by Ashley Kasprzak, JVA Consulting

Not sure about your work projects, but a few of mine have been especially trying lately. Most projects are successful, a rare few don’t work as well as I’d hope and some I always wonder about. New Horizons Christian Church is one that I have always wondered about.

I worked with New Horizon Christian Church through the Colorado Compassion Initiative in 2008 and 2009. New Horizon is in Dacono, a fast-growing area north of Denver. In addition to being a church, the organization has offered a fatherhood education and support program as well as a food pantry for families and adults in need. The New Horizon Christian Church expanded the food pantry program in the last year, and Senior Pastor Rob Thomas sent me a wonderful letter yesterday talking about the program’s expansion. With his permission, I am sharing the wonderful news that he shared with JVA. The success of New Horizon Christian Church gives all of us in the social service and capacity building sectors reason to celebrate:

Dear Ashley,

Merriest of Christmases to you and the JVA family. I wanted to share a quick testimony that we think JVA has had a part in. Traditionally, New Horizons has been strong in the community with its holiday food assistance programs. We became stronger when we adopted the Tri-Town Food Bank. In a crazy sort of event, they had lost their lease, and no other entity in the Carbon Valley really wanted to take them on. I’m glad we did.

Last year we were able to feed in excess of 300 people during the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons who would otherwise have gone without. In these tough economic times, the need has increased. Difficult times aside, we decided to ratchet it up a notch this year. This weekend we are collaborating with the Tri-Town Lions Club, every one of the local schools (the elementary through high schools have been holding a competition in which they collect canned and dry foods to go towards our Christmas event), and even the local banks have chipped in…all this to hold the Tri-Town’s largest food give-a-way event for needy families in our community.

Our largest partner is American Furniture Warehouse, who is donating the space for us to hold this event. On Saturday, over 100 people from around the community will gather to volunteer as we put boxes of food together for those in need. The “need” can be anything from those who are low income to those who have been unemployed. But it will truly be a community event.

The average family we serve will be a family of 5. So we figure to help feed from between 750-900 people. I don’t believe this would have been possible without the tools JVA gave to us. The “visioneering” has been priceless, and the processes we were taught have been invaluable.

In my work as a minister, there have been too many occasions that I wish we had been told of our failures and our successes by people we had served. So I felt it important to relay this occasion to you in thanks for the schooling your grant afforded us to have.

Thanks for your part in that Ashley. Merry Christmas to you and the great staff at JVA!

Rob Thomas, Senior Pastor
New Horizons Christian Church

If you are in north Denver or Longmont, please honor Pastor Thomas, Tammy Meredith and their crew by helping to restock their pantry next week. Drop food donations off at: 530 Cherry Avenue Dacono, CO 80514-9382, 303.484.9426.