When the City of Denver, nonprofit partners, and State resources became overwhelmed with the influx of migrants at the beginning of 2023, a representative from the State of Colorado reached out to see if the Church could help to welcome, host, and care for newly arrived migrants.

We responded by producing a collaborative forum to gather the City of Denver, service providers, churches, businesses, and concerned citizens to learn how to engage and support our new neighbors.

The Love Thy Neighbor forum was an insightful discussion as we heard from Shantelle & Chad Mullinik with the West Colfax Lampstand. As well as Juan with Providence Bible & Roberto with Renuevo Church. 

It seemed like an appropriate time for those who had been working diligently on the issue to share and connect, as well as to glean and discern the next steps.

When Roberto and Juan shared their story of working together to serve 70 Venezuelan migrants that had walked through the doors of Renuevo Church, it was apparent that their collaboration was not only unique but possibly a future model for bridging resources to serve the needs of our new neighbors.

We are exploring how to bridge the resource gap and encourage collaborative service models similar to Providence Bible and Renuevo Church.

It was a beautiful evening remembering Isabella Joy Thallas and loved ones lost to violence as we prayed for healing and peace at the second annual Bella Joy Gardens Memorial.

We stood with Ana Hernandez-Thallas to remember loved ones lost and to celebrate the life of her daughter Isabella Joy Thallas, a ballpark murder victim, whose life was tragically taken by gun violence on June 10th, 2020.

At this small park in the heart of Denver, we celebrated life with food, fun, and friendship. Then we entered into a time of remembrance, prayer, and a candlelight vigil to raise our light toward all who have suffered and mourned, spreading healing and hope with our lives in the city.

On March 23rd, we gathered in response to the increase in violent crimes, gun violence, and lives lost in our city. Though there are complex issues that go into why we are experiencing this violence, the gathering was a response and a forum to express concerns, prayers, and insights in the pursuit of peace in our city.

Lewis “Proxy” Brown, A well-known musician, faith leader, and moderator for the evening highlighted that coming together as the Church in the city is a great first step. He stated the next step is then to “Be Peacemakers” – He shared that being a peacemaker is not the same as being a peacekeeper.

“A Peacemaker is someone who works on behalf of peace…And what’s hard about that is sometimes you have to first work through your own pain and grief for peace.”

We had the pleasure of having several leaders in the city share their stories and insights into their peacemaking journey.

One of those was Armondo Saldate, assistant deputy director of the Department of Public Safety. He shared that we have gone through a lot of trauma in the city that has been magnified by the pandemic along with many co-occurring issues. He shared that “I come here as a peacemaker… and we need more safe spaces to talk through the trauma.”

Armondo talked about putting leadership together to address the root causes co-occurring with violent acts in the city – and that “We cannot arrest ourselves out of this problem… Police are not going to solve every problem by arresting people and incarcerating them – putting them in that cycle is not the solution…A big part of what we need is in this room…”

On February 16th, we celebrated Black History Month and it was an enriching experience. Amber Kierra, the founder of Kingdom Eyes, shared her insight on how to put on “Kingdom Eyes” to see where we are and where we are going.

She shared her story as a black, blind, female, offering a unique perspective on how to acknowledge and appreciate our differences. The talk was a hope-infused inspiration to love our neighbor and embrace our differences with an open heart.

She shared how she has found freedom from the perceptions and limiting perspectives of the world:

“I have three different ways I’ve learned to sing a freedom song as a black woman in America…through God’s Sovereignty, His Sight, and His Spirit”

“I know what it feels like to think that ‘Freedom will come…If only I wasn’t black…If only I didn’t have this disability…Or if only my skin wasn’t so dark.’ But because I’m a child of God I have the ability to be free right now”… “I can choose to live my life not by how the world sees me, but based on how God sees me.”

– Amber Kierra @amberkierra , Kingdom Eyes @kingdomeyesofficial

It was an honor to stand with Ana Thallas to produce what became a beautiful memorial and celebration of her daughter whose life was taken by gun violence this past summer of 2020. Bella Joy Gardens is a park dedicated to her daughter Isabella Joy Thallas, a place of healing and hope for the community and to mourn loved ones lost to gun violence.

At this small park in the heart of Denver, we celebrated LIFE with food, fun, and friendship. We shared a time of remembrance, prayer, and a candlelight vigil to raise our light toward spreading healing and hope with our prayers and lives.

The evening included Food Trucks, Live Music, and a 3-on-3 Youth Basketball Tournament in partnership with Colorado Community Church, Church In The City-Beth Abraham, Denver Dream Center, Confluence Ministries, and Public Peace Initiative.

On August 8th, 1968 the first Martin Luther King Blvd. was named and dedicated in Chicago. And on August 8th, 2020 we celebrated the MLK Blvd. in Denver and prayed together in unity.

We stood together in unity to form a nationwide, multi-ethnic prayer gathering to break the chains of racism and injustice.

Pray on MLK ( PrayOnMLK.org ) is an demonstration of holy activism— A two hour, nationwide prayer and worship protest located along every Martin Luther King Jr. street or memorial in the United States (and around the world). During the gathering for the first hour, people stood side by side, socially distanced, along a sidewalk with white tape over their mouths or over their face masks. People chose a one word prayer focus that they wrote on the tape. The goal was to turn every Martin Luther King Jr. street into an altar of prayer, where justice would roll like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream.

In Denver about 150 of us showed up to Pray On MLK. We planted seeds of hope, healing, peace, reconciliation, restoration, reformation and so much more. We might live in the most free place in the world, but like Jerusalem was the promise land for Israel, it wasn’t enough to have arrived. They needed to pray for the land to be fruitful and for the streams to be over flowing with water. So we know the current state of affairs in our society is not enough. May we continue the movement to break the chains of racism and invite the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. May we continue to pray for tears and ask God to break our heart for what breaks His. And may we continue to go to the streets to sow seed in tears to then return with shouts of joy!
 

“When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.” Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy! Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭126:1-6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“God challenged me to move beyond anger and disappointment to lament, which I was able to do Saturday morning during a racial reconciliation Bible study I’m part of and follow that up on MLK as I asked God to bridge gaps, restore trust and relationship where it had been broken”

– PRAY ON MLK Participant –

February 12th was the National Day of Jewish Action for Refugees and an important moment for groups across the cultural and religious divide to come together and express their desire to welcome and protect refugees of all faiths.

In the 1930’s, Jewish refugees were turned away by the US in their greatest hour of need. HIAS, the refugee agency of the Jewish community, organized this rally as a call to the president to not repeat the calloused act in our history.

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On Friday February 3rd, citizens rallied outside Senator Gardner’s office to deliver letters and the message that we want him to take action to void the executive order against refugees. – READ MORE

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Amal Kassir – shares her story and voice for refugees and immigrants.  

“I am a Muslim and I worship a God of graciousness and mercy. I am a women who visibly where’s her faith on her head. I am an American of German and Syrian descent born and raised in Denver, Colorado” 

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