Every Sunday morning a small group of people gathers in the southeast corner of Cherry Hills’ main lobby. They stand around the Missions & Outreach kiosks talking with the leaders of upcoming missions trips, learning about activities being planned with our urban church partners, and a number of other volunteer opportunities, but regardless the conversation, most are based on the same desire – to serve God and his family.

Newcomers to the church receive an introductory brochure, and after a quick reading they begin to understand what it is that the church values. Our vision statement is very clear; we are

A congregation mobilized in service to …

transform our community

elevate the urban poor and

impact our nation and world

… for Christ.

As soon as the teams are commissioned by the congregation, they head out to points near and far. The rest of us live vicariously through the teams’ online blogs and their emails and photos. When they get home, the stories begin to circulate – stories about the

When they get home, the stories begin to circulate – stories about the poverty of bodies, cultures, hearts and souls

poverty of bodies, cultures, hearts and souls. We begin to love the small children and their families, the men and women of all ages pictured in front of the orphanages, homes or schools that were touched by the members of our church family.

And yet, the greatest value at Cherry Hills may not be one that newcomers notice right away. The greatest value may be the way Christ transforms, elevates and impacts the people who actually do the serving.

As summer folds into autumn, you’ll be hearing many stories about when and where the teams went, what they did there, whom they served, and why they want to serve again. Here are a few more stories that reveal how the faith of a few has been changed forever. As you read, you might just hear God speaking to you. If he says it’s your turn to serve, a great place to begin is the Missions & Outreach web page.

Within Our Walls

Manna is Cherry Hills’ food and clothing bank, but it also offers haircuts, medical services and other seasonal opportunities. Early on Tuesday evenings a circle of Manna volunteers meets just inside the doors of the TreeHouse. Men and women, holding hands, pray for concerns within the circle and give thanks for the opportunity to serve the participants not only in our area, but also within our congregation. Then the participants are welcomed in for a brief devotional time before the activity begins.

Once a month there is a craft ministry for the covey of children that come along. Robin Daniel is a 12-year-old Manna volunteer in charge of choosing what craft will be provided each month. So far the kids have colored pages of God’s animals, covered foam

Robin and Chloe are just beginning to understand the impact of what they are doing, and my prayer is that by volunteering at Manna now, they are just beginning a lifetime of service to God and his children

stars and door hangers with beads and stickers, and painted wooden crosses they can hang up when they get home. “I like helping other kids learn about God,” Robin says. “I learn more about God, too.”

On the evenings Robin volunteers, she sits opposite her 14-year-old sister Chloe at the school lunch table helping the little kids with gluing and coloring and spelling out names. As their mom, I stand back a bit and watch how they interact with these 3-10 year olds who are learning that God loves them and that the “big kids” are manifestations of that love. Robin and Chloe are just beginning to understand the impact of what they are doing, and my prayer is that by volunteering at Manna now, they are just beginning a lifetime of service to God and his children.

Heading Downtown

Denver’s urban center is home to a handful of Cherry Hills’ church partners, one of which is New Life in Christ, pastored by Jack LaPietra. Last spring the church staff spent a day at New Life mowing lawns, painting bathrooms, cleaning carpets, replacing basketball hoops, and preparing food for a Cinco De Mayo dinner celebration with the neighboring community.

Cherry Hills staff work day

Roxanne Dennett, congregational life department ministry coordinator, doesn’t normally enjoy working in the yard. “But going to New Life, and being on the team assigned to work on the lawn at the youth house, I loved it,” Roxanne says. “I raked that yard until I was sore.”

The yard crew cleaned up trash and dug up logs, they mowed, raked, and planted lots and lots of flowers. “Everybody just grabbed a tool,” Roxanne says, “and Eric Dixon, from the small groups department, cleaned up the cobwebs and the old leaves from a log on the side of the house and made really creative yard art out of it. It was really cool.”

Roxanne and the yard crew drove home that day knowing that something they’d worked on looked better than it had, which they prayed would help draw more people to the church. “It felt so good to look at the end result,” she says. “I didn’t socialize that day, didn’t touch anyone, I just worked and reflected on my contribution, "I don’t like yard work, but look at what I’m doing. Here I am, loving it, old dead leaves and all." It was very special. What changed in me was my realization that it was just a small gift that I could give back. I could do that for Jesus, for my God.”

America

With the economic situation across the globe, many people wanted to participate in missions projects but needed to stay closer to home.

The Border –

What was once a thriving short term mission trip to the Mexican border town of Juarez is now on hold because of drug oriented violence. Missions Ministries (MM), our ministry partner there,

Cary Cantonwine in Juarez, Mexico

realized last winter that the lack of teams had resulted in a shortage of housing promised to the impoverished families living in the colonias.

MM figured that if the teams couldn’t travel to Juarez, the houses certainly could, and Raising the Walls for Juarez was born. Three homes have been built in the parking lots of Cherry Hills since May. Missions Ministries and Cherry Hills looks forward to welcoming back the teams once everything settles down.

The West –

On June 27, a team of 16 people from Denver drove 500 miles north to Lame Deer, Montana, where they would partner for a week with Morning Star Baptist Church.

Pastor Dean Smith, his wife Keli and their three children have ministered to the Northern Cheyenne for seven or eight years on a reservation that is the polar opposite of Highlands Ranch. Team leader Paul Meyers says, “As you enter the reservation, you immediately begin to notice that things are different. Most of the homes have broken windows, there are no yards, only dirt in most cases, and trash and other discarded items are everywhere. You will see kids and dogs wandering the streets, you will notice the sweat lodges, and you will feel the despair and hopelessness of the life there.”

This was Paul’s 5th trip to Lame Dear – his 4th as leader, and his goal of going where God is actually working was met with the agenda for this year: beautification projects including planting flowers and painting the inside of the church, prayer walking, a community cookout, and outreach events including sports. For the first time, a team from Cherry Hills was invited to attend the Northern Cheyenne Powwow. All these activities take place in a community where the life expectancy is far below the rest of the country. Abuse is rampant, addiction is commonplace and all this is in a spiritual environment where the old traditions of the sweat lodge, the Sun Dance and the medicine wheel are still practiced.

Birthday party with the local kids of Lame Deer

Paul believes his biggest “walk-away” has been Pastor Dean and his family. “They are just grinding it out there on a daily basis. It truly is a battleground and they are on the front lines, so we come up to support them, to encourage them and to give them a break from what they are dealing with. They’ve been called there to serve, and every year I leave that place wondering if that is something I could do.”

Pastor Dean loves Cherry Hills, too. “It is necessary for us to establish relationships with other bodies of Christ,” he says, “for other churches to come and stand beside us, to encourage us and establish relationships between the two different people groups: Indian and non-Indian.”

Both men feel the greatest benefit to the reservation, and to the Smiths, is the continual team visits. “Next year, when you guys come up, we’ll probably have more individuals here. That is my prayer because that interaction is very necessary in order for us to grow as a stronger body of Christ without having to rely and depend upon mission groups to come in to do things our congregation should be doing themselves. While we are yet a vibrant body of Christ, and we are growing, it would be nearly impossible for us to expand on our ministries that God has led us to do without the help of the missions teams.”

Dean Smith also mentioned that without the annual visits, the greatest detriment would be to his wife Keli and himself. “I don’t think the missions teams understand fully the appreciation that we feel as non-natives. As a planted pastor, in what I call an international mission field with a completely different people group, it blesses us beyond belief. It sets us up on even ground. You could take all the construction projects, all the kids meetings, BBQ community cookouts, but if we didn’t have the personal interaction with the teams that come up, we would be so ineffective. We just wouldn’t be able to do it.”

You could take all the construction projects, all the kids meetings, BBQ community cookouts, but if we didn’t have the personal interaction with the teams that come up, we would be so ineffective. We just wouldn’t be able to do it.”

When the pastor chokes up thinking about the teams, it’s easy to see his feelings through the tears. “We love to see teams arrive, especially Cherry Hills. That’s a great thrill for us every summer. And we really hate to see them leave because that becomes…very personal. The greatest moment is to see everyone arrive; the saddest moment is to see everyone go home.”

Paul Meyers would encourage us to consider Lame Deer for next year. “It’s a wonderful trip to get to know and understand a people and a culture that, quite frankly, there’s a lot of rub there. There’s a lot of distrust, there’s a lot of challenges between the Red man and the White man. If you are looking for something different here in our back yard, this is a great trip. Lame Deer is a fertile mission field, a very doable trip, and it makes a difference because we keep going back year after year so they know that we care, that we are here to serve, that we’re here to love them.”

The Far East

The ten people who traveled to China in late June represented five different churches, and they went to teach English to school kids.

Peace

While there, the team worshipped in a Chinese Christian church comparable in size to Cherry Hills. “It seemed like a real church. They had a choir and some people were baptized. But there was no Easter or Christmas. You can’t really evangelize in the church,” says Susan Shaw, one of the leaders with previous long term mission experience in Indonesia.

Susan loves to be on the mission field. “It refreshes my faith and it gives me a joy in my work that I can’t get here,” she says. “You can see the spiritual warfare there. Faith here in the United States is too easy. I need God now, I need his immediate presence; I long for it.”

But in China there was a question of whether or not the students would be able to understand God because the teaching had to skirt around the issue. Susan’s students were 15–17 year olds in high school that were generally better English speakers. They spent time with her at dinner, as did the two translators. On one occasion a student’s parent, a member of the communist committee, dropped by for a visit, and the subject quickly changed to food.

Susan led her classes to discuss faith by asking the right kinds of questions. Why are you on earth? How do you stay healthy physically, emotionally, and spiritually? “You ask situational questions from their lives.” As an example, Susan might ask, “Your parents own a shop, and they employ your friend. The friend steals from them. What would you do? Say, “I wouldn’t care,” or say, “Put it back,” or say, “I would tell my parents and not be friends anymore.”

“How you change their worldview is through friendship. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Chinese culture is more than 5,000 years old, so how do you answer a faith question such as one student posed about whether or not Jesus would be mad if the believer continued to practice ancestor worship?

There is also the Asian point of view with which to contend. “You have to leave them with points to ponder,” Susan says. “How you change their worldview is through friendship. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And because there is such a cost to the Chinese, there has to be follow up.”

Would Susan Shaw go to China again? “Yes. I want to learn more about the persecuted church. I want to know more about planting churches and how we can encourage them, help them, the young and the women.” Originally her mission was to support, but it ended up being evangelism.

Back Home Again

The stories are rich and varied, but ultimately the faith of every short term missionary is changed. In a 2007 issue of Moody Magazine, Paul Borthwick wrote, “Through short term missions God changes lives, enlarges our vision of himself, transforms us out of our racism and stereotypes, and calls us into his mission to the world.”

Cherry Hills’ vision statement gives us purpose, but when we mobilize for Christ, the end result is that we also are transformed by our community, are elevated by our relationships with the urban poor, and we are forever impacted by the family of God in our nation and in our world. Why not join the team?

Do you have a story?

The communications department at Cherry Hills Community Church is always interested in hearing how God is at work in the lives of people in our congregation. If you have a story you would like to tell, or know someone else with an inspiring story, please contact us.

Carrie Daniel
303.325.8306