Hi, my name is Kayla Horne. I am the executive director of Jesus on Colfax, which is the Send Relief Ministry site.
Send Relief started a few years ago when the IMB, and the North American Mission Board decided to come together to do compassion ministry in North America. So when you give to the Annie Armstrong giving, that actually pays my salary. And close to 10% of the Jesus on
Colfax budget comes from the cooperative dollars. We literally could not do this without people like you.
At Jesus on Colfax, the Send Relief Ministry Center site, we do three things. Everything we do starts with outreach, meeting people where they’re at. On the street, in motels, in late-night outreach, doing sex work, all kinds of different places. We go meet people where they’re at.
Then we have a drop-in space where people can come to us, get a warm meal, get their documents, or take other steps towards wellbeing, go to classes, Bible study, life skills classes, and shop in our store, where they can get food, clothes, hygiene items, and more.
Then, about two years ago, we started a residential program because people wanted more. In our residential program, people go to more life skills classes, they go to recovery groups, see counselors, and they work here at Jubilee Roasting Company, both in the garden and in the roastery helping with production, getting them ready to work real jobs and live independently.
We just started our second cohort, and it has been incredible to see what God life skills classes, they go to recovery groups, see counselors, and they work here at Jubilee Roasting Company, both in the garden and in the roastery helping with production, getting them ready to work real jobs and live independently.
We just started our second cohort, and it has been incredible to see what God has done. People’s lives have been changed as they have gotten sober and gotten to work. We have one person who’s working at Anschutz Medical Campus, another managing a motel. But what has been the most incredible has been what God has done in their lives.
One guy, I was sitting in the back of class one day, and he said, “I found this verse this weekend, and it said, ‘I had a heart of stone, and God gave me a heart of flesh.’ And that’s what God has done in my life.” The tears just started flowing for me as I was sitting in the back because I had watched God do that in his life. A couple of months later, we got to baptize him, which was so cool. He got baptized at Calvary New City, which is our church partner that actually meets in the building, the Jesus on Colfax building. And so there’s a church right there where people can get connected.
More than half of the Rise participants so far have gotten baptized during the program. We are just so thrilled to see what God is doing on Colfax, and we would love for you to be a part of it. We couldn’t do this without volunteers and churches.
There’s lots of ways to get involved. We had close to 1,000 people that made this happen last year. Some volunteers come through Send Relief on a mission trip for the whole week. If you’re thinking about going overseas to see something of what poverty is, biblical poverty alleviation, you could come to Colfax for a fraction of the price. We would love to have you.
You’ll get to do all sorts of hands-on things and learn about poverty. You could also come for an evening. We have volunteers who help with outreach. During the day, we have volunteers teach a class or be a mentor for our Rise program. We would love to have you. And we serve over 1,000 meals a week at Jesus on Colfax. That is a lot of cooking. We have lots of people who help us make those meals. So if you would like to get involved, we have lots of ways to connect you. Thanks for thinking of us.
Thank you, Colorado Baptists, for giving to the cooperative program and for helping make ministries like this possible.
