Isn’t it amazing that in this day and age a twenty-something American guy is actually able to partner with a Ugandan woman in a little village most people in the world have never even heard of? Global Support Mission is a pretty big name for the grassroots, two-man non-profit being run out of Travis Gravette’s garage-converted-office. But Travis and Brady take their work pretty seriously. They jumped in, feet first, to support Faith K. and her mission: Bringing Hope to the Family. Well, maybe it wasn’t all that quick and easy, but it certainly has been well worth the hard work and sacrifices made to pursue this calling that the Lord put upon their lives. It all started back in 2004 when Travis decided to use his Christmas break from university to go and serve at an orphanage in Africa, rather than serving himself by staying home and relaxing for the month. James 1:27 — “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” — had been weighing heavily on his heart throughout college, and since he was about to graduate the following year, he decided this was the best time to try and start living out that verse. He wanted to have a better grasp of what it really looked like to care for the orphan and widow in their distress. Travis did some google research and found loads of orphanages in many African countries that were being run by African natives. Inspired and excited about what he had found, he contacted several orphanages and ended up choosing to serve alongside Faith K. in Western Uganda. It was through this experience and his friendship with Faith that Travis decided to pursue GSM with everything in him.

Leaders of Faith from Global Support Mission on Vimeo.

Faith grew up in Uganda and had a fairly typical African lifestyle. Poor family, no father to speak of, hard life. But her mother became a believer and later moved the family to a city, where Faith was able to become educated and, eventually, more successful. Years later after her mother had moved back to a rural village, she went to visit and found her heart broken for the orphans and needy she encountered. She quit her job and left everything she had worked for to go and pursue loving the least of these and giving them her best. Faith began teaching women about sanitation and hygiene, as well as consequences of sex, HIV, and a myriad of other notable things that they desperately needed to learn. She sacrificed everything, but has seen huge, positive results in so many lives. And this is what inspired Travis to take a similar path.

Travis linked up with a good friend from college, Brady, to start working toward the goal of creating Global Support Mission, whose purpose is to see a movement of compassion wipe out hunger, disease, and poverty. They decided to work only with organizations that were started and run by locals. This way they know that they can focus on equipping and resourcing people who are already leaders in their own territory. These are the people who best know and understand the history, lifestyles, circumstances, and needs of their neighbors. So GSM is all about leadership and community development from the inside out. Listening plays a key role. Strong relationships play a key role. They spent a year developing a relationship with their second affiliate, Peter, of Action Ministries in Mombasa, Kenya before partnering with him. GSM is currently working on a Leadership Development School for their network affiliates, in an effort to merge the heart and integrity of those serving with real, necessary skills like organization and servant-leadership. The leadership training is biblically based and shows the gospel in a tangible way.

KNOW. THINK. ACT. is the main campaign of GSM. More than a campaign, it is a community of action. There are five categories of need: Water and Sanitation, Agriculture, Education, Healthcare, and Orphan Care. How does it work? You create an ally profile. Then you start an action group. You visit the needs section and pledge toward the need you would like to fulfill, and it is then removed from the need list and attached to your action group. When the need is completed (from your wonderful fundraising efforts!) beautiful photos are taken of the people receiving the blessing and you get to share those photos with your funding friends. You are completely connected throughout the whole process! It’s kind of like having your own little non-profit, but with a lot less paperwork. Since July 2009 this community of action has raised over $100,000 for these various needs. And one of the best parts is that 100% of what you give really goes specifically to that need. GSM is able to fund their operation costs through the Red Earth Trading Company (which is a social enterprise Travis and Brady created) and through legacy partners who specifically commit to a monthly partnership.

There’s a ton more to learn about how you can get involved as a legacy partner, development partner, KNOW. THINK. ACT. ally, or by buying goods that are direct-trade through Red Earth. What are you waiting for? DO something! Just don’t DO nothing.

www.globalsupportmission.com

One Way to Think About Your Passion

I believe the world needs more passionate people. This is one of the main reasons I wrote 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need, a guide to finding and living your passion. In the book, I showcase how getting rid of what doesn’t matter can help you focus in on what does. Consequently, the same is true in reverse: once we’ve found what matters above all else, we can let everything else fall by the wayside.

But, finding your passion can be tricky. How do you know when something is truly a passion – a lifelong pursuit – and not just an interest or a fleeting fad? And, once you find your passion, how do you truly live it to the fullest?

In 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need, I offer six questions to think about when searching for your passion. Here’s one of them:

When do I feel fulfilled?

The reason I shy away from terms like happiness or excitement when talking about passion is that those terms can be very temporary. Even if your passions change over the course of your lifetime, they take root in something much more permanent.

And that’s why this question asks about fulfillment, instead of just asking about happy and exciting times. Fulfillment is a condition that can last much longer than happiness. It’s a feeling that brings with it a sense of accomplishment and completeness. It’s something that can make you proud and leave you feeling like you did something that was worth doing. Fulfillment carries a sense of purpose, not just a feeling of elation or entertainment. Your passion, therefore, isn’t based on a simple mood; it transcends your mood on any given day and shapes your outlook and mindset, keeping you fulfilled and with a sense of purpose no matter how you may be feeling.

This is also a helpful reminder that a passion is very different from an interest. Things we are interested come and go, often changing with age or life circumstance. Some interests will blossom into full-blown passions, but not all of them. Likewise, you shouldn’t spend too much time on a mere interest – it can take away from the time you could be sending living out your passion. Indulge an interest that makes you happy, but be willing to sacrifice it in an instant for a passion that brings you deep fulfillment.

Which behaviors or actions bring a sense of fulfillment for you? What do you do that, when you do it, makes you feel proud for having completed the task? What will you tell others later that you did today? Knowing what brings fulfillment will help you prioritize how you spend your time. This is important because determining your passion and how exactly you would like to devote your life to it will require all the time you can give it.
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Sam was gracious enough to meet up with us for coffee while we were in Nashville. Won’t you be gracious enough to buy his book!

So we had decided that our last stop of the On The Good Road extravaganza 2010 would be Nashville. It seemed to me that Nashville was the Mecca of non-profits! I found tons of awesome stuff going on out there….too much to fit into a week’s stay. So, instead of writing a long post about each one I am going to give you bits from each in their own words, so that you can have the gist of each organization and their reason for existence. Many of them are quite similar, but all are different. And each one exists to love and serve God and people, which is exactly what we also hope to do with our lives each and every day.

We got to meet with Sam Davidson, the co-creator of Cool People Care, who is uber connected to people in the non-profit world. We are big fans of Cool People Care and are very likeminded as we also hope to inspire people to do things very worthwhile and meaningful and helpful with their lives and skills! Take a minute to read about what they have been doing these last 3 years.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Not really. It was supposed to be a conversation about T-shirts. It turned into a conversation about how to change the world for the better. Then, Cool People Care was born.

In May of 2006, Sam Davidson had just returned from Washington, D.C., where he attended a rally on the National Mall to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Feeling motivated to do something meaningful, he approached his friend and nonprofit colleague, Stephen Moseley.

Two hours later with a dry-erase board full of ideas, the core of Cool People Care’s Web site was in place. Instead of just making a T-shirt with three simple and catchy words, the pair launched an online resource aimed at encouraging people to take the necessary actions to change the world for the better.

The two believed that if people are told how they can make a difference in less than five minutes a day, they just might do it. Just like tiny water droplets make a tidal wave, if enough people care for five minutes a day, something positive might result. This became the core idea behind “5 Minutes of Caring,” CoolPeopleCare.org’s daily article, which describes how anyone can make a difference in less time than it takes to brew coffee.

But also knowing that five minutes wouldn’t save the world alone, Davidson and Moseley wanted to offer their site visitors more. They wanted to offer readers the inspiration of a great idea and a good example, so they supplemented their 99-word “5 Minutes of Caring” articles with longer how-to articles, a community calendar and nonprofit directory for their hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.

After a summer of writing, planning and testing, the site officially launched on August 17, 2006. The two breathed a sigh of relief. Proud of their hard work, they went back to their day jobs.
But then things got busy.

The word spread about what the site offered and was seen by many as a valuable resource that showcased the ideas that so many needed, as well as empathized with the thoughts and stress that so many have. Yes, people do want to make a difference, but they feel pressed for time and inspiration. Cool People Care clearly demonstrated that a significant impact could be made in a small amount of time, and it highlighted world-changing ideas of every kind.

Within six months, CoolPeopleCare.org had to expand its community calendar to cover events happening anywhere in Tennessee, and when not even a year old, the site offered event listings for 40 U.S. cities. Traffic to the Web site and e-mail subscriptions increased, and the pair had their hands full and left their nonprofit jobs. They started a movement, assembling do-gooders of every age who needed ideas and direction.

The company soon began selling merchandise, focusing on items that helped people live a more caring lifestyle – reusable organic coffee mugs, canvas grocery bags and sweatshop-free T-shirts. Cool People Care began building a brand.
Now, over three years since the idea was first shared, the site has listed more than 6,100 events, partnered with more than 2,300 nonprofit organizations and has been visited by people in more than 150 countries. And it keeps growing!”

Now you can visit their website, coolpeoplecare.org, and join the 10,000+ others that have signed up for their 5minutes of caring.

And while you’re at it, be sure to pick up Sam’s new book: 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need.

It just came out! Get it now!

Have fun!

Upon arriving to the One Day’s Wages’ office in Seattle, our initial observation was regarding the size of the office. We were pleasantly surprised at the smallness and simplicity we found there because it appeared that the focus was on the immediate task at hand, rather than spending money on the “decor and ambience.” This illustrates that they are truly good stewards of the finances they have been blessed to receive and disburse. The task for One Day’s Wages is to end extreme global poverty. They believe that at this time we have the capacity to do this and I firmly believe this as well. ODW realize that they are not alone in this task, thank goodness, and so their efforts are not to re-invite the wheel, but rather to collaborate and partner with others. The goal is to come up with creative ways to fundraise and create awareness, beginning with giving away one full day of your annual wages…or your monthly wages, or weekly even. Whatever you are willing to do to make a difference!

So let’s back up to the beginning. Picture this: Typical Christian family of five, living in Seattle and earning an average income of about $68,000 a year. The not so typical part is that in 2009 Eugene Cho and his wife Minhee made the decision to donate their entire year’s income to the cause of fighting extreme global poverty. The Cho’s want to practice what they preach, as well as inviting others to participate with them in this generous endeavor. The expectation is not that everyone participating donate their annual salary, of course, but just as the namesake goes-One Day’s Wages. There are other creative ways to go further and give more. You can actually make a personal, global impact in a variety of ways, such as birthday for a cause, idea for a cause, or work for a cause. In fact, ODW doesn’t even care if you don’t choose to give through them or by another means, they just want you to take part in the giving and utilize what you have to help improve the lives of the world’s poor!

For the Cho’s, who were very “in the know” about the social justice issues of the world and the immense needs out there, it took a trip to visit Burma, Africa, and Southeast Asia where they actually met the people and heard the stories face to face. Being in the midst of such desperate need, confronted by children, women, and men, dramatically changed their hearts. The numbers they knew so well came to life in individual people and their stories, and The Cho family returned to America with a completely renovated mindset regarding poverty. During this time, they saw firsthand that all of these precious people desperately wanted out of poverty and craved their dignity and respect, but lacked opportunity because of the situations surrounding them in their communities and countries. They are not so blessed with resources, finances, and opportunities as we are in America.

My first thought when I learned about ODW was: “Why start something new and play a middleman, if that is going to take part of the donation away from the nonprofits receiving the money?” But the fantastic thing is that ODW has three standards in place: 1. 100% of your donation goes toward ending extreme poverty. 2. You choose where to invest your donation. 3. ODW will always be transparent. Admin fees are covered through grants and other fundraising, so that your donation can fully support whatever you want it to! There are two main ways that ODW funds. The first is through partnerships with more widely known NPO’s for larger amounts of money. The second is the general fund, which works to grant money to smaller organizations around the world, typically in developing nations, which don’t have opportunities for grants or much fundraising. Many don’t have the ability to create websites to attract donors, so without supporters like ODW they wouldn’t be able to meet all of the needs.

One fantastic project under their belt is a home they partnered with Not For Sale to build on the border between Nepal and India, where young girls are frequently trafficked. Women that have been rescued out of a life of sex slavery work in the home and they rescue girls BEFORE they are trafficked through because they know how to spot them and how to help them before it’s too late. Another partnership ODW has is with NURU, an organization we met with last month in California, supporting 75 families with agricultural loans. They also partnered with the Disaster Relief Fund to raise $100,000 for Haiti and are currently in the process of raising $20,000 for Pakistan’s flood relief. ODW have their hands in all sorts of different areas of need, so that you can get involved with whatever you feel most passionately about. And guess what else…every bit of the money you give is shown on their webpage through progress bars and tracking devices to SHOW exactly where it is going and what funds are being completed. Transparent.

The first, basic criteria they use for choosing who to fund are the Millenium Development Goals. If you aren’t familiar with these, you probably want to be! So here they are: 1. ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER 2. ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION 3. PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN 4. REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY 5.IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH 6. COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA, AND OTHER DISEASES 7. ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY 8. GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT. They also track how the organizations use the money they are donated, how much success they and similar groups have, and of course whether or not they are legit nonprofits.

What can you do? You can give a day’s wages, for starters. They have a wage calculator on their site so you can speedily figure out what one day’s wages is for you, and then donate it! You can create a profile with them and fund projects through their “idea for a cause” and “birthday for a cause” tools. Go explore and have fun creating new ways to put an end to poverty in many families lives!

www.onedayswages.org

Well, we’ve been home for about a week-and-a-half now. I’m guessing most of you who read the site regularly would most likely know that already. But I figure it’s a little more official when it’s in black type. Wow, 5 ½ months and 12,100 miles later and we’re back sitting in the seats where we brainstormed about a great adventure around the US (and part of Canada). It seems these dreams are always floating around above us just out of reach. We jump as high as we can and we might even feel the brush of our fingertips against them only to realize that our fears and our desire for comfort shackle us to the ground making it impossible to ever really catch the blasted things. This dream was the exception for Lindsey and me. We actually got to see it come to fruition.

It’s a funny thing how we tend to always be looking forward to the next thing. We’re always working today to prepare for something tomorrow or next year or when we retire. I found myself doing that on our trip much of the time. Even before we left home back 7 months ago I would be anticipating the second we would jump in the bus and SLAM the doors and make it official. Then that day came when we pointed the bus east and headed to…..Amarillo. We have family and friends in Amarillo so we didn’t feel like the trip had really officially begun yet. A few days later we were finally REALLY going to get on the road and head to…. Albuquerque, where we had more family. Don’t get me wrong, we love our family, but there’s this anticipation for what’s next that I find myself battling. These “official” starts carried on through the trip in the form of “highlights.” “I can’t wait until we are in Big Sur!” “I’m really looking forward to seeing Portland and Seattle for the first time!” “The best is going to be when we got to Canada!” The challenge is to look forward to this moment. I now quote the great philosophers Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar, “Live in the now, man.”

That brings me to now. How do I “live in the now” after such an adventure? Being On The Good Road was no doubt good. It was amazing. There was beauty all around and incredibly kind and hospitable people that we met. Few get the opportunity to do a trip like we did. I’m beyond thankful for it. But now what? What’s next? And what do I need to do now to prepare for what’s to come in 6 months? Maybe I need to live in the now for a little while.

One of the most popular terms used amongst our American college culture is “poor college student.” I’m sure that if each of us has not personally used that term, we have at least heard someone else use it to describe their situation as a tuition paying-ramen noodle eating-thrift store shopping-full time college student. But even I used the term time and again, though it really wasn’t a problem for me to go get a $4 latte or see an $8 movie with friends when I wanted to. Now I hear myself say to Darren “we’re poor, so we cannot eat out again because we don’t have an income!” Or sometimes when my stomach is growling and I so desire a meal I exclaim, “I’m starving!!” Are we poor? Can we barely afford to feed ourselves or own just one set of clothes? Am I starving, even just a little bit? No. We aren’t the least bit poor. And I certainly don’t go without a meal. But for some reason many of us use these sort of extreme terms to describe our situations or circumstances. Let’s think about what it means to be poor, really poor. For a billion people in our world, about 1 out of 6, poor means living on less than $1 a day. Less than $365 dollars a year. Some of us make that in a day or two. Try to imagine what it would look like if you made a dollar a day and had to care for your family. The first thing to go out the window is education because it is not free in many countries and because you need to start working and helping out when you are much younger to assist the family. Next is food. You may only get one meal each day and that meal is probably the same thing every single day…rice and beans or something similar. This little exercise is not at all to make us feel guilty, but rather to help us carefully consider the words we use and to increase compassion and love in our hearts for those who really are poor.

Bright Hope exists to help the poorest of the poor, those living in extreme poverty, on less than $1 a day. Their guiding verse is Isaiah 58:10 which reads:
“And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.”

The heart behind this beautifully functioning organization comes from its President, Craig Dyer, whose father founded Bright Hope in 1968. Craig has worked to administer a unique approach to serve our world’s poor, which is done by equipping local, indigenous churches to bring a holistic gospel and ministry. They desire to offer hope for today through immediate relief with food, clothes, shelter, and medical assistance; hope for tomorrow through economic strategies such as microlending/microfinance, job creation programs, education and skill training; and hope for eternity by meeting spiritual needs through local church leadership development and a transformational relationship with Jesus Christ. Bright Hope is able to accomplish this awesome task by working only through trusted relationships, listening well, and not moving too fast in each area or project. In Haiti they spend two years building a relationship with the local church and people starting to really work there because they had witnessed many failed approaches and their desire is not to waste the opportunities they have, but to make the most of each.

Currently there are well over 120,000 people around the world whose lives have been greatly impacted by the work of Bright Hope. Many of these are not even familiar with “Bright Hope,” but only know that their local church offers life-improving help in a variety of ways. What a brilliant picture of the church, functioning to bring good news (truth) and help (action) together for a complete outpouring of love! Bright Hope has partnered with over 530 churches in 10 different countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, as well as Cuba and Haiti.

One of the stories Craig shared with us that really stuck is the story of Zainabu. We were able to listen to her tell her story through a voice recording. She lives in a massive slum in Kenya, called Mathare, which is home to more than half a million people and has a grand total of 12 toilets. We can only try to imagine what kind of stench surrounds the tiny mud and tin roof “houses” and the extremely low level of hygiene and security found there. But Zainabu chooses to keep her head held high and day after day she works hard toward the goal of escaping this kind of poverty someday. Orphaned at the age of 16, she became head of the household and began taking care of her 3 younger siblings. Her relatives encouraged her to quit school, but her pastor encouraged her to keep going! Because her pastor became like a father to her and because Bright Hope has equipped her local church to care for the needs of the people, she is now attending university on a scholarship from BH. When asked about getting a job in a place with such a high level of unemployment, Zainabu quickly responded “the God who has provided for me as an orphan, and for my education, will provide a job.” She is a shining example to a seemingly hopeless community because of her devotion to God and purity.

There are countless other stories similar to this one and numerous ways you can help and get involved with serving the poorest of the poor through Bright Hope’s many projects. Too many great things to list here, so you must visit their website and find exactly how you would like to partner with them. You’ll be happy to know that they have been given the highest ranking from Charity Navigator charitynavigator.org. One other unique and fantastic thing that they do is an Experience Tour. If you live in the Chicago area it is well worth the time (one hour) to take a Tuesday evening and visit their headquarters for the Experience Tour. Make a reservation! The end of our tour left us with one more verse to meditate on: Psalm 28:27 “He who gives to the poor will never want. But he who shuts his eyes will have many curses.”

www.brighthope.org

For the last 11 years, a small group of people has been working hard to keep bikes out of the dumps in Chicago, and instead, put them into the hands of new owners who can benefit exceedingly from something often cast aside as disposable. We were able to meet with the founder, Lee Ravenscroft, to hear about this fabulous project. He is a tall and lanky, kind hearted man who immediately struck us as unpretentious and nonchalant. To him it just seemed like no big deal to be running a nonprofit organization that happens to be improving peoples lives locally and in several other countries. He started Working Bikes Cooperative to not only lessen the waste of our society, but more to offer the life changing gift of a bicycle to impoverished people who otherwise would not have this great resource. A bicycle to many of us may just be something we use for exercise or to occasionally get around when we’d rather not use our cars, or maybe even to commute to school or work. But for many others, in countries where owning a car is a luxury far beyond reach for the majority of people, a bicycle can make the difference of having an income at all. It can make a difference in productivity because it enables people to carry much greater amounts of all sorts of things. It can mean more water gets to a group of people. And a bicycle can even be the deciding factor between life and death for those living in villages many miles from the nearest clinic. Bikes can be used for transportation, as “ambulances”, and even to generate energy for a water pump or light bulb. What an amazing tool a bicycle can be. And yet, we throw out thousands across the nation each year. Luckily, Working Bikes Co-op is not alone in this effort of rescuing bikes, fixing them up, reselling them and/or shipping them out by the hundreds to underdeveloped nations. Bikes Not Bombs and Bikes for the World are a couple of other awesome organizations doing similar work.

One of the rules at Working Bikes is that you can’t work on your own bike, you gotta work on someone else’s. I appreciate how this gets us out of our “me focused” thinking and encourages serving others. They use their facilities to teach a bit about bike maintenance and repair, restore the donated and retrieved bikes, and organize the 40 foot crate shipments to countries in South America and Africa. They also have a fantastic educational area where kids come on fieldtrips from schools in the neighborhood to watch and experience how bikes can make a light turn on or a record player play music or a pipe pump water into a barrel! We got to jam to some James Brown while Lee cycled to his hearts content.

Working Bikes has the only permit to send bikes to Cuba. Upon reception of the crate, the bikes are dispensed to the 500 poorest Cuban families, free of cost. In most of the other countries the bikes donated will be received and then worked on locally. The bikes are usually sold for a low cost so that they are valued even more because they have been purchased by hard earned money. It costs Working Bikes about $15 a bike to ship them to Africa and South America, so to offset shipping costs and the admin fees of running the organization, they sell hundreds of restored bikes every month from their warehouse showroom. It’s open for business twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays, but volunteers and staff are there each day working hard on bike repairs. We were very impressed with the huge selection and great prices. We had never seen so many bikes in our lives! Piles and piles of bikes everywhere they could be stored, just waiting to be fixed up to sell or ship out. Working Bikes sends out over 5,000 bikes each year. They give many away to local Chicago charities as well.

Why bikes? Because of the availability and the massive difference in can make in each recipient’s life. Working Bikes also sends sewing machines and wheelchairs on their shipments whenever possible. When they don’t have a crate filled and headed out, they look for opportunities to add a few bikes here and there to other shipments of shoes and things going to underdeveloped nations. They partner with existing organizations in the various countries who receive the crates and disperse the bikes, and then share feedback about how the bikes are making a difference, with their friends at Working Bikes. If you have ever spent much time overseas or lived in a poor country, you probably witnessed the great impact that a simple bicycle can have in someone’s life. This is why we are such huge fans of organizations like Working Bikes. If you have an interest in serving people in this way, you can find more info on their website workingbikes.org

Somewhere in between Illinois and Indiana. Good Times!

On November 13th, 2010, the Denton Water Walk is returning, only bigger and better! Last year, over 20 individuals participated in the walk, raising $1,716 to help provide a community in need with clean water. This year, let’s make it to the $5,000 goal, enough to completely fund a well for a community. But this year, we’re not just going to walk. We’re also going to rock out.

At 10am on November 13th, meet us at the Hydrant Café (208 W. Oak St., right off the square). Bring a milk jug or anything else you can hold water in, and we’ll walk to the lake at South Lakes Park to collect water and carry it back. For one day, we will do what countless people have to do in communities that do not have access to clean drinking water. We ask that everyone who walks donate $20 or more and ask friends and family to support the walk.

If you aren’t in Denton and can’t join us for the walk or the concert, please support our efforts and give through this website. May we together bring water to those who thirst!

More Info On how to give at http://mycharitywater.org/dentonwaterwalk2

Last Saturday we decided to spend the day serving with an organization we had heard about called Extreme Community Makeover (ECM). All we knew was that ECM focused on a few, specific neighborhoods in Denver to assist families and individuals with home improvement projects on the perimeter of their homes. Think of it like Curb Appeal, except instead of focusing on one home, ECM’s goal is to improve the look of an entire neighborhood, house by house. We had a great time working with people and helping out with some trash pick-up and fence painting fun!

In 2008, there was an idea…to create a community outreach strategy of building relationships with individuals in various neighborhoods by joining them in efforts to improve their entire neighborhood, as well as interacting more with the neighbors on their street. A few people came together to structure the concept and started developing the idea of the Extreme Community Makeover. Several months later, groups of people started showing up to adopt one block at a time and get to the work of providing hands-on assistance with projects such as painting, landscaping, graffiti removal, yard work, etc.

The hands-on work is preceded by a survey two weeks before the projects are scheduled to start. A lead person/people from each volunteer group goes door to door in the neighborhood where they will be working to personally explain what ECM does and to find out what the individual or family would like help working on to improve the facade of their home. Notice I said “what they would like HELP working on” and not “what they would like done.” This is one of the things that sets ECM apart from many other service oriented ministries. Their heart is relationships. Their hope and desire is for the homeowners to have a personal investment in the improvements on their home, while taking advantage of the opportunity to receive a lot of help on the projects. They want to see those inside of the house come out and interact with those serving, in order to get to know each other and build relationships. ECM also encourages neighbors to interact with one another as they are all outside on this one particular project day. They want to see communities revived and the first step is this kind of interaction.

Community relations are such a big deal, but it is easy to overlook their importance. Often times we live in our little house and never take the steps to meet our neighbors and take a real interest in our communities.  But ECM hopes to break those habits and to encourage these interactions that may not otherwise take place. Volunteers are encouraged to invite those they are serving to join them during the lunch break so that all may meet and have time to talk and get to know each other better over a casual meal.

Another goal of ECM is to utilize this time together to offer resources to the people they serve. Many of the individuals and families don’t realize the resources that are all around them, so communication in this area is vital.

By the end of 2008, Extreme Community Makeover had over 1,800 people volunteer with them without any marketing or advertisements, but strictly word of mouth. They realized they had tapped into a big area of need and someone had to take ownership and keep this good thing growing. It just made sense that this person would be Angela Bomgaars, because she had already been investing so much time and energy into the ministry. And keep it growing she did. In fact, their second year they added two new communities and by the end of ’09 they had facilitated over 2,700 volunteers. As of October of 2010, ECM has mobilized around 7,500 volunteers in 6 neighborhoods in Denver to partner together with 750 families in these communities.

Currently, Angela is in the progress of working to achieve 501 (c) 3 status for ECM so that they can function independently. Since she is the sole employee of ECM, she stays very busy trying to facilitate the many groups and individual volunteers, coordinate with the neighborhoods, and educate each volunteer on the purpose of ECM, which is less about people spending a day serving so that they can feel good about themselves and have a pat on the back, and more about empowering the homeowners to be able to take care of the needs in their homes and neighborhoods. The model anchors on a hand-up instead of a hand-out mentality.

Because ECM’s role is to function as a facilitator for volunteers as they serve in communities, they do not provide tools and supplies. Those are provided by the volunteer groups, and whenever possible, by the homeowners as well. This makes ECM a rather easy model to replicate in your own community. So if Curb Appeal is one of your favorite shows and you have a heart for building relationships in and around your community, consider structuring a similar outreach ministry in your area!

Visit their website at http://www.extremecommunitymakeover.org/ to find out how you can help ECM through donations and to find out more about their work.