Youth Return From Denver
It was a drizzly morning on June 5th when we set out on our drive to Denver. The nine of us with a few parents and Pastor Paul prayed for safety and guidance and Pastor Paul then blessed the vehicles. We were armed with blessings, an atlas, GPS in Wendy’s vehicle and walkie-talkies to keep us connected.
Our first day of driving held everything a good story is made of: laughter (lots of it), adventure (missing a few turns here and there) and suspense (very bad weather in Iowa). But we safely made it to our stop at Christ Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE after 14hrs of driving. Wendy and I were tired but excited to have finally made it this far.
The next morning we started out after breakfast and a shower at Shoemaker’s Truck Stop. We made it to our destination in Denver, CO by about 6:00pm.
There were a total of 4 different churches with us for the week. We were split up into 6 different groups and each group was named after a Star Wars character. Wendy’s group (Kasey Day, Rebecca Moore & Caitlin Schulte) was the C-3PO’s and mine (Michaila Day, Miranda Moore, Lael Huting & Jenny James) was the Ewoks.
Each group rotated to different work sites through out the week. Wendy’s group,
C-3PO’s were the only exception. They worked at The Salvation Army Red Shield and helped out with their day camp for children ages 5-12yrs. After a brief orientation the C-3PO’s walked into the gymnasium and were mauled by about 50 children! The group was instructed not to pick up or hug these children, but the children hugged our youth and held their hearts. The children craved the attention and our youth stepped up to the plate by playing “cops & robbers”, “hide and go seek” and “ring around the rosy”. Our youth were fun, entertaining, lovable and showed these children that they were not forgotten.
My group, the Ewoks, spent the first 2 days at a nursing home. We read stories, helped with laughing yoga, attended a church service with the residents, helped with music therapy, painted nails and served root beer floats. The residents loved having someone to talk to, they had stories to tell. Our youth left touched and humbled with prayers in their hearts for each of the residents they had met.
The last 2 days the Ewoks worked with Pastor John Gallegos. He had recently opened a church in Globeville, a suburb of Denver, and area that as Pastor John has put it, “has been forgotten about”. This particular neighborhood is rough. During the week one of the other church groups heard gun shots; while we were there you could hear yelling inside some homes. As we worked on cleaning up 2 blocks you would occasionally see teenagers walking around smoking a joint as if it were a cigarette.
Pastor John is in this particular neighborhood not to make these people religious but to simply let them know that Jesus has not forgotten them. By doing things such as picking up the neighborhood, mowing grass and helping when someone asks for assistance he is showing them God’s love without forcing it upon them.
During our next day with Pastor John we were working at the Denver Food Bank. This “food shelf” feeds over 1600 people per week with over 300 being children. Pastor John has been working with the local schools putting together food bags for more than 60 children so they will have food to eat on the weekends. Mr. G. the school principal said, “Some children will have 3 or 4 helpings of breakfast on Monday morning because they had little or no food to eat on the weekend”. It saddens him to see this happen to many of his pupils and he hopes this program will continue throughout the summer.
The C-3PO’s and the Ewoks were the hands and feet of Jesus through the week along with some fun. We went to Lookout Mountain with a view of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. We attended a hip-hop church worship service and on the last evening had a community cookout.
Our days and evenings were packed full of events and work by Friday morning we were ready to head home. As much as we were impressed by Denver we too left an impression.
Humbly submitted,
Holly Day
