operations@kairos.org.au

Sue Hodges – National Agape Coordinator

Sue has been involved in Kairos Outside for many years. She has previously led a Guest Weekend in the Hunter region and in 2024 led a Guest Weekend in Canberra. Prior to becoming a member of the Board, Sue was the State Council Chair for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. In June 2024 Sue was appointed National Agape Coordinator.

The national agape email box has received agape from both Australian regions and overseas regions which has been passed on to regions running short course. 95 emails have come through in the past twelve months.

In the Bible, agape love refers to a selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love, often associated with God's love of humanity and the reciprocal love we should have for God and each other. Agape is a powerful gift, and our guests and participants have often not received such unconditional, unqualified love before. Team members can all attest to the Holy Spirit working through agape.

Some tips from Sue:

It is essential that we respect one another's confidentiality. Please always use bcc if you are sending emails to more than one recipient. Please check the website to make sure that email details are correct.

Remember to regularly check the events section on the KPMA website to see what programs are coming up and start developing wall agape for onforwarding to the Regional Committee agape coordinators.

Signed coloured agape is available and is distributed periodically.

Blank A4 black and agape pages are available and will be distributed periodically.

Personalised agape from one region to another is brilliant. Please consider preparing some.

It is advisable that we only use first names on agape sheets to ensure that team members privacy is protected.

Sue can be contacted by email – agape@kairos.org.au or phone 0424 011 154

Chris Gerardis – Excellence Initiative Coordinator for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory

Twenty-six years ago, Chris attended the closing ceremony for the first Long Bay Short Course. God put a passion in her heart to serve in the Kairos Prison Ministry. Chris was a team member on the first women's Short Course in Emu Plains, the first women's Short Course in Mulawa maximum security and the first Kairos inside Short Course program in Dillwynia Women's Correctional Centre.

Over the years God has certainly stretched her as she took on different roles on team, was called to lead a short course, became a member of her Regional Committee, served as Chair of the committee and as the committee's State Council representative. More recently Chris agreed to become a member of the Operations Support Group and completed her training as an AKT trainer.

Earlier this year Chris was asked to take on the role of Excellence Initiative State Administrator for New South Wales. Here was another stretching from God!  Chris is eager to serve each of her regions in her new role. She has come to appreciate how the Excellence Initiative report can help Regional Committees and program leaders, to provide the best possible training delivery to their team members. It provides the opportunity to reflect on how all elements of both team formation, and the programs have gone and identify areas where training can be refined to ensure that we all stay within the riverbanks.

Chris is keen to help and asks that you all not hesitate to contact her for a chat as needed.

Her contact details are: excellencensw@kairos.org.au.

Protecting Us

Just a gentle reminder, Regions are now able to move their contact lists across into their Kairos Google Shared Drive file.

Bruce has set up a separate file for each Region to enable you all to securely store your information and ensure that we are all meeting our privacy obligations. I would encourage you all to consider taking this next step.

Bruce is available to assist you with this. His Contact details are operations@kairos.org.au or 0498 012 263

Your Region has Kairos Google Shared drive is here: 
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/shared-drives

See below for instructions.

The KPMA board take cyber security very seriously and have made sure that the Vega data base, Kairos Google Share Drive and EZRA are all fully protected.

Empowering You

Vision Christian Radio

Fabulous news!

We have had a steady stream of enquiries coming through the website because of our radio advertising campaign which was launched in late July. The enquiries are for attendance at Guest weekends and volunteer enquiries in many states. These enquiries have been directed to the Regional Committee which operates closest to where they live.

Thank you, Lord, for opening people's hearts to hear and respond the advertisements.

Find how to listen here - vision.org.au/listen/

Kairos in the Media

On the 25th July, I along with Michael De Raadt, Praveen Paul and Sandra Moore were interviewed by Catholic Voice for our 30th Celebrations. This was a great opportunity to spread the work about the work of Kairos.  Have a read of the article and the see the short video interview on their website (we will add it to the Kairos News page shortly) Read the article here.

30th Anniversary

Policy Reminders

Remember - MyKairosOz is the only location for the most up to date policies and forms. Any forms linked in the newsletter, printed copies and those saved on your computer may be out of date or the links may not work so check MKO at all times. Use your Kairos email address to access the full range of documents.  Instructions can be found here: kairos.org.au/mykairosoz/

Fundraising Ideas - You Are Invited

It would be wonderful if we as a Kairos community could support each other by attending fund raising events. There are two upcoming events which sound great and loads of fun.

Kairos Outside Canberra is hosting a bush dance on 13 September at 7pm at St Thomas the Apostle School Hall in Kambah. All welcome. .

It would be lovely if Regions could organise to make a trip to support their fellow volunteers.  See details here.

Kairos Outside Sydney is hosting a trivia night on 29 November 2025 at St Peter's Anglican Church in Seven Hills. I would encourage our Sydney Kairos Inside communities to support this important fund raiser. Apparently, the last one was so popular that this event is back by request. Good fun, food and fellowship. Enjoy!

Contact KO Sydney Chair Ros for details: kosydney@kairos.org.au

Feedback on the Songs Inside Fundraiser held on Saturday 26 July.

85 people attended the movie Songs Inside which was shown at the Gawler Cinema in Adelaide. By all accounts they had a thoroughly enjoyable time. The movie was outstanding and brought together many members of our Kairos community. Congratulations to KO Adelaide for organising such a fabulous event.

Important Dates

30th Celebration Events - REGISTER NOW!

Brisbane on Saturday 20 September – Redeemer Lutheran College.

745 Rochedale Rd, Rochedale 4123.

Sydney on Saturday 27 September – Stanhope Anglican Church. 

1 View St, Stanhope Gardens 2768.

Adelaide on Saturday 25 October – Burnside City Uniting Church.

384 Portrush Road, Tusmore 5065.

All events will be from 12.45pm - 4.30pm.

Go to kairos.org.au/30-years for more information, to download the poster and to RSVP.

Invite your friends, family, church members - everyone is welcome!

RSVP NOW for this free event!

Hubs

Can't attend in person?  The 30th Celebration Committee may be arranging a local Hub for you to gather with local volunteers so you can watch it live online and enjoy time with fellow volunteers and your family, friends or guests that want to know about Kairos.  

Hubs will be in Canberra, Tamworth, Ulladulla, Singleton, Port Macquarie, Cairns, Proserpine, Atherton, Townsville (other QLD sites TBC) and Perth! 

We need you to register as we have local volunteers making preparations to get the venues ready but we need to know numbers.

Register to request more details and stay updated - kairos.org.au/30-years

We will also provide a link to watch the livestream on YouTube - register now so that we can send you the information on how to set it up.  We don't want anyone to miss out!

Note - all Kairos events are for those aged 18 years and over.

Past Newsletters

Vision

A Community Spiritually Freed from the Effects of Imprisonment.  Reaching all Impacted by Incarceration, through the Love, Hope and Faith found in Jesus Christ.

Mission

The mission of the Kairos Prison Ministry is to share the transforming love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ to impact the hearts and lives of incarcerated men, women and youth, as well as their families, to become loving and productive citizens of their communities.

Donate today! Donations over $2 are tax deductible. 

www.kairos.org.au | info@kairos.org.au | PO Box 388, Seven Hills NSW 1730

ABN: 55 081 496 175 

You are receiving this email because you are a current Kairos Prison Ministry Australia Volunteer.  This newsletter is a vital communication tool to keep our Volunteers updated and will be sent to kairos.org.au email addresses. 

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