Employees from Porter and Littleton Adventist Hospitals joined forces with 200 students from Mile High Academy and members from the Denver South, LifeSource and Littleton Adventist Churches for the first Love Matters Most day of service on Sept. 2, 2015 in the Denver area.
The day-long community service event, sponsored by CREATION Health teams from the two Centura hospitals, included a 30-minute concert by Mile High Academy’s middle school orchestra. Adventist Community Services and Meals on Wheels fed hundreds of people from the local community, and five houses were painted. The home owners received gift baskets assembled by Mile High Academy elementary students full of goodies, household supplies, and gift certificates.
Planning for Love Matters Most began six months prior to the event. A team of leaders from the Adventist hospital system included Jim Feldbush, Casey Len, Eric Shadle, and Stephen King with additional support from South Metro Health Alliance and Brother’s Redevelopment, a nonprofit housing restoration company that serves the area’s elderly and disabled populations. More than 300 people, many of them under 18, volunteered for the event, which focused on improving the environment and building interpersonal relationships with community members. According to Jim Feldbush, director of Mission and Ministry at Porter Adventist Hospital, “The expansive effort highlighted the fact that Christ’s healing ministry ultimately was about loving service to those in need.”
Homeowners Brian and Alys expressed their deep gratitude to the Centura team of volunteers who painted their house: “We were overwhelmed with gratitude for all the wonderful things the team did for us—painting the exterior of our home (it looks so clean and colorful), doing extra chores like weeding and washing windows, and the thoughtful conversations many of you had with us, making us feel very special. Listening to our stories was an extraordinary gift. Please pass on our thanks to each and every volunteer who made it such a memorable day.”
Plans are already underway for the 2016 Love Matters Most service day, which will be an even bigger effort. Additional hospitals, churches and community organizations have already signed on with the goal of painting more houses and touching more people in the Denver community with God’s love.
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This article was submitted by Stephen King, senior vice president for Rocky Mountain Adventist Health/Centura Health, where he serves the five Adventist hospital campuses in Colorado. It was written by Mark Bond.
