Hi. I'm Kristin Jones and I've been asked to talk about why I give to St. Thomas'. I found the spiritual journeys of Bishop Dixon and Nancy Lee fascinating and inspiring. They changed my ideas about tithing. However, my story does not include the "T" word. My journey has been more modest.

Many years ago, as a second year student in seminary, I was called upon to serve as the assistant director of a prison ministry program at the Deep Meadow Correctional Center in Powhatan, Virginia. I must say, I accepted this offer with excitement and zeal. In retrospect, however, I should have been absolutely intimidated and frightened. One of the primary duties of this position was to organize a weekly two-hour worship service in the prison cafeteria each Thursday night for approximately two hundred prisoners. It was a weighty task that should have frightened me and the colleagues who went with me. After all, the guys to whom we ministered were incarcerated for any number of reasons, some for rather benign repeated infractions, but others were at Deep Meadow for more violent offenses.

Let's see, my spiritual journey begins in a farm outside of a small town in Kansas. I grew up in the faith of my parents- Roman Catholic. All in all, it was a positive religious experience for me. This was the beginning of my spiritual journey- even if I did not really understand what spirituality meant until many years later....My parents were Roman Catholic with a capital R and a capital C. We went to Mass every Sunday. Many times Saturday night and Sunday morning. And maybe also Wednesday night mass during the week. All holy days were observed. During Easter Holy Week we went to church 5 of the seven days of the week.

What does it mean to "know" and "experience" God? This seemingly simple and fundamental question is at the core of my life-long spiritual quest. My convoluted and erratic faith journey can be boiled down into this very basic question. I've tried to answer it through immersing myself in scripture, testing the waters various faith traditions such as Buddhism, Islam, and even exploring some alternative, "new age" forms of spirituality. Throughout these spiritual travels, I've envisioned God to be nothing more than the essential nature of this world, the peace one discovers by complete submission to a set of practices or actions and by being fully present in the here and now.