Team 61 had another fantastic meeting Saturday and the team continues to bond over fantastic music, great fellowship and a focus on our mission inside Angola.

Our team meeting had a fantastic prelude in the form of a letter from Ralph Picou to the team. We wanted to share it with the larger Kairos audience.

To my fellow servants,

Each person we will encounter during our Kairos weekend was created in the image of God and is a fellow brother in the family of God.

Just as we are forever bound to our natural family brothers due to our being born to the same earthly mother, we are forever bound to our spiritual family brothers due their being born of the Holy Spirit to the praise and glory of our Heavenly Father.

Through the blood of Jesus Christ, the walls of separation are forever removed and there is only one body of Christ.

At a recent Kairos weekend, one of the residents at my table asked about how the outside world view them and what do our family and friends tell us when they find out that we minister to inmates at Angola, men who have committed all kinds of crime and hurt so many people.

It was not easy to give him one all encompassing answer.

I have been told by “the world” that I am crazy, that I am “wasting my time” on criminals when there are more deserving ministries, that I have been conned by the inmates and am a fool, and that there was no way they would ever get involved in prison ministry.

I have also been told that I was doing a good work and that they are glad that someone is ministering to the prisoners.

I have been blessed by God to be able to see the great potential for good in these men, to be able to see beyond their crimes and current circumstances and accept them as works in progress as they are being transformed into the image of Christ by the power and love of our Heavenly Father.

Each of these men has a place and a purpose in God’s Kingdom. They are the “neighbors” that God has commanded me to love.

It is not an easy or glamorous task which God has placed on my heart.

I will not get many “atta boys” from the world. It will not fulfill my need to be esteemed by my family, friends, and co-workers; however, I am always spiritually encouraged and refreshed when my Heavenly Father tells me “well done, my good and faithful servant, in whom I am well pleased.”

Your fellow servant,

Ralph