Spring Break: Denver, CO

Jeff Mickey is Orchard Hill's college director and wrote this post. He and Karla Chestnut, who also works in college ministry, along with their families, led college students to Denver, CO, this Spring Break.

My family went on the Denver Spring Break trip with the Chestnuts and 27 college students. We partnered with Denver Urban Ministries and had the opportunity to learn a lot about the city and homelessness, and serve in a number of different capacities with a variety of compassionate organizations and ministries. We painted houses with Brothers Redevelopment (an organization that provides affordable housing and home repair/maintenance to people in need), visited with adults with neurological disorders at the King Adult Daycare facility, packed food and reclaimed salvaged items at the Food Bank of the Rockies, prepared medical supplies for shipment to third world countries at another cool mission, served meals with the Denver Rescue Mission and Catholic Worker Soup Kitchen, packed books for distribution at ARCO Thrift Store which serves the needs of the poor, toured the city and were educated on the needs and different organizations providing for those needs in LODO (lower downtown Denver), heard a powerful story from Andrew - a former drug addict and homeless man now serving the poor and homeless through Urban Peak Mission, and discussed the role of the church in advocacy with our local, state and federal government as a means to promote justice.
We also enjoyed a Denver Nuggets game, skiing at Loveland, and some fun time to play, worship, and build community in small groups. I think the web address for DenUm is www.denum.org.
Our students and families were deeply moved by the stories of the people who live on the margins and are mostly forgotten. We were impressed and found hope in the number of people who are trying like crazy to reach out in love and provide mercy, and also do something to try to fix the causes of poverty and homelessness. We were challenged to consider how our faith compels us to go to hard places and to consider the values of justice and mercy in our own communities back home. I think mostly, when I looked into the faces of the 800 homeless people who came for a meal at the St. Francis Center on Friday afternoon, I was struck by the difference in attitude and spirit among the people. Surely external factors influence this. But some people were totally defeated, resigned to giving up. They were just there for a meal so they could survive another day. Others still had a spark in their eyes, a smile on their faces, hope in their hearts. And it just really hit me that while the food is really important and critical, we have something even more important to offer these people. We have the hope of Jesus. We need to bring both the physical and spiritual bread of life to these hurting people.