Leadville Christmas Project

We are launching a new project for the kids in Leadville to make sure each student receives a Christmas present this year. We are collecting school supplies, toiletry items, and small gifts to pack boxes. Our goal is 15 presents per grade level (Pre-K through 4).

If you choose to pack a box for a child, please do not seal or wrap it, and please label it with the age and gender that should receive it. You may also give items that can be used to fill boxes or wrapping paper. We also need people to help assemble and wrap the boxes, and deliver the gifts to Leadville the first week of December.

If you would like to participate, please send an email to meredith@wearetheriver.com.

Journey Chapel kids update

In June I was invited to Journey Chapel to share what the River is doing to serve the people in Leadville, CO. I spoke with elementary students in a missions class - about 10 students. They were serving in their church's coffee bar and could use the money they made toward any mission they chose as a class, perhaps Leadville. Tonight I returned to Journey Chapel to the missions class to speak with the kids about Compassion International. When I entered the classroom, there were several tables overflowing with school supplies the kids had purchased to donate to Westpark Elementary School in Leadville. Wow! What a blessing!

Collecting School Supplies for Leadville

The time has finally come to collect school supplies!

Office Max, Office Depot, and Staples are all running their big school supplies sales this week. All advertise "while supplies last." Items are available for pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters....limits are applied but we can each get supplies for very little cost to us. Walmart has crayons, glue sticks, spiral notebooks, and other supplies for 15-20 cents. If you prefer not to do the shopping but still wish to contribute, you can make a monetary donation and someone will shop in your place. You may drop off your donations at the Church at Woodmoor/The River at the corner of Hwy 105 and Furrow Rd. in Monument.

We will be taking school supplies to Leadville when we send our home-repair "Advance Team" August 29. The "Advance Team" will be meeting with families to assess their home repair needs, taking measurements, and making supply lists.

"Advance Team" trip postponed

We are sending an "Advance Team" to Leadville to assess the needs for housing repairs, compile lists of supplies, etc. Because there are no Home Depots in Leadville, we need to have supplies ready to take up ahead of time. Also, this allows us time to get better deals than simply buying retail. I have several leads on windows and other materials at or below cost.

The Elementary School is closed for the summer and the Principal is currently our only contact in Leadville. Because of this, the "Advance Team" trip is being rescheduled for early to mid August.

Leadville update - Pictures available

As you have read in previous blog posts, the River has "adopted" Westpark Elementary School in Leadville, CO. We have sent sweatshirts, coats, books, and puzzles. We recently were able to deliver bikes (1 new, 2 previously-loved) to be used as prizes for their Reading Program.

These kids were called into the Principal's office one day (ooooooh!) and were each handed a brand new ski jacket or hoody sweatshirt the River had shipped to the school. The kids were so excited they asked if they could call their parents immediately and share the good news.



Thanks to the generous donation by Criterium Bike Store (on Corporate Center Drive in Colorado Springs - the *BEST* bike store ever!), this young man received a brand new bike and helmet as the Grand Prize in the Reading Program held by the school. According to Criterium's owner the bike was sent by mistake over a year ago and she didn't feel right selling it. We know God makes no mistakes and it was no accident! He had planned this for more than a year!

Thanks to the generous donation of families of the River, this young lady received a previously-loved-but-not-worn-out pink bike and helmet. This was also a prize in the Reading Program held by the school.

Want to know more? Join our fan page on Facebook, or better yet, join us! If you are in the Colorado Springs/Monument/Castle Rock area or ever visit this area, we would love to have you join us! Check out our webpage at http://www.wearetheriver.org/ for more information.

Encouraging our brave soldiers

Please read the plea below and help by sending an encouraging card. There will blank cards available for the next few Sundays at the River services (5pm Sundays at the Church at Woodmoor - Furrow and Hwy 105).

There is a wounded soldier at the Fisher House in Fort Sam Houston by the name of Sgt. Daniel Thornhill. He lost both his legs and was burned on 56 percent of his body while serving his country in Iraq.

Thornhill has been at the Fisher House for a year and his parents are reaching out for support. They are asking that as many as possible service members, veterans and others send him a card to show him how much we love him for what he has sacrificed for his country. His parents are worried about his emotional status and he rarely has visitors.

Let's help this soldier and send him lots of cards:

Sgt. Daniel Thornhill

Fort Sam Houston Fisher House

3623 George C. Beach Road

Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234

Seeking church partnership in Leadville

We are currently working on finding a new church contact in Leadville. The pastor previously recommended to me is leaving for warmer weather. The idea behind trying to partner with a local church is that a church in Leadville is in a better position to minister to and serve the people there long-term.  

Three people have suggested the Lutheran church in Leadville on separate occasions and I now have a phone number and pastor's name. I also had a long conversation with a pastor at a Lutheran church here in Monument that has experience working with the churches in Leadville. He explained that the mentality of folks in a mountain town is different that what we see here on the front range and may present some challenges. He also warned that the locals' apathy toward the Mexican resort workers will be a huge discouragement. Many there think poor people got themselves in that situation and should be able to work their way out of it. I think that misconception is common and not in anyway limited to mountain communities.

Compassion International explains that poverty is a lack of hope due to a lack of choices and opportunity. Poor people are not lazy - as hard as they work, they cannot get out of the cycle they are in. These people make so little money they cannot save up for unexpected expenses and have difficulty buying the bare necessities. Each paycheck they must decide to eat, pay one bill, or save up to have the car fixed. Without the car they cannot work, and if they cannot work, they cannot make money, but they need to eat, so the car doesn't get fixed, so they cannot work, and so the cycle goes.

We must keep in mind that it is not up to any of us to change their minds and convince them to help those around their community. We can show them the hundreds of bible verses regarding the poor and can explain why they need to help until we are blue in the face. Ultimately, we are asked to obey God by being His hands and feet. Only He can change their hearts, and ours can be softened in the process of asking theirs to be softened.

Delivery Sunday

Sunday morning I attended Mountain Crest Baptist Church in Leadville, Colorado with the principal of Westpark Elementary school. We unloaded the suburban (not a small task) and shared stories over lunch.

All told, we delivered more than 200 ski jackets and sweatshirts (much of which was brand new), boxes of puzzles and books, and other miscellaneous clothes. We also delivered 2 used bikes with helmets, and a brand new bike and new helmet. The new bike and helmet were donated by Criterion Bike Shop in Colorado Springs, CO! (We are BIG fans of that bike store!!!)

Upon my return I was approached by several members of the church letting me know they have items they want to donate to the kids at Westpark Elementary School. We are also planning a work weekend in which we will make as many home repairs as possible for the families in Leadville. (More to come on that!)

The next set of goals for the Leadville community is the work weekend and another trip with a suburban full of clothes, books, and soccer balls. We will also be collecting school supplies closer to the end of the summer.

More coats!

Thanks to a tip from a River member about the 99-cent sale at the Salvation Army yesterday, we were able to purchase 78 sweatshirts and ski jackets for the kids in Leadville.  It took 4 people and 4 shopping carts to haul everything to the car.  

Imagine the inside of a Suburban with the seats removed.  Now imagine that space has been packed by a boy scout so every possible nook and cranny is filled.  There is room for the driver, but not much else!  

This will be such a blessing to the children of Leadville!  Thank you to everyone that helped make this trip possible through generous donations!  We will be going up there again soon, so keep collecting!

May 13, 2009

I continue to be amazed by the generosity of God's people!  I am not the kind of person to ask for help or money, even if its not for me.  I once took an assessment to determine the career path I should take and the results included "Do NOT go into sales!"  This weakness of mine has not limited God in what he wants to accomplish for the kids in Leadville.  

This week alone I have had 3 people offer boxes of clothes, and one family has offered to donate more bikes.  At a community garage sale a woman gave me some money to help pay for all of the ski jackets I was buying.  I hadn't asked for any of it - the nice people just wanted to help.  

I am meeting with the generous principal who pays for so many things for the kids at her school out of her own pocket on Sunday morning.  Although she lives in a nearby town, she is coming to church with me in Leadville so I can meet the pastor and talk about other partnership opportunities between our church and theirs.  

Will you please pray for us - for our meeting Sunday morning and our church vote Sunday night?  (The vote is to make the River backing of the Leadville community official.)  Based on the response so far from the members, I think the vote will go well!  

May 3, 2009

Our church recently learned of a community with great need.  Westpark Elementary School in Leadville, CO has almost 80% of the kids on free or reduced lunches.  Many of the kids come to school without coats, hats, gloves, even shoes.  They are lacking in books and school supplies.  There are many opportunities to serve in the Leadville community:  clothing donations, home-repair projects, church partnerships, etc.

We presented the Leadville idea at church tonight.  The response was wonderful!  We had requests to help, wonderful suggestions of ways to help (ways I never would have thought of, like asking the local schools for their lost-and-found coats), and offers of donations.  

Our church is The River, currently meeting at the Church at Woodmoor in Monument, CO Sunday nights at 5.  

www.wearetheriver.com

How I got started...

In the summer or fall of 2008 I watched "Second Chance." In the movie a pastor learned that he couldn't simply throw money at an inner-city church in order to change things - he had to roll up his sleeves and get involved with the people.  I recognized myself in this since my spiritual gift is "throwing money at the problem." During the movie I felt the Spirit making sure I was paying close attention to the message and telling me to get ready for something big, but to wait.  Several months later Mike Jiles called to say they had met as a staff at the River and my name had been mentioned for the Director of Children's ministry position. I had mixed emotions about it.  While I love kids, it would be time-consuming, and there are elements of children's ministry that just aren't part of my gifting (like teaching).  While I fasted and prayed, I felt the answer was, "Not yet.  Wait."  So I did.  I also asked that God speak to me through a dream as He does with so many in the bible.  That night I had a dream that I said no to the position and immediately had a wave of peace washing over me.  

Meanwhile, I was becoming more involved with Compassion International and had applied to be an Advocate.  I prayed God would use me to help the kids get sponsored and that he would use me for something much bigger than me - something so obviously Him and something huge.  I began reading the book "Beyond Jabez" which goes deeper into how to pray the prayer of Jabez.  While reading each chapter I prayed as the book directed, always thinking my borders would be expanded and He would use me through Compassion, but not asking for specifics since I didn't want to limit Him.  I was getting a little annoyed by all of the stories and examples in the book of how prayers were answered in a matter of days. Knowing I had been told to wait I knew my answer wouldn't come that quickly.  

As I reached the halfway point of the book I had dinner with friends including Mike Jiles who told me he had a story that "is sooooo Meredith!"  He told me about a huge need in the town of Leadville where almost 80% of the children live at or below poverty level.  He had a vision for the River to help the town by bringing them VBS, school supplies, coats, etc.  He then told me the staff had decided to put off hiring a children's director and instead wanted to find someone to head up "Externally-Focused" ministries.  He asked me to pray about taking the position. That night I emailed Mike to ask when he would be going to Leadville again and if I could go with him.  Craig and I had just cleaned out our basement and had boxes of clothes, school supplies, and books we were planning to take to Goodwill.  I was also praying God would show me His will regarding the position.  

The next morning as I read the next chapter of "Beyond Jabez" I realized this Director position was exactly what I had already been praying about for weeks.  I didn't need to pray about it because the offer was its own answer to prayer.  At this writing I don't know how he is going to use me, but I am filled with nothing but excitement and eager anticipation of what He will do.