HOW THIS GOT STARTED

Like many of the great ideas in the world, Koinonia was inspired by a man, experiencing one of the lowest valleys in his entire life, reconnecting with God and receiving divine inspiration. At 53 years old, I was in trouble with the law for the first time in my life, arrested and living in the county jail. Nothing in our life experiences can prepare the uninitiated for what it’s like to be locked up, 24 hours a day, with 47 other men in a windowless, 75′ x 75′ concrete room, where there’s a solitary television and a limited supply of playing cards, dominos, and chess/checker sets.

Having no idea if anyone would be willing to engage, I decided to craft one of my favorite “real world” games, Settlers of Catan, to play with other inmates to pass the time. By collecting the very limited resources at hand (milk cartons, worn-out playing cards, legal pad backings, colored pencil leads, etc.), and with the help of a couple of fellow inmates (and even guards), I was able to duplicate the game. This led to an unanticipated revolution of sorts in the pod. The game was a wild success, so much so that not only was the Seafearer’s expansion created, but I had to craft a second copy of the game due to the demand. Soon, two active games were being played almost constantly in the pod. One inmate even pried a small stone from the concrete walls and scribed the hex shapes into the stainless steel top of one table so we didn’t need the actual hexes anymore.

The truly inspiring part of this story is the transformative effects the games had on the inmate population, a prime example of which is a young man named Eli. He came into the pod as a gruff, seemingly unhappy inmate, who mostly kept to himself when he wasn’t cutting up with some of the other unruly youth in the pod. His initial reactions to people playing Catan were disapproving looks and exasperated headshakes. Soon, though, he began silently watching, taking an interest in the game, and not long after, he played his first round and quickly became one of the most avid players. The best part was watching him change, becoming happier, and enjoying the fellowship that playing the game provided. Oftentimes, our conversations would dive into religion and our walks with God. When I left the pod, Eli was a different young man from the angry one who walked in before.

Over the next couple of months, I was moved to several other locations in the jail, eventually landing in an 8-man “tank”. During that journey, I was able to finish making a copy of Ticket to Ride and Scrabble. When I arrived in the tank, I met “Kirby”. When he found out I made Catan up in the pod, he was immediately excited and practically demanded I make a copy for the tank too, which I was happy to do. So now, within months, I had made three copies of Catan that were now being played, along with Ticket to Ride and Scrabble.

During my time in the county jail, I communed daily with God, asking for his guidance on what He wanted me to do with the time He’d given me. I had spent the bulk of my previous life chasing the material things of this world, focused on everything BUT Him. Now, I realized I needed to understand and act on His purpose for me. By renewing my mind in Him (Romans 12:2), I received the impression that my experiences fashioning these games and essentially creating joy, inspiring hope, and fostering Christian fellowship in a cold, dark, and joyless place, for some of the most maligned and forgotten of His children, was the job He wanted me to pursue. During my personal Bible studies, I came across the word “koinonia” and my study Bible told me that it was a Greek word for “fellowship”. I knew then that this was the name, and knew that this was the mission.