Friday, 6/30: P4AP Early Registration Ends – Saturday, 7/1: Prayer Walk on East Colfax

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The banner above says most of what needs to be said. So, hopefully, I can keep this short.
 
This Friday, June 30th, is the last day you can register for Pedal 4A Purpose 2017 at the “Early Registration” rates of $30/individual and $70/family (3+). On July 1st, rates go to $35/individual and $80/family. Note – The date of this year’s event is Saturday, September 23rd. Note also that by popular demand, we have added a Run/Walk this year. For more information or to register, go to www.Pedal4APurpose.com.
 
On Saturday, July 1st, ROP is joining with our 5 other Flourish East Colfax collaborators in sponsoring a Prayer Walk on East Colfax. All the churches in our northwest Aurora area have been invited and you are invited too. We will meet for just a few minutes at 9:30 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Library (98998 E. Colfax Ave.) to give some very basic instructions and then two groups will leave the library, one going west the other going east. The groups will circle back to the library where we will have a quick debrief and closing prayer. A flier for our prayer walk is below.
 
Whether it is for a bike ride, a run/walk or a prayer walk, I hope you will consider joining us for one or more od these upcoming events.

His Heart for People and Relational Skills Make Tom a Great Fit for His New Role

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Restoration Outreach Programs is pleased to announce that Tom Adams will be joining ROP’s staff as our Associate Executive Director, effective July 1st. In this position, Tom will be partnering with Kent Scroggs in all aspects of leading ROP’s ministry with a primary emphasis on fundraising and development. By way of introduction, here is a little of Tom’s story.

Tom grew up near Portland, OR. After graduating from the University of Portland with a business degree, Tom joined the military. There he connected with a small group of soldiers who looked forward to a weekly chapel service where God started speaking to him. After leaving the military, Tom heard a local evangelist speak the words that changed his life, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” A relationship with Jesus was the answer to Tom’s search for greater purpose and meaning.

After surrendering his life to Christ, Tom had the opportunity to preach for a year through a Christain ministry at Zion National Park where he met his soon to be wife, Stephanie. After the year at Zion, Tom eventually moved to Denver where he got engaged to Stephanie. Together, they ministered overseas with YWAM prior to getting married in 2005.

Tom and Stephanie have now been married for 12 years. They have 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls, ages 11 years to 6 mos. They have been members of Bridgeway Church in Denver since 2003.

Tom has been coordinating a lunch outreach ministry for 5 years on the 16th street mall while working in the oil and gas industry. Notwithstanding limited direct fund-raising experience, Tom has successfully raised funds for his church and for several mission trips. More importantly, we believe Tom’s strong relational skills and his heart to see people’s lives transformed and used in service of God’s Kingdom will make him a great fit for his new role at ROP.

Please join with all of us in praying for Tom and his family as he transitions into ministry at ROP.

One Week Done – One or (with your help) Two Weeks to Go

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Today (Thursday) was the last day of ROP’s first week of Summer Day Camp.  The theme of this year’s Day Camp is “More than Conquerors”, taken from Romans 8:37.  Each day of camp focuses on one sport and one aspect of being a “conqueror” as follows:
  • Monday – Soccer – We are more than conquerors when we Practice with Purpose
  • Tuesday – Basketball – We are more than conquerors when we Listen to my Leaders
  • Wednesday – Volleyball – We are more than conquerors when we are Courageous
  • Thursday – Badminton – We are more than conquerors when we Restore our Minds and Bodies
Walter Thompson, ROP’s Director of Children’s Ministries, taught on each of these themes using stories from the life of King David. We thank God for great weather and a great opportunity to make a difference in the lives of some disadvantaged but very cute and wonderful kids. We got off to a slow start but by the end of the week we had about 30 kids with a couple more coming every day as word of mouth spread.
We are looking forward to even more kids participating at next week’s Day Camp as the word continues to spread, and we are hoping to be able to provide a third week of Day Camp if we can mobilize just a few more volunteers.  So, if you are available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, 6/26 through Thursday, 6/29, and have a heart to bless some pretty awesome kids with the gift of your time and attention, I would encourage you to contact Walter at walter@restorationoutreachprograms.org or 720-577-7111.  He will be glad to answer your questions and fill you in on all you need to know. And, if you choose to participate, I can assure you of one thing – you will be the one most blessed.

One quick reminder:  Pedal 4A Purpose 2017 is scheduled for Saturday, September 23rd. Registration fees go about on July 1st. Click here for more information or to register.

Most of the Assets Needed to Transform Our Neighborhood are Already Here

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Research by the Asset Based Community Development Institue shows that 85% of the assets needed to bring a neighborhood out of poverty already exist within that neighborhood.  The challenge is to identify and then mobilize those assets. Identyfying assets within our neighborhood was the primary objective for last Thursday’s Neighborhood Meeting hosted by ROP in partnership with our friends at Agape Missionary Church.
About 25 people gathered at Thursday’s meeting.  We started by identifying our gifts of the head (knowledge), hands (skills) and heart (passions) and stuck them on the wall (see attached photo). Next, we assigned all the gifts on the wall to one of the five issues identified at our first meeting, two weeks previously. The issues were and are Unity, Crime, Youth, Pride (trash) and Housing. The final step for the evening was for each of our participants to choose one of the 5 issues we would like to work on. We will pick it up from there at our next meeting on 6/28.
It was both a fun and exciting evening, to see so many gifts identified and begin to be mobilized. Our community may never be the same. Stay tuned.
A quick reminder: Pedal 4A Purpose 2017 is scheduled for Saturday, September 23rd. Registration fees go about on July 1st. Click here for more information or to register.

Check Out the Latest Happenings at ROP

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The latest bi-monthly edition of ROP’s eNewsletter – Urban Voices – is now available on ROP’s website.
This 2-page edition of Urban Voices includes the following articles:
    • If You Had a Magic Wand and Could Change One Thing, What Would It be? – That was one of three questions that we asked participants in our first Neighborhood Meeting on May 25th. Kent Scroggs (that’s me) shares about this important step as ROP moves forward in implementing Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) in our community.
    • Story Telling – Great for Engaging Kids – Great for Sharing God’s Word – ROP Youth Director, Matt Smith, shares how story-telling has become a key tool for ROP in reaching out to the kids of our community. He is so excited about it that ROP is co-sponsoring a September 9th training on this very effective method for sharing God’s Word.
    • “I Always Wanted to be a Missionary” – ROP thanks God for Sharalyn Warren and the more than seven years she served the people of our community as a Work Readiness Tutor and an English as a Second Language Teacher. In this article, Sharalyn shares some of her experiences and lessons learned as a “missionary” at ROP.
Click on this link – Urban Voices – June 1, 2017 Edition. (If you cannot see the embedded version, just click on the link below it to access the current and older editions of Urban Voices.)
Hope you enjoy this edition of Urban Voices.

P4AP Early Registration Deadline Extended to June 30th

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September may still be a few months off, but our early registration deadline is coming up in just one month on Friday, June 30th.  If that date looks odd, it is…due to an email database error, a number of prior participants in Pedal 4A Purpose did not receive notice of the deadline, so in all fairness to them, the early registration deadline has been moved to June 30th. So if you would like to get a date on your calendar to help motivate some training and save a few bucks in the process, I encourage you to think about registering now before the registration fee goes up on July 1st (from $30 to $35 per individual and from $70 to $80 per family of 3 or more).
Details regarding this year’s Pedal 4A Purpose are provided below and on the event website – www.pedal4apurpose.com
In addition to being an important part of ROP’s annual fundraising efforts, Pedal 4A Purpose…
  • Provides a great opportunity for bike riders of all abilities to enjoy a supported ride with family and friends. It offers rides from as short as you like (5.5 miles to first aid station) to as long as 63 miles (with 4,522 feet of total elevation gain).
  • Provides a great venue at Bear Creek Church and food provided by Chick-fil-A.
  • Offers supporting churches and other nonprofits an opportunity to partner with ROP and share the funds raised by their teams up to 80/20 with ROP. (Youth groups and short-term mission teams please take note.)
  • Offers a lot of great prizes for top fund-raisers and all participants. Our grand prize again this year is a $1,000 gift certificate from Schwab Cycles. Last year, all of our riders received a prize!
Please also note there are three significant new things about Pedal 4A Purpose 2017
  • New Time – Pedal 4A Purpose 2017 has been moved from early June to Saturday, September 23rd. This timing works better for us and we hope it will work better for our riders as well with less competition from other events and the likelihood (no guarantees) of better weather.
  • New Start/Stop Location – Our base of operations has moved from Denver Seminary to Bear Creek Church (3101 S. Kipling St., Lakewood). While the start-stop has changed, the Main Loop and Deer Creek Challenge Loop remain the same, sort of. The Main Loop will run the opposite direction (clockwise) and an additional restop has been added.
  • New Run/Walk Course – The move to Bear Creek Church allows us to add a run-walk option for those that prefer “pedding” (staying on their feet) to pedaling. Click here to checkout the run/walk course. (Nothwithstanding this addition, we are not changing the name of our event :-).
To register, donate or simply learn more about this fun event, click on this link.
Hope you can join us on September 23rd, have some fun and partner with us in meeting the real needs of a lot of under-privileged people.

Affirmation, Hugs and Smiles Abound at ROP’s ESL Graduation

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Earlier today, ROP’s English as a Second Language program held its annual graduation and celebration.  All students received Certificates of Achievement and some personalized words of affirmation from their teachers. But mostly it was a time where teachers and students shared a lot of hugs and smiles and wishes for a good Summer.
While most are looking forward to a little break (especially the teachers and childcare workers :-), everyone is looking forward to getting back together again in August.
P.S. Please say a prayer for our ESL Director, Donna Godfrey, as she is on her way to Ukraine for a two week mission trip.

Pedal 4A Purpose 2017 Has New Location and Run/Walk Option

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As mentioned in a previous email, this year’s Pedal 4A Purpose has been moved back to Saturday, September 23rd. September may still be a few months off, but our early registration deadline is coming up in just a few weeks on May 31st.  So if you would like to get a date on your calendar to help motivate some training and save a few bucks in the process, I encourage you to think about registering now or at least before the registration fee goes up on June 1st (from $30 to $35 per individual and from $70 to $80 per family of 3 or more).
Pedal 4A Purpose is an important part of ROP’s annual fundraising efforts. Last year, P4AP raised more than $22k in support of ROP and our partnering nonprofits, and this year our goal is $30k. But Pedal 4A Purpose is also much more…
  • P4AP provides a great opportunity for bike riders of all abilities to enjoy a supported ride with family and friends. It offers rides from as short as you like (5.5 miles to first aid station) to as long as 63 miles (with 4,522 feet of total elevation gain).
  • P4AP provides a great venue at Bear Creek Church and food provided by Chick-fil-A.
  • P4AP offers supporting churches and other nonprofits an opportunity to partner with ROP and share the funds raised by their teams up to 80/20 with ROP. (Youth groups and short-term mission teams please take note.)
  • Finally, P4AP offers a lot of great prizes for top fund-raisers and all participants. Our grand prize again this year is a $1,000 gift certificate from Schwab Cycles. Last year, all of our riders received a prize!
Please note there are two significant new things about Pedal 4A Purpose 2017
  • New Start/Stop Location – Our base of operations has moved from Denver Seminary to Bear Creek Church (3101 S. Kipling St., Lakewood). While the start-stop has changed, the Main Loop and Deer Creek Challenge Loop remain the same, sort of. The Main Loop will run the opposite direction (clockwise) and an additional restop has been added.
  • New Run/Walk Course – The move to Bear Creek Church allows us to add a run-walk option for those that prefer “pedding” (staying on their feet) to pedaling. Click here to checkout the run/walk course. (Nothwithstanding this addition, we are not changing the name of our event :-).
To register, donate or simply learn more about this fun event, click on this link.
Hope you can join us on September 23rd, have some fun and partner with us in meeting the real needs of a lot of under-privileged people.

“The First Positive Thing I have Seen in This Park” – Aurora Policeman

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This past Saturday, ROP partnered with Agape Missionary Church, our four other Flourish East Colfax collaborators and an awesome team of volunteers from Cherry Hills Community Church’s International Section in holding a “Neighborhood Party” at nearby Montview Park. We thank God for giving us a beautifu day! In all, we think about 250 of our neighbors came out to enjoy a picnic lunch and a lot of different fun activities for kids and the young at heart.
Some special entertainment was also provided by Grafitti artist, “Stress”. The theme of Stress’ art, “Dream”, fit well with one of the primary objectives for our party – engaging members of our community in dreaming about ways we can make our community a better place to live. We will get an indication of our success in meeting this objective when we see how many of our neighbors accept our invitation to come to a follow-up meeting on May 18th where we hope to begin discussing ways we can work together to improve our neighborhood. Your prayers for this meeting and what follows would be most appreciated.
Regardless of the number that show up for our 5/18 meeting, we believe our “Party” was succesful as underscored by a brief conversation I had with an Aurora policeman. As the Party was just getting started, I noticed a couple police standing by their cruisers at the edge of the park and looking our way. So I walked over and asked one of the policeman if we were doing anything that caused them concern. The policeman responded something like this – “No, we are not concerned. On the contrary, I was marveling at what is happening here. I have been coming to this park for years, but until now it has always been for things like rape, shootings, gang violence or other disturbances. This is the first time in all my years of coming to this park that I have seen anything positive like this going on here.”
Wow, how encouraging, but how sad. The people of our community deserve more opportunities to come together and have some fun in their neighborhood park. Somehow I think last Saturday’s “Neighborhood Party” will not be our last.

If you would like to see more photos from our Neighborhood Party, just click on this link to ROP’s website.

NW Aurora Churches Working with Aurora Police on Community Clean-up Project

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On Saturday, May 13th, ROP will just one of many Christian organizations and churches participating in a community clean-up project organized by District 1 of the Aurora Police Department (APD).
This project is the first time the APD has collaborated with local churches in northwest Aurora on a clean-up project like this. But how cool to see the Body of Christ coming together and working with our local police department to clean-up our neighborhood.
All of our Flourish East Colfax (Asset Based Community Development) collaborators are participating and many more churches as well, but this project is open to anyone from our community and beyond that would like to join us.
The project will start at Fletcher Plaza in front of the MLK LIbrary (9600 E. Colfax Ave) at 8:30 a.m. on the 13th and will be followed by a lunch at the plaza. Mark your calendar if you would like to be a part of this first-ever event.
Reminder – Responding to Refugees: Fear, Facts and Faith Conference – 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. this Friday, April 28th at St. James Presbyterian Church – 3601 W. Belleview Ave.