During the week of June 13, 2021, Redding Christian Fellowship (RCF) from Redding, California sent a group of 25 youth and adults to Church on the Hill in Montrose, Colorado for a week of blessing. They were led by their youth pastor Caleb Little. The connection between the churches is with their lead pastor John Craft who was the youth pastor of Church on the Hill back in the mid 1990s. Also, John was on the board of RMCN while he served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Sheridan, Wyoming.
The crew served in several locations throughout Montrose as well as at the church. They were served meals each day by Shepherd’s Hand, our local homeless ministry that provides food and other essential services to less fortunate individuals. They performed several projects at Shepherd’s Hand. They painted at WAGEES, a ministry designed to help new parolees fit back into society by giving them training and spiritual guidance. Tammy (pictured) spoke to the youth about her experiences as a former addict and current parolee at the meal RCF prepared for them.
The crew spent several days at 180 ministries, a Teen Challenge ministry serving women who have been abused, trafficked, and have struggled with drugs. 180 helps them to make significant changes to experience physical, emotional and most importantly spiritual healing in their lives.
RCF did heavy landscape work there as shown in the pictures. At the meal RCF planned for 180, the clients poured into the RCF kids with their testimonies.
Several families from Church on the Hill were blessed by the group performing all kinds of tasks at their homes. One evening at the meal RCF prepared for our church, three of our families shared what the Lord was doing through them in our Montrose community. One of these was from a longtime leader in our church, Wayne Schieldt, who new John Craft as our youth pastor. Another family shared their foster care experiences, and the other testimony was from our children’s director, Ken Kiehlbauch.
The blessings poured both ways, therefore, between RCF and the Montrose Community. It was a refreshing example of cooperative kingdom work between faith-based organizations and churches. We are stronger and more effective together as we cooperate and encourage one another.
Personally, I am deeply grateful for pastor Caleb for bringing the group and Pastor John for initially making the connection. As one of our moms, Julie Hines (Cooper) with teenagers said, “I was hoping John and Lori would be here. I was in his youth group.” When we invest in ministry and serve one another, the blessings continue to flow both ways generationally. To God be the glory.
Pastor Mike Lundberg
Church on the Hill
Montrose, Colorado