Summer in Colorado Springs has been a ton of fun and hard work! We’ve worked with a few the same partners all summer that we did last year. It has been phenomenal seeing the ease of getting into the summer working with familiar organizations and people, all thanks to the relationships we have been able to build together. Family Life Services and Mission Medical are two organizations that we worked with last year and have been all summer long projects this year as well.

We’ve also added High Plains Helping Hands which is a farm east of town toward the flat country. We’ve added about 30 above-ground grow beds in order to begin planting food for their food pantry. Many are amazed that we get to be a part of such a big dream of High Plains Helping Hands. Although they already have a couple green houses that they use to grow vegetables, they have a few more acres to plot a farm, also adding chickens, goats, rabbits, and what seems like something new every time we visit. There is a ton of work to do here and it’s awesome to be a part of something from their starting stages. We are looking forward to what is next!

First United Methodist Church is buzzing with Next Step staff, students and leaders. It feels like excited organized chaos, while things are getting done and people are being moved by what God is doing within the Colorado Springs community. Many of the leaders I’ve talked with say they knew Colorado Springs was a beautiful place and all of the things it’s known for, but after a short amount of time they do see the needs that we are able to help out with.

During our week of June 24th our host church, FUMC, had a week long VBS that took up the entire church’s space. Although we didn’t help with the VBS we did stay at another local church called Discovery Church. Within the first phone call Discovery Church was happy to host us for our week in need. A huge blessing! We look forward to chatting after the summer to see how Next Step could get more involved with Discovery Church, definitely something to explore and discover.

There is A TON that happens every day during the summer at every site. And I wish that every student, leader, and Next Step staff could blog about their experience while I’m only hearing about what’s going on each day at the many work sites. All I can say is thank you to everyone involved this summer, I know that we’re creating impact that will last forever – on the community and ourselves!