Missions and Outreach - Community Presbyterian Church

Missions and Outreach

Christian Community Service

CPC participates actively in Christian Community Service, an ecumenical organization of all the churches in Lake City, that helps residents and others with emergency needs such as rent, food, propane, and dental and medical expenses.

Self-Development of People

Self-Development of People (SDOP) is a Presbyterian ministry that affirms God's concern for humankind. Their website is found at www.pcusa.org/sdop.

CPC member Lori Winblood is actively involved with Lake City and our church. As a member of the session she helps on the Congregational CARE team. Lori served on the Synod SDOP Committee from 2001 to 2006 and on the National Committee from 2004 to 2006. She has recently been asked to serve with SDOP again. She continues to speak in churches, meet with community groups and spread the work of SDOP in many ways. Lori was asked to write her inspiring story for publication by SDOP. It may also be read below.

54 and So Much More to Do!

My growth from Self-Development of People (SDOP) has come and is still coming in so many ways and directions that I know it can only truly be from God. I look back at the beginning in 1999, when I was one of a group of people who had a dream.

We would help better our lives together by our own gifts of art and creativity. At this time our little town of Lake City, CO was trying to market the community by establishing gambling for income. We were and are a group against legalizing gambling in our town.

God heard our call (I see that clearly now). At that time it was hard to see. We all decided to form an Arts and Crafts Co-op (Lake City Mountain Crafts Co-op). At the same time another handful of people decided to form The Arts Council. They had big money backers.
Two of our woodworkers made two tents they designed of PVC pipe. My husband David, being one of the carpenters, and I, the doll maker knowing how to sew, made the tent covers. They turned out very different and two of a kind. We took turns as a group doing art and craft shows out of town. It was a great display of all the groups’ goods. It was a lot of work and costly. We camped out in the local campgrounds and drove our own cars and trucks. Our vehicles would break down and it was getting to the point where we did not know what we would do to keep up the shows. We would get very discouraged but then something wonderful would happen to one of us, or all of us. We would share with one another to keep us going.

God has always been with us all. We won best display with our tents in two different big shows in Colorado. The prizes were free entry in the next year shows. This inspired us to build our inventory to return to the shows. Winning with God’s help is enough to inspire us to keep going.
We had several cars break down in our travels, that set us back some. Our local Presbyterian Pastor heard of our frustrations and all the trouble we were having keeping up the shows and having enough money to pay all the expenses.

We all met with him and he told us of SDOP and how just maybe they could help us. As a group we got together and brainstormed. We came up with our wants and needs. One woman in our group worked at the local bank and one of her gifts to the co-op was her offer to do the bookkeeping and keep the minutes of our meetings. She became the secretary. At one meeting we put together our goals, long-term changes and how this would benefit each one of us.

The next step was to ask what did we need to keep helping each other and to help sell our arts and crafts? We put together our needs to send to SDOP. It looked like so much. We listed: displays, two new tents, tables and a computer to make our own brochures and business cards. We had pictures and slides made for each member of the co-op. We knew all of this sounded like a lot and we never expected to get all that we were asking for. Then we put together how much it would take to go to the shows — fees for the hotels instead of camping out. Oh yes, and a vehicle big enough to take us all to the shows. Oh and a trailer to haul our goods. We, with our secretary’s help, wrote the grant together! We were so excited. We were now ready to submit our grant proposal. Our pastor friend truly was a light from God to start all of us in the direction to do things through Christ and not to be afraid. I remember the pastor saying you do not have to be in church to apply even though he would love to have us. I still have chills knowing that at that moment the spirit was with us.

The pastor gave us two addresses to send our proposal to. One was a local and the other national. So we sent the Grant Dream to both. I remember the prayer by the pastor asking the Lord to consider our group.

We did it together — this would help each one of us and we as the group would own, control and benefit from this grant. We were proud that we came this far together. That is what life is all about. We all became close to each other. Inspiration!

It is hard to write grants, but now I see when we work through Christ all things are truly possible. Remembering that is the number one thing in my heart.

The Lord gives us many gifts. It is up to us to see them, use them, share them and to believe in them.

We had a call from the Synod of the Rocky Mountains Self-Development of People Committee. We also had a call from the National Self-Development of People in Louisville. It is funny we did not realize we had two different committees looking over our proposal.
The Synod of the Rocky Mountains wanted to send some people to meet us and talk to us face-to-face. How very scary and exciting to have them come to us.

Then another month went by and two more folks came from the National Committee. It is silly we were so frightened by meeting these church people. The fear was our cloud between the Lord and us. He truly was knocking to come in.

The local SDOP committee came first. They were so kind and helpful. They came to hear more about us. They wanted to know about our lives and dreams. What was the need for each one of us? They cared about us. My husband and I shared a lot with them. They came to our home. At that time we lived in a 12 by 60 old trailer on my husband’s family property. We had quit drinking some years before to better ourselves. Living in Lake City was one big party in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. It took us a while to realize we needed to change. Our son told us we were bad and that was a big eye opener. We were ashamed of ourselves. I remember praying that we would get ourselves through that and we did. I thank the Lord often when I go back in my mind and think of this time we left behind.

Now our son is grown and on his own with a large family, four children. I thank the Lord for him. He has forgiven my husband and me for our younger days. It is a funny but surreal realization to come to this point in my life. We all came together and shared our life and dreams with each other in the Lake City Crafts Co-op and we were ready to go with our dream.

The local SDOP committee visited, wished us luck and told us we would hear something soon. We received a call from the national SDOP committee who wanted to meet us. We were confused; we did not understand that we were talking to two different SDOP committees.
We met them again and talked some more. We all prayed together that the Lord would do what he felt was the right thing. They said good-bye and again said we will get back to you soon. The questions asked were: Who would own, control and make the decisions for the co-op? Our answers to all three were we as a group would. Who would benefit from the grant? We all would. What would the long-term change be? Our lives would be better because we could show the world out of Lake City our arts and crafts from our small town in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. We could go to the shows together and sell our goods, make a living doing what we loved and we would share our gifts with others. We would show our community that we did not need gambling to make a living, and to create jobs for our town.

Wow, how right we were!

We were so relieved to have written the grant, made a plan and work together as a co-op. We did shows with what we had and used the cars that could make the trips. It was hard but we did it.

One day we got a letter telling us that we would be receiving the grant. We were so excited and all jumping up and down, crying. It was great! We had the plan coming together. We picked the people that would find the new tents, tables and trailer. Then we made pictures, slides, cards and brochures for each person.

The group put all of this together. We were the ones to benefit from it. The Lord had truly blessed us with learning of SDOP and how wonderful the Presbyterian Church was in making this available for so many in the world.

We soon received another letter saying we would get another grant from the national SDOP. We were elated and freaked out by excitement. It was overwhelming; I get teary eyed now thinking back on this special time.

When I was a small girl I thought so low of myself. I was told I would not amount to anything. It was very hard to deal with that and some time still is. I thank the Lord for proving to me and showing my friends and me in the co-op that we can do all things through Christ. We just need to dream and believe in ourselves. With the second grant the co-op picked two people to go out and find a van to pull the trailer.

We bought a Suburban that was chosen by a carpenter in the co-op. He did great! We were going to look the part. It was so nice. We had all we needed to pursue our dream. Off we went! The first show would be the beginning of the rest of our lives.

My husband David and I have done well with our crafts. David fought cancer for 12 years as we went on to sponsor a local show with others each summer in our own community. This summer will be our 17th fair. Many of us have been written up in national magazines, appeared on TV, and in movies.

I had told David my husband that because we were and are Presbyterians I would love to be on the giving side. What is so wonderful is we both helped with the local and national SDOP. We had the blessings of being a part of the committees and traveling all over the country meeting and sharing with all God’s people. We went to the Dominican Republic two times. We became the Foster Parents of the Year 2006 for the state of Colorado. My sweet husband went home to our Lord on June 2nd 2007. I had a dream with him and many others; I see we can do all things through Christ Jesus. He is the way and the light!

Thank you for hearing our story.
Grace and Peace,
Lori Winblood
Lake City Colorado

Mission Trip to New Orleans

Community Presbyterian Church sponsored a Mission Trip to New Orleans in November 2007. Walter Potter served as trip organizer and coordinator for 38 volunteers from Lake City and the Presbytery of Western Colorado. Our church contributed $5,000 to Habitat for Humanity to help build the new home. The volunteers spent the week of November 6-10, 2007 in New Orleans finishing a house for a family that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Their hard work and Christian camaraderie can be seen by visiting: http://picasaweb.google.com/westernslopehabitat

A report on the trip by Walter Potter follows:
Habitat for Humanity Trip to New Orleans
"St Bernard Parish is located just to the south of downtown New Orleans. Almost every home and business in the Parish was flooded, with water standing in many homes for nearly 3 weeks before it receded. We had the opportunity to see a video taken by rescuers -- floodwater filled businesses such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart nearly 20 feet, and there were scenes of the rescue boat personnel ducking under traffic lights! So even now, more than 2 years after Katrina hit, the community is still struggling to come back to life.

The work crews were just great. With the guidance of two young and very giving Americorps leaders (22 year olds who are working for Habitat for a year), our group did whatever had to be done to get the houses finished and ready for inspection. It was really great to see everyone so willing to find out what needed to be done and work to make it happen. We had groups installing interior doors and trim, kitchen cabinets, bath vanities, closet shelves, doors, baseboards, window sills; and of course, setting nails, caulking, and gallons and gallons of paint inside and out. We inherited a set of front steps which were installed and then dismantled and re-built the right way. Oh, and don’t forget the brave souls who insulated under the crawl space.

The owner of the home the Lake City folks worked on is an elderly woman, JoAnn Lay, whose husband died a few months after Katrina. After living with her daughter in Baton Rouge for 18 months, she is now housed in a tiny old RV next to her nearly finished new home. Learning what she has endured the past two years and yet seeing her so gracious and grateful was a very moving experience for us all.

At our closing ceremony. Irene Pate presented a $5,000 check from Community Presbyterian Church to the New Orleans Habitat and Camp Hope to cover the building supplies we used during our week of finishing up the two homes.

In short, everyone left after the week with a great deal of love and respect for the people of New Orleans. We all felt that we helped two families get into new Habitat homes. Over and over we were thanked not only by the families, but also by clerks in stores, waitresses in local restaurants and random passers-by; they wanted us to know that our presence in St. Bernard and our efforts on their behalf (along with thousands of other volunteers) gave them hope.

They have come so far, but there is still such a long way to go before St. Bernard is a real community again. I think I speak for everyone in the Habitat Crew when I say that I hope the Presbytery of Western Colorado and the individual churches will continue their mission commitment to Katrina victims."

Mission Grant to Towaoc Church

The Towaoc Church, near Cortez, is a Presbyterian and Methodist mission project on the Ute Mountain Reservation. In April 2007 vandals broke into the church, set a fire, and caused extensive damage to the building. The Presbytery of Western Colorado and several churches within the presbytery assisted the Towaoc Church financially with restoration. The session of our church authorized a mission grant of $1,000 to Towaoc in June 2007. It is your financial support of Community Church that makes grants like this possible.

Feed the Children Trip

The mission of Feed The Children (FTC) is to deliver food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disaster. Four times each year, FTC medical teams travel to developing countries to offer help. Top priority goes to poor countries that have suffered natural or man-made disasters. In 2005, the Medical Team treated 45,966 patients in medical, eye and dental clinics, and dispensed and filled 58,650 prescriptions for medicine and eyeglasses.

From March 19 to March 29, 2006, one of our church members, Irene Pate, was in Guatemala as a volunteer for FTC. She was part of the organization’s medical team that helped coastal areas affected by Hurricane Stan in October of 2005. Irene spent long days at clinics in Guardiania, El Astillero, San Jerinimo, La Aurora, El Arisco, Barrita Vieja, Santa Catalina, and Guanagazapa and ended each day with a bus trip back to the hotel in Esquintla where the FTC team stayed.

It was a life-changing experience for Irene who writes: “I felt very blessed to serve with the Feed the Children’s medical team to help the people of Guatemala who suffered from Hurricane Stan. The team members were all kind and loving to each other. These special people called by God to serve on this team are very dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the children and their families. This team is made up of evangelists, doctors, nurses, dentists, dental assistants, and pharmacy and eye glass teams that worked very hard for many hours to help as many people as possible. They not only took care of their medical needs, but also fed and clothed them and gave the children toys and candy. We also had wonderful interpreters that helped team members communicate with the people.”

“Each day there would be hundreds of people standing in long lines in extreme heat to get the help they needed. Evangelists reached out to them as they endured the wait and many there came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. They also went out to the villages to minister to the people. It was awesome to serve God by getting to give to His people of another country. The people of Guatemalan villages were gracious and loving people, poor but so happy. We as Americans could learn a lesson from them.”