Looking Back - Looking Forward by Kent Scroggs

2018 was another good year for the ministry of Restoration Outreach Programs (ROP), but it was not without its challenges. Here are a few summary highlights:

Fresh healthy food from Whole Foods - The Food Bank served almost 4,500 households (a 5% increase from 2017), but the most important change in the Food Bank was the addition of perishable fruits, vegetables and dairy products from Whole Foods. This major en-hancement also resulted in a 38% increase in the pounds of food distribut-ed to more than 100,000 pounds – that’s 50 tons of food.

Thanksgiving at Crawford Elementary School – For the first time, we served a Thanksgiving dinner at our neighborhood elementary school ra-ther than handing out frozen turkeys and all the fixin’s at ROP. Although the number of people served was much lower (largely due to the freezing rain), the school and our Flourish East Colfax (community development) partners loved the more relational nature of the dinner and agreed we should do it again this year.

Spin-off of Restoration Counseling on East Colfax – After-working within ROP’s ministry for its first 10 years, Deb Ford launched Restoration Coun-seling on East Colfax as a separate non-profit ministry, where she is able to receive court-mandated clients and help free them and others struggling with various forms of addiction.

First full-year of Wednesday Lunch Outreach – In partnership with Chick fil A and Filling the Void, ROP served lunch, warm clothing, personal hygiene items and a lot of love to 60 - 70 homeless men and women almost every Wednesday of the year.

ROP is still looking for a Children’s Director – No doubt, one of ROP’s biggest challenges of 2018 was the absence of a Chil-dren’s Ministries Director. With the support of other ROP staff, we were able to maintain our Wednesday evening Spark and Crawford reading programs for elementary school children, but 2018 was our first year without a Summer Day Camp program. Please pray with us that this important staff position is filled with the right person very soon.

Flourish East Colfax Challenge – After a lot of early success around several specific projects, we found it hard to keep many of our neighbors actively engaged on an ongoing basis. But we knew going in that Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is a long-term process, and ROP and our partners at Agape Missionary Church are refocusing our efforts on one on one or two on two relationship development and the identification and mobilization of leaders in our community. The receipt of some grant money has also allowed Flourish East Colfax to hire two “Community Connectors” who are providing much needed grass roots support and energy for our ABCD efforts.

Reflecting on all that God has done through ROP in 2018 and prior years encourages us and fills us with anticipation and excite-ment for the year ahead. Frankly, our building is close to being at maximum capacity in terms of things we can do there. So, the thing that excites us most looking forward is the possibility of acquiring the former Boys and Girls Club (aka 1523 Boston) building across the street from ROP. I have written about this several times before, so I will not take the time or space to do much review here. Suffice it to say the addition of the Boys and Girls Club building would be huge in three significant ways:

1. It would allow us to expand our existing programs and especially ROP’s outreach to the youth of our community (see Matt Smith’s article in this newsletter).

February 1, 2019

Thanksgiving Dinner at Crawford Elementary

2. It would support our community development efforts by providing more space for our neighbors to gather formally and informally.

3. It would allow us to offer hospitality on weekdays to our homeless friends seeking a welcoming place to hang out for a few hours, especially on particularly cold or hot days.

As you may recall, The Anschutz Foundation has already com-mitted $300,000 toward the purchase of the 1523 Boston Building, but we still need to raise at least several hundred thousand dollars more in order to present an offer which is likely to be accepted. So please pray that, Lord willing, He con-nects us with a person or persons that would help this dream to become a reality.

1523 Boston Building - Rekindling Old Dreams, Creating New Dreams by Matt Smith

I began my urban youth ministry experience in 2005. Early on, I worked along East Colfax and God gave me a dream of having a building to serve the youth living along the East Colfax corridor. During that time, I prayed regularly for this building, but as the years went by, I gave up on this dream. However, when the Boys and Girls Club building - aka the 1523 Boston building - across the street from ROP went up for sale, my dreams and my prayers were rekindled.

If the 1523 Boston building is sold to a developer or some other group, this important asset serving the youth of our community will be lost forever. ROP’s acquisition of the building would allow us to continue to meet the felt need of parents and kids for a positive, safe environment, but more importantly, it would help us to create a “sacred space” for a more sustainable youth and children’s ministry going forward.

The full-size, recently renovated gymnasium and additional space provided by the new building would also be the answer to the space problem we have in our current building. As ROP has sought to meet the needs of our community, our building space and calendar have filled up, making it increasingly difficult to schedule additional time and space for our youth and children’s minis-tries. Acquisition of the 1523 Boston building would significantly increase our opportunities for reaching and discipling the next generation!

As ROP and our Youth Ministry continue to grow, it is imperative that we look at how we can provide a more sustainable and effective environment for youth and children’s ministry, and this building would help us accomplish this objective. The full-size gym would also allow us to play basketball, volleyball, and other sports on a year-round basis. (Currently, we only have a small outdoor play area which also doubles as a se-cure parking lot for ROP vehicles.) These activities allow kids to blow off steam, get their wiggles out, and develop important social skills. Games are fun and healthy for our kids both physically and emotionally, but having expanded class room space will also allow us to create more effective learning opportunities for our kids.

I am also excited about the opportunities this sacred space gives us to collaborate with local churches. As Aurora grows and costs increase, it has become increasingly difficult for churches to find buildings in which to worship and conduct other adult and youth activities. Acquisition of the 1523 Boston Building would help meet that need as well. When we first began dreaming about this building, I began to imagine how many people we can fit in that sa-cred space for worship! I believe that this came from God and we are all excited to see God work through this new opportunity. This building would mean a lot for our youth and children’s ministry. It would also mean that ROP’s other ministries will have more opportunities for growth. Most importantly, it would create more growth for God’s kingdom in our community!

Praying that God answers our prayers and our dreams become reality.

Save the Dates! Friday, May 3rd - ROP’s Restoring Hope (Annual) Dinner

Saturday, September 21st - Pedal 4A Purpose 2019

www.RestorationOutreachPrograms.org

1523 Boston Renovated Gymnasium

Lots of Space for Youth and Other ROP Programs in 1523 Boston Bldg.