Tellico Village residents representing the Community Church at Tellico Village, First Baptist Church of Lenoir City, St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church and several churches in Knoxville are collecting cookies for the Kairos prison ministry.

The effort will support an April 14-17 team visit at the Morgan County Correctional Complex.

“Our leader is Jesus Christ,” David Twesme, Community Church member said. “We’re participating and answering his call to visit prisoners as seen in Matthew 25 where he said, ‘I was in prison and you visited me’.”


“Cookies is just a form of breaking the ice,” Twesme added. “It’s a physical example of our love to them. We love them as God loves them.”

Twesme said he and his team visit the prison once in the spring and again in the fall.

“We go to the prison like we’re brothers,” Twesme said. “We’re all in this together, and they understand we’re not there to look down on them.”

Twesme said the goal is to lead them to Christ and “maybe transform their lives.”

The weekend visits include four encounters, with visiting teams introducing themselves to prisoners on Thursday.

“On Friday, they encounter themselves by understanding the choices people make and the consequences of the choices made and the responsibilities incurred,” Twesme said.

On Saturday, they encounter Christ and Sunday they encounter each other through small groups.

“There’s always Monday,” Twesme said. “They have to go back, and we discuss how are they going to handle that fourth day.”

Denny Brandon said he’s been involved with the ministry for the past year after hearing Twesme give a presentation to the Community Church at Tellico Village.

“He invited me, and I thought I really would want to do it,” Brandon said. “First of all, it’s scriptural ,and they’re not able to get out to church real regularly. We’re hoping to leave a church behind so they can have each other.”

“This is just one congregation in this instance,” Twesme said. “Kairos is an international ministry, and we’ve only mentioned people from the Village we know about. There may be more who we’re not aware of.”

Clergy are available for inmates who want to discuss issues in private, but laymen lead group inmate discussions.

“We talk about things like how do you live in God’s grace and forgiveness,” Twesme said. “After each talk, there’s time to discuss and they make posters on their own to illustrate the concepts they’ve learned. All of the artwork is done by guests. We don’t call them inmates, we call them guests.”

Groups consist of six guests and four team members, with 24-36 guests attending each meeting.

“There’s usually a guest waiting list,” Twesme said. “You know you’re not going to get them all, but it’s like the parable of the sower. It’s up to us to make the seeds germinate.”

Twesme provided examples of inmates hearing from family members after years of no correspondence.

“It’s God working in the people,” Twesme said. “If you reach out to God, he’ll reach out to you.”

“You don’t know what effect you’re having on all of those criminals,” he added.

Troy Haydon said he became involved with the ministry after hearing about it from Twesme.

“We need to visit prisoners,” Haydon said. “If it weren’t by the grace of God, there go I. I’ve realized after working alongside them that many of them came from backgrounds that helped them make these decisions. I think it’s easy to forget that sometimes.”

Haydon said he’s enjoyed hearing testimonies from the inmates, with one describing a work release program he was involved with and saying it provided a quiet place for him to be able to talk to God.

“They have to earn the right to come to this,” Haydon said. “It’s a very meaningful program.”

Haydon recommends people get involved with Kairos, whether they attend church or not.

“You always try to find ways to make your life meaningful,” Haydon said. “This has probably been the best thing for me to make my life meaningful.”

Twesme said the team is grateful for the generous support of church members, who help make the ministry successful with cookie donations.

“From the beginning, we’ve wanted our church to take ownership and they have,” Twesme said. “It’s like a NASCAR driver. While he may be the one driving the car, he needs the support of everyone with their own job function to be able to drive. While we may be the drivers, we could not keep it going without the family or our church members who keep it going.”

John Wainwright, who attends FBC in Lenoir City, said he became involved after hearing Twesme and Ken Kinzler talk about the ministry at a Christian men’s fellowship breakfast.

“I just felt that it was something that I should do,” Wainwright said. “It’s a big commitment. You’re going to training for six or seven Saturdays, and it’s 3 1/2 days in the prison. It’s a pretty incredible experience. It changes lives in the prison. The staff at the prison will tell you after a Kairos event, it’s different. It affects the whole prison.”

Wainwright described the meaning behind the cookie distribution.

“When I was in the process of collecting 300,000 cookies, I didn’t grasp the experience,” Wainwright said. “A dozen home-baked cookies is a treasure. That’s your way of showing love and earning trust. I never pictured myself hugging and loving on murderers. There were several who were convicted of murder. You develop a relationship, and there’s changed lives.”

He said the international ministry employs nine paid staff members.

“In that respect, it’s very efficient as far as costs go,” Wainwright added. “It gets the community involved. The people that bake the cookies, the people that make the posters. My grandkids made five different posters that went in. This is just overwhelming to them. We take them five meals over the weekend. The guests are not working, they’re there to enjoy the weekend. The servers are prior Kairos graduates. They serve with a smile. There’s definitely changed lives.”

“They’ve been more of a blessing to me than I could ever be to them,” Haydon added.

For more information on how to get involved or for instructions on how to donate cookies, contact the Community Church of Tellico Village at 865-458-1516.