Prayer Request from Prison

Good morning from the west coast. Just an update and a prayer request for all you blog readers. Chris is volunteering as a clergy volunteer with my father this weekend at a Kairos retreat, a men’s spiritual retreat for inmates at the Lompoc prison. Lompoc is about an hour north of Santa Barbara where I am now. They have been training for this weekend retreat for 4 months and ever since the beginning the enemy has been at work. Various setbacks and frustrations have come at them, but they have pressed on knowing that God will be victorious. The last 2 days of the retreat for Chris were hard. Feeling unsure of himself, trying to get to know other men on the volunteer team, a little hesitant on how to talk with the inmates and just being his first time at a Kairos event not really knowing the expectations. He and I were really praying for an awesome day today for him personally and for the inmates. The program for today has some really powerful elements that deal with forgiveness and grace that both my dad and Chris are excited to give to the inmates. But early this morning we received word there because of some violence in the prison, they are on lockdown. Thankfully the men volunteers were not yet in the prison when the violence occurred or when the lock down began. The men had a meeting and decided to go to the respective homes and wait for further notice. There is no estimate as to when and if the prison will open back up again. The weekend was supposed to run all Sunday and Monday finishing with a powerful closing ceremonies that usually includes testimonies of how these inmates lives have changed. Please pray the the lockdown will not last and that the prison will open back up for these guys to come and share the Gospel to them. Pray also for Chris and my Dad that they will be encouraged and blessed Thank you.