Tom Merchant

Tom Merchant, Keryx volunteer

Keryx is a prison ministry based on the Cursillo model. When Paul Damkoehler asked if I would be interested in serving on the team, my first reaction was negative; I already have too much to do. I also realized that: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. (Matthew 9:37 NIV). So I signed on. There were four daylong training sessions, three held in Alanson (north of Petoskey) and one in Higgins Lake. Like our own Emmaus Community, the members of the team represent a range of church affiliations including Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and one lone Episcopalian. The prison where the weekend was held is the Level III (medium security) unit of the Chippewa Correctional Facility. It, along with four other correctional facilities, is located on the former Kinchloe Air Force Base outside of Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula. Chippewa is classified as a disciplinary facility meaning that the majority of the inmates are there because they have had problems in another facility.

While many things on the weekend are the same, a notable difference is the method of sponsorship. Each inmate is assigned to one of the team members. The idea is that the sponsor spends time with the inmate on a one-on-one basis during the breaks. We began with 24 inmates and ended up with 22. One inmate chose not to come back on Saturday morning and one inmate was removed for security purposes on Saturday afternoon. The candidates ranged in age from the early twenties to the fifties. They are all doing a minimum of 8 years with some doing 30 or more years. Most of them have been in prison at least once before. The "outside" team consisted of 28 volunteers plus the facility chaplain. The "inside" team consisted of 14 inmates who have previously attended a Keryx Weekend.

The talks are basically the same except that they have different names. "Goals" is the same as "Priorities", "Discovery" is the same as "Study", and "Hang in There" is the same as "Perseverance". The "Candlelight" service is called the "Serenade" and features 35 to 40 male and female volunteers who come into the Community Room and sing 5 or 6 songs to the candidates. It is a time when the power of the Holy Spirit flows mightily through the hearts of the candidates, team members and volunteers. Darryl is a 41 year old black man who is finishing 9 years of imprisonment. He is one of 11 children, has been married 3 times and has 6 children. No one comes to visit him. No one responds to the 12 to 14 letters per week that he writes. He feels totally alone. The unconditional love shown to him by the Keryx, Emmaus, Tres Dias, DeColores, and Cursillo communities from around the world was more than he could grasp. He broke down and cried during the Serenade. I am not sure cried is an accurate term. The dam holding back more than 9 years of unexpressed emotion broke and our brother Darryl sobbed.

The "Dying Moments" is done a little differently and consists of writing the names of all of the people in your life that you hate and/or need to forgive on a piece of paper. The wadded up papers are put into a pot, taken out into the prison yard and set on fire while the candidates and the team sing "Amazing Grace". Don, a man in his late forties, has been in prison for almost 20 years. His hatred for his father had been so great that he went by "Brian" because he was a junior. As he was given his nametag on Thursday, he took it out, turned it over and wrote "Brian" on the tag. After the list burning, Don came back inside, took his nametag out, and turned it over so it read "Don". He asked the chaplain for a Bible since he didn't have one. The chaplain handed him a Gideon Bible. As he went back his bunk, he had doubts about the commitment to Christ that he had made earlier in the day. He prayed to God asking for a sign that Christ's suffering and death were, indeed, for him. Not knowing anything about the Bible, he just stuck his finger into it and started reading. He started at Isaiah 52: 14 "Just as there were many who were appalled at him his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness." To Don this was the horror of the pain and suffering of the crucifixion brought home to him. In this moment he realized that it should have been him on the cross and not Jesus and in that moment he knew that he had truly been saved.

I am an engineer and a logical person. I have always had difficulty with the passage in Joshua 10:13 about the sun standing still. With all the difficulties of Saturday afternoon including a lock down and thorough search of the rooms that we were using for the weekend, we were 1-1/2 hours behind schedule by Saturday night. Unlike an Emmaus Walk where there is some flexibility in the schedule, the inmates have to go back to their units at 8:30 PM. A part of Saturday night that is different is what is called "Open Mike" in which the candidates are given 2 or 3 minutes to talk about what has been happening to them in the course of the weekend. This is after the Serenade. There simply was no time for this to happen; yet it is so important that it was decided to go ahead and get in as many as possible. Each table was introduced and each candidate spoke: 22 in all. The whole process must have taken at least an hour yet when the last table sat down, we were right on schedule. Somewhere, some how, that hour and a half that we were behind, disappeared. The Rector couldn't explain it, the Timekeeper couldn't explain it yet it happened.

The Cross Ceremony is also a little different. In prison, in order to wear a cross, you must be registered as a Christian. In order to be registered as a Christian, you must make a statement of your belief. In the Cross Ceremony, the sponsor's name is called. He has the cross in his hand and he walks up to his candidate and says: "Christ is counting on you." If the candidate has made a commitment, he answers: "And I am counting on Christ" and the sponsor gives him the cross. There are all kinds of religions in prison including Islam, Zen Buddhism, Jehovah's Witness, several kinds of witchcraft, and Odinism, which is based on Norse mythology and is favored by the skinheads. In one of the last presentations, the sponsor walked across to Tim and made the offer. On Saturday night, Tim had stated that he was a skinhead and that he was not about to change. He thought that maybe Christianity was ok for people that lived in the normal world but in his world, Odinism was the only way that he could survive. There was a very pregnant silence as Tim looked at his sponsor. Tim reached out his hand and said "And I am counting on Christ." To a man, we all stood and cheered. Tim dissolved in tears. His comment was that he knew this program was real because on Friday he laughed for the first time in 5 years and on Sunday he cried for the first time in more than 11 years. He said that he took his sister with him if there was a need to cry and she cried for both of them because he was not capable. As an Odinist, to laugh or cry is to show weakness.

In Matthew 13: 3-7, Jesus tells the parable of the sower. It is as true for the prison as for the outside world. Some of the seed falls on the path and the birds eat it up. That's for the two men that didn't make it through Saturday afternoon. Some of the seed falls on the rocky places and sprouts quickly but dies just as quickly because there is no depth to the soil. There are a couple of the candidates that fall into this category. I will be surprised if I see them at the Ultreya in November. Some of the seed falls in among the thorns and sprouts up but is choked out by the thorns. There are a couple of candidates that fall into this category. We will not see them participating on the inside team for the walks next April. Some of the seed falls on fertile ground and sprouts and grows, yielding a hundred, sixty, thirty times what was sown. Of the 22, I believe that there are as many as 10 that fall into this category. It is evidenced by the number of inmates that ended up working on the team of Keryx #15 who had been candidates on Keryx #14.

So what about the cookies? At the October Gathering, I asked for cookies. I am not sure how many were contributed by Emmaus People and how many were contributed by Grace Episcopal People but I went to Kinross with 62 dozen cookies. Of the 300 or so dozen cookies that were distributed, the faithful of West Michigan contributed 20% of the total. The team members were amazed. They found it hard to believe that I had all those cookies in my little car. Praise God for your generosity!

Will I do this again? You bet, keep your cookie sheets ready!

DeColores