This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Saturday, October 21, was Rocky Serve at Rocky Mountain Christian Church. The church has been asking itself the question, "If we closed our doors forever, would anyone notice or care?" The answer they want to hear is "yes" so they decided to make an effort that will provide such an answer, thus Rocky Serve was created.
According to Barry Young, Outreach Pastor at Rocky Mountain Christian Church, "We want to make sure that the community knows that we are here, we care and we are here to serve any way we can."
With that philosophy in mind, Rocky Serve comprised of over 700 volunteers that reached out to various parts of the community.
In addition to the Kids Hope mentoring program that the church began at Indian Peaks Elementary, there were over 100 volunteers at the school on Rocky Serve to help with the community garden event. Around 75 of those people helped construct the garden itself. The remaining 25 volunteers helped in the cafeteria where Indian Peaks families were treated to a pancake breakfast.
Around 75 of Rocky's volunteers, broken up into two crews, assisted the Mountain State Children's Home by helping with several projects to improve the overall living conditions. These projects included: moving in a new playground, installing a walk-in cooler, replacing the siding on a home and general clean-up and maintenance.
At both Rocky Mountain Christian Church campuses, the church joined forces with Kids Against Hunger and Pack Away Hunger to package 100,000 meals that were sent to hurricane relief, 40,000 meals to Houston and 60,000 to Puerto Rico. The meals were packaged via an assembly line of people, each of whom is assigned a task of adding a specified measurement of each ingredient. When the meals arrive at their destination, the only thing that needs to be added is boiling water and the recipients will have a filling and nutritious meal.
People who live near Indian Peaks Elementary and in the Tri-Town area, had about 75 members of the church knocking on their doors, offering to help with yard work. The crew was met with some baffled neighbors whom did not understand why this group would help them without expecting something in return. "It's sad that people don't expect to get help for nothing. We want to change that view," stated Barry Young.
The last service project that Barry Young mentioned, included another 75 members of the church. This group set out on the mission to find people in need that day and just lend a helping hand wherever was needed.
Rocky Mountain Christian Church does not want to make Rocky Serve a one-day event, but rather something that is done throughout the year. They encourage their parishioners to adopt service into their lifestyle. Rocky Serve was about creating opportunities for people to serve their community and to look for more needs within that community. They will have two or three events like this per year, but a life of service is the overall goal.
