Kairos Volunteer News

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April 2026 | Issue 014

 
 

Volunteer News

Greetings everyone.

 

I hope that you all were able to have a blessed and restful Easter break after joyously celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

For many of us, April has been a time of preparation and training for upcoming meetings and programs.  The KPMA Board held its annual face to face Strategy meeting in Sydney on 17 to 19 April. I was fortunate enough to be able to catch up for face-to-face chats with our three Kairos Support Office staff. So lovely to engage in person instead of online.

The KO Hunter team welcomed seven women into their community at the completion of their guest weekend on 29 March. The women were abundantly blessed See the short article under the encourage section for more information.

 

Praise Points

Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to interact with the wider community and share about our ministry as we ran several fundraising and Easter presentation events in Perth, Sydney, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay.

Lord we thank you for guiding the successful completion of team formation for Kairos Outside Sydney and we pray that  team formations for Kairos Outside Canberra, Kairos Outside Perth and Kairos Outside South Coast , Kairos Inside Dillwynia, Kairos Inside Mid North Coast men's, Kairos Inside Mannus and Kairos Inside Mobilong may go smoothly and that the volunteers bond well to form unified teams equipped to become Your witnesses .

 

Lord, we thank you that Kairos Inside Junee has been able to resume running journey programs after many years of waiting.

 

 We give thanks that Kairos Inside Parklea has been permitted to run a monthly journey program while the transition of prison management back to NSW Corrective Services is underway.

 

We give thanks that Kairos Inside Mid North Coast have been able to resume running the journey program in the men's prison after a considerable break.

 

Thank you for answering our prayers in relation to Kairos Inside St Heliers. After an eleven month break the team have been able to resume running regular journey programs.

 

We give thanks and praise to you Lord for paving the way for Kairos Inside South Coast to run its first journey program on 22 April and for the 38 inmates being able to attend after being personally escorted by the head of the jail.

 

Lord, we thank you for the new Chaplains who have been or are in the process of being finalised for Dillwynia and John Morony Correctional Centres.

We also thank you for healing some of the Chaplains we work with and enabling them to transition back to work after period of extended sick leave.

 

Prayer Points

  • We pray that guests will accept our invitation to attend the upcoming guest weekend in Sydney.
  • We also pray that guests will accept our invitations to attend future guest weekends planned for, Perth, Canberra, South Coast, Adelaide, New England and Tully.
  • We pray that team vacancies will be filled
  • We pray that planned fund-raising events in Far North Queensland and the Hunter Region may go well.
  • We pray for the Chaplains at Alexander Maconochie Centre in Canberra who have agreed to continue working without pay after funding was cut.
  • Pray that Chaplain vacancies may be promptly filled and that the Chaplains will be open to inviting Kairos into their Centres.
  • We pray for the KI train the trainer will go well for all involved.
  • Pray for the upcoming core team training for KO North Queensland

God bless you all and thank you for your faithful service.

Deb Poulton

Chief Operating Officer

Kairos Prison Ministry Australia

coo@kairos.org.au

Training

AKT - KI and KO - Register Now

 

The KPMA board has resolved to retain the requirement for Advising Leaders to have attended an AKT within two years of taking up this position on team Rather than four years as stated in the Plum Manual.

 

Kairos Inside Advanced Kairos Training – Brisbane - Register Now

Contact person Ken Moore - aktki@kairos.org.au

 

Kairos Outside Advanced Kairos Training – Townsville (form on Events page soon)

Contact person Coraine Sopru - aktko@kairos.org.au

 

Check the Events page for updates - https://kairos.org.au/courses/ 

 

A message from your KO AKT Coordinator: What is new in the White Manual?

 

Overall, the format of the KO Program and Manual content is the same.

Updates in the 2025 White Manual compared to the Rose Manual are minor. They include:

  • Slight restructure of parts of the manual to improve the order and alignment with the other program manuals for KO, KI, Torch
  • Descriptions made clearer where the text was confusing. Uses the same and consistent text throughout the manual
  • Excellence Initiative Observer – qualifications for the role of EI observer are more specific
  • Observing Leader 2 (OL2) selects a table server to escort speakers to be prayed for before and after their presentations rather than doing this herself

The Australian 'Rose Information boxes' are no longer in the white manual. Continue to use:

  • Reference to KPMA website, kairos.org.au and KPMA drop down menu MyKairosOz for current resources and updates which include
  • KPMA policies or Australian State laws where necessary – Spiritual Directors privilege/otherwise on mandatory reporting –Work Health and Safety etc.
  • KPMA processes for AKT, EI, Ezra orders, and data / volunteer records etc.
  • KSO as support office for guidance and resources (emails, leaders' info, web updates, financials)

 

Note updated White Program Manual for KO includes the following directive terminology:

  • Share Witness Account Pray.  It's okay to use your own language to share with a purpose during your small group discussion
  • Spiritual Director is used rather than Chaplain. This aligns with the White KO Program Manual and Ezra, and is the common terminology used for Kairos Outside. Spiritual Director Clergy qualification MUST be adhered to as written. Same for all Kairos Programs.
  • Prayer is covered by the Kitchen team. The Core Team Leader - Head Kitchen Chef schedules prayer person/persons to pray for the speakers and prayer requests. No dedicated prayer team role
  • A prayer room is setup at the discretion of the spiritual director in collaboration with the Head Kitchen Chef.
  • Team list does not include a dedicated IT role since international communities mostly rely on song books and limits power point presentations
  • Australia uses digital media for Ezra videos, presentations and music, particularly during team formation. Information Technology – IT may be rolled into the Music role; however communities should consider song books and only use power point presentations if it enhances the speaker's talk.
  • Stick to mandatory listed songs as directed for Walking in Love and Closing
  • May include Australian preferred songs during other, non-mandatory events

A message from your EZRA Support Team

 

Ordering Ezra

 

Don't forget, EZRA is ordered via KSO when you submit your Program Notification Form.

 

Changing your date? 

 

If you have a registered copy of Ezra, but the date of your KO Weekend or KI Short Course has changed since you put in your Program Notification Form, contact your friendly Ezra Support person, and we will contact Ezra support in the USA and also Bruce at the KSO to make the necessary changes. 

 

  • Lex - covers Queensland, and northern NSW - ezrasupportqld@kairos.org.au
  • Kylie - covers SA and WA - ezrasupportsa@kairos.org.au 
  • Jan - covers Sydney, southern NSW and ACT - ezrasupportnsw2@kairos.org.au

Zoom Meetings

 

Don't forget to give warning for any zoom meetings you would like us to organise. Again, contact your friendly Ezra support person for this.

 
 

Encourage

KI South Coast #1 Progress Report

 

Following on from the conclusion of the inaugural Short Course on 26 March.

The instructional reunion was held on April 2026 with 23 graduates attending. The first Journey program was held on 22 April 2026.  We had 38 inmates attend. Bible study and prayer and share groups have been established and are operating well.

Let's celebrate and praise the Lord for the blessings and protections he has bestowed upon all of those who have been involved either as team or graduates!

Planning is now under way to conduct a second Short Course in August this year.

KO Hunter

KO Hunter held a Guest Weekend and welcomed seven guests into the Kairos community.

The team overcame obstacles with health and worked hard to successfully conduct the KO #30 Guest Weekend. Praise the Lord for his protection and blessings. 

Governance

Manuals, Copyright and AI

The new manuals have now been distributed. We draw your attention to the copyright restrictions associated with both the Manuals and EZRA content – This work is not authorised for use in AI (Artificial Intelligence such as ChatGPT, CoPilot, Claude etc) in any way. The KPMA Board policy in relation to AI is that there is to be no use of AI in relation to any materials subject to KPMI copyright requirements.

 

A couple of examples - volunteers cannot put a talk outline into AI nor can they use AI to enhance any training materials sourced from either the program manuals or EZRA.

 

Policy - Safeguarding

At the April Board meeting the Safeguarding Policy and complaints handling flowchart were approved. You can read this on the MyKairosOz page in the coming week. The board seeks to ensure that all people who interact with or are affected by our work are protected. It also seeks to support a positive and effective internal culture towards safeguarding those with whom we interact with.

 

Minimum Ages

The Board also confirmed that the minimum age for KO Angels is to be 18 years of age to ensure that these volunteers are covered by insurance.

 

The minimum age for both Volunteers and Participants / Guests remains 20 years of age.

 

Empowering You

Online Forms

 

You may have heard or seen that some of our forms are moving to online forms.  We are working our way through a priority list of our most commonly used forms that are currently fillable PDFs.  Online forms will enable our volunteers to easily fill in, sign and submit forms without having to download, print, scan etc.  Saving time and effort.  

Where will these forms be located?  There is no change to how you find forms as they will be located in MyKairosOz.

What will change?  Some forms require approvals or comments from State or Regional Chairs, AKT Coordinators etc so you may receive an "Action" email asking you to approve/deny, make comments on a form by email when a form is submitted.  Follow the instructions on the email and you won't have any issues - we have tried to make it as simple as possible for all.

Forms that have moved to online include:

  • Program Notification Form
  • Team Member Information and Application Agreement Form
  • KI and KO Leader and Observing Leader Ratification Forms (4 forms)
  • AKT Application Forms
  • Media Release Consent Form

Go to the MyKairosOz page to see the forms and if you have any questions about these new forms, just contact our Projects Officer Sarah at the KSO.

MyKairosOz

Technology Policy

Signed Affiliation Agreements

 

Signed Affiliation Agreements for Regions and State Councils are now available
in your Secretaries Kairos Google Shared Drive folder. Both Secretary and Chair Kairos emails can see these agreements.

To see the agreement:            

Login to your Kairos Google Shared Drive;

or

Use this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/shared-drives
Hint1: You'll need your Kairos email & password

Hint2:  You may need to switch to your Kairos email account if your default google account is not the Kairos one.

If you have questions, contact Bruce at the KSO on 0498-012-263 or operations@kairos.org.au

 

Kairos Google Cloud - File Storage

Later this year we will be asking Regional Chairs, Secretaries, Treasurers & Leaders etc… to store Kairos files in the Kairos Google cloud, rather than their local computers.

 

There are several benefits to this change:

  • Backups are made every night.  Lose a file and we can restore it for you.
  • Much easier to hand information on to the next person in your role, they get access, then can see all the files for your role.
  • Your Kairos information is not lost to Kairos when your computer dies, you move, etc…
  • Excellent security around your Kairos Google cloud information.

Currently each Region has several Kairos Google cloud folders available:

  • Chair
  • Treasurer
  • Secretary
  • Volunteer History
  • Region Shared Area

 We can set up short-cuts that make it easy to access the Kairos Google cloud. Ring Bruce on 0498-012-263 (or email operations@kairos.org.au) to set up this easy access

Email Bruce

Fundraising Ideas

Kairos Outside North Qld

A sunshine morning tea to be held on 20 June at Mount Louisa Community Church.  See the lovely advertisement that they have on Facebook.

 

Update on the Kairos Outside Canberra bulb fundraiser.

KO Canberra raised over $1000! Regions are encouraged to keep an eye out for the next opportunity – spring summer bulbs perhaps. See last months Volunteer News for information.

 

Kairos Outside Perth High Tea

34 people attended and just under $1000 was raised! Everyone had a fabulous time!

 

Kairos Outside Sydney

KO Sydney continues to be busy with its Bunnings BBQ's which raise substantial funds as well as providing an opportunity to promote the various Kairos ministries which are conducted in Sydney by handing out brochures - BBQ's can be run on weekdays as well as weekends.

 
 

National Conference - Register Now for Early Bird!

Kairos Prison Ministry Australia

National Conference 2026 - Registrations are Open!

 

You would have received your invitation by email to attend the KPMA National Conference to be held the Rydges in the heart of Adelaide, South Australia - 28th - 30th August 2026.  You can register now here.  Click the button below to see your invite from Chair of KPMA Col Stiller

 

Remember, every Region needs to send at least 2 representatives, but all Volunteers are invited to register and attend. Free Kairos bag for attendees!

 
 
Invitation

Past Newsletters

Read past newsletters here

Do you know a Kairos Volunteer who is not receiving this newsletter?  If so, ask them to contact Bruce at the KSO to be added to the mailing list - operations@kairos.org.au

 

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.

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

ABN: 55 081 496 175 

 

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