What I Learned in Denver

While I’ve been in Denver I’ve been able to observe the activities of Providence Church and Urban Ministry up close and behind the scenes.  Here are a few things I’m taking away from Denver:

Leadership:  The leadership cares deeply about the people in the church AND the people in the surrounding community.  They work quickly to address needs and are always looking for opportunities to serve this community better.  Loving their neighbors is their goal, and everything they do is done with intentionality.  They have a vision of bringing the kingdom of God to this neighborhood, and their passion for this ministry is inspirational.

Ministry: Wow!  This church runs 250-300 and has a tremendous amount going on.  They run programs to support people getting out of prison, and do many things in support of single-moms, widows and orphans.  Foster care is near and dear to their hearts and many of the elders of the church have foster children.  A program called Upstream is designed to move families out of poverty. 

PCULD:  Providence Center for Urban Leadership Development is another arm of the ministry here.  This is a rigorous two-year program designed to teach young leaders how to do urban ministry.  The participants gain experience by leading many of the events and programs that are developed.  It is not an easy program, but I can see that it is transforming lives.  While I’ve been here I’ve gotten to meet these young people, and they are wonderful.

Community:  When I’m at Camp of the Woods, one of the things I enjoy is living in community.  But I don’t know how that’s supposed to work when I get back home.  Here, they are doing the hard work of making community happen in their “real” lives.

Diversity:  The leadership is striving to make the diversity of the community be reflected in all aspects of the church.  The elders are from all different racial backgrounds.  The church has a refugee population and many languages are represented in their services.

Ray & Pattie:  It has been good to see Ray and Pattie working in this ministry.  While I was here Ray spoke for the prison ministry and Pattie spoke to the single moms.  I also tagged along to some of the leadership meetings that they had.  After being with them for a week I also became acquainted with some of their struggles and have a better idea of how to pray for them.

My church:  I look at what’s going on here, and see that we have many of the same ministries at Ewtonville.  But I’m seeing how we could do it more effectively.  I hope I can bring these ideas back and implement some of them in our church.

Road Block: Frozen High or Frozen Low?

If you've ever watched The Amazing Race you know that on each leg of the journey teams are presented with a road block.  At a road block teams are give a choice between two tasks that both have their own pros and cons.  One team member must complete the task before they can receive their next clue.  When I arrived in Denver I asked people here to help me think of an appropriate road block for this leg of my race.  Here are my choices:

Frozen High:  Drive into the Rocky Mountains and spend the afternoon tubing.  Then go to the Elvis theater and watch the movie Frozen.

Frozen Low:  Spend 36 hours on the streets of downtown Denver as a homeless person.

I chose Frozen High.  Duh.

Ray and I tubed at Copper Mountain while Pattie took pictures (she was afraid she might put her back out).  We made several runs down the tracks in the hour we had.  The weather was perfect and we had so much fun.  Every time we went down I screamed the whole way and Ray laughed the whole way.  One of the workers said, "I can tell you're have a good time."

 

 

We drove back down the mountain and took in this movie, in keeping with the theme of the day.

 

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I have to add an explanation about Frozen Low.  Ray's pastor heard about coming up with a road block, and it was his idea about the homeless simulation.  They actually run that simulation in the summer with groups that come to a summer missions program they operate.  Frozen Low was just a little more reality that I felt up to.  It's cold out there at night!  When I told his pastor I was opting for Frozen High he said,  "People will always choose comfort over transformation."  I joked with him, "I know this makes you think I'm a wimp... and I'm OK with that."

 

Actually, this road block was pretty tempting to me for two reasons.  It would have made a great story!  And also, it is very much more in keeping with what I have in mind for my Amazing Race.

 



"Touching" the World

Sunday at our church we had a whole day focused on missions.  We heard from Harry and Bea Ward about their work in Togo, West Africa.  Phil and I were both impressed with all that they had accomplished in their 12 years in Togo.  Harry gave a challenge that touched every age group in the crowd to consider what God might be calling them to do.  It was excellent.

 

We heard from a young lady who had spent three years in China.  She let us know that there are awesome opportunities for short term workers on the mission field.  We also heard from Greg Bartley, who always speaks with such passion.  He represents SCORE International, which works taking teams of students to play and put on sports clinics around the world.

 

 

I was happy to be able to speak on behalf of Camp of the Woods.  John Cofield joined me in sharing our heart for the ministry in a remote part of Canada.  It was great to be able to share what God is doing in us and through us as we work at COTW.

All this reminds me of a passage I read in Dr. Paul Brand’s book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, which  I have mentioned before.   In it, Dr. Brand makes some insightful connections between our physical bodies and the body of Christ.  The passage I will share here has to do with our skin and our sense of touch.   He says, “The skin of the Body of Christ, is an organ of communication: our vehicle for expressing love.”  Then he goes on to deepen the analogy…

“…it saddens me that the only thread connecting millions of giving Christians to [the needy] world is the distant, frail medium of direct mail.  Ink stamped on paper, stories formula-edited to achieve the best results—there is no skin involved, no sense of touch.

“If I only express love vicariously through a check, I will miss the incredible richness of response that a tactile loving summons up.  Not all of us can serve in the Third World where human needs abound.  But all of us can visit prisoners, take meals to shut-ins, and minister to unwed mothers or foster children.  If we choose to love only in a long-distance way, WE will be deprived, for skin requires regular contact if it is to remain sensitive and responsive.

“Again, the best illustration of this truth is Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God living on this planet.  The book of Hebrews sums up his experience on earth by declaring that we now have a leader who can be TOUCHED with the feelings of our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15).  God saw the need to come alongside us, not just love us at a distance.  How could a God who was spirit fully manifest love except through human flesh?  Jesus is said to have “learned obedience from what He suffered” (Heb.5:8).  A stupefying concept:  God’s Son learning through His experiences on the earth.  Before taking on a body, God had no personal experience of physical pain or of the effect of rubbing against a needy person.  But God dwelt among us and touched us, and Jesus’ time spent here allows him to more fully identify with our pain.

“The ideal, then, is to give love to someone you can touch—a neighbor, a relative, a needy person in your community…

“Touch can be second hand, both in the human body and in the church.  Touch corpuscles are located deep inside my skin, and the activities on the surface can indeed reverberate through other cells, conveying the sense of touch.  I give to India through medical workers at the leprosy hospital there [or Camp of the Woods, or Togo, etc.].  They apply my love in person, and I expect from them a sensitive report on the results of that love.  It is my responsibility to enter into their work by learning about them, reading their reports, and praying for them.  As I pray for those cells on the front lines, I sense their pain and struggle.  We can all keep contact with members of the Body overseas and use them as our own personal touch corpuscles.”

That’s what my Amazing Race is all about.  I want to TOUCH the ministries that I support around the world.  And then I want to bring word of that touch back to my church, to stir the hearts of our members and lead them to greater involvement in many places around the world.

Amazing Race

I’ve been a fan of the Amazing Race for a long time. I’ve even created my own versions of the Amazing Race for camp and also just for fun.  A couple of years ago Mary agreed to be my partner, and we actually sent in a video entry to try to get on the race.  But it didn’t happen.

At the beginning of this year I was doing some goal setting and thinking about some things I wanted to accomplish.  That’s when the idea of running my own Amazing Race came to me.  If I can’t run it for a million bucks, I’ll run it for a better purpose: for the Kingdom of God.

I made a list of all the places I want to go in the next few years, while I have the strength and health to travel, and the financial means to pull it off.  My list includes several ministries that I’ve been following for quite a long time.  Among my destinations are Orphanage Emmanuel in Honduras, The House in Austria with my dear friend Robin, and the schools that Harry and Bea Ward talked about in Togo, West Africa.  The list goes on and also includes visits to my college roommate Cheryl in Budapest, Hungary, and my sister Penny in Bulgaria.

So today I am off on the first leg of my Amazing Race.  I am flying to Denver to see my brother Ray and his family.  I’ve been to Denver before, but this time my purpose is to see the ministry he and Pattie are involved in.  I want to experience firsthand how they are trying to reach an inner-city community with the Gospel of Christ.

I’m staying a week and I hope to have lots to talk about here.  I have a lot going on in my life that I’m excited to talk to Ray and Pattie about.  They have been invaluable council for me over the years, and I need some of their insight for the days ahead.

Amazing Race (Pam Kiper style), here I go!