Browse Projects

Simple Homes is our newest experiment in resurrection - taking abandoned houses and bringing them back to life, building a new world one house at a time.

Here’s how it works: we purchase an abandoned house for $15,000 and spend about $10,000 on renovations. Then we match it up with a neighbor who is ready to own his or her own home. We raise all the money so that we can finance it ourselves at 0% interest and 0% profit. The new homeowner pays $300 a month (about half of what most folks pay in rent) and in 10 years he or she owns the house. Our first home, 3228 Potter Street, is going to our neighbor and friend Miguel and his family.

Turning vacant houses into viable homes is one critical part of our holistic, integral work in combatting poverty and inequality and Simple Homes will be the vehicle for all things housing around here.

The Story of Kolya:
Left to wander the streets at age 2 1/2, Kolya started sniffing glue and became addicted to other drugs by an age where most kids are learning how to read or play baseball! Thankfully, he was brought to a Christian rehab center in Mariupol, Ukraine, and today Kolya has been clean of drugs and alcohol for nearly three years! He was adopted by Pastor Gennadiy Makhnienko, a loving mentor and role model. He is known for his talents as a poet and song-writer and now he is using those gifts as well as his physical strength and endurance to share his remarkable story to inspire others.

The Project:
Twenty former orphans are biking 2,500 miles from Ekaterinburg, Russia (near the Ural Mountains) to Lake Baikal in Siberia to raise awareness of adoption and foster care!

At designated stops along the route, Kolya and his friends will be sharing their testimonies with thousands of Russians in order to promote adoption for children just like themselves.

These kids train for months to prepare for the intense physical, mental and emotional strain of biking such a long distance (2,500 miles, remember!) in often horrendous weather conditions and sharing such personal stories.

Won’t you support Kolya and his friends as they share their vision of a Russia Without Orphans? $2/mile/child.

On September 16th, 2013 we will be sending a team to Southern India for 2 weeks with the hope and prayer that thousands of lives will be transformed through the power of Jesus Christ. We need your help to get Bibles, boards, and other supplies on this trip!

Media Associates International (MAI) is conducting a three-year training program to develop national writers and launch a Christian publishing program in South Sudan, the world’s newest nation.

The training program is being carried out in partnership with Bishop Joseph Garang Atem and the Diocese of Renk of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS). We are responding to his request for help in developing Christian publishing to strengthen the nation’s church and society.

South Sudan received independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, following a 21-year civil war which cost 2 million lives and resulted in widespread destruction of infrastructure (the nation has only one paved road) and displacement of the population.  The war pitted the mostly Christian and animist South against the Muslim fundamentalist regime in Khartoum in the north.

The challenge of developing self-sustaining Christian publishing in South Sudan will be great, but so is the need for it.  Bishop Joseph sees locally authored Christian books as a key to “nation building,” a means of planting Christian values in society, developing a new generation of young readers, and for providing solid resources for Christian leadership and discipleship. 

In a culture marked by death in recent years, newly equipped South Sudanese writers will offer words of life and hope to readers hungry for both.

The Simple Way is going to create another beautiful mural in Kensington. We believe in healing and transformation and so we are committed to painting and planting in our neighborhood as we PRACTICE RESURRECTION!

The Simple Way, is a web of subversive friends, conspiring to spread the vision of “Loving God, Loving People, and Following Jesus” in our neighborhoods and in our world. We are committed to the restoration of families, neighborhoods, and our planet.  We have always been active in areas of advocacy and justice, such as combating the criminalization of homelessness (anti-homeless legislation) and gun violence.

But something happened on June 20th, 2007 at 4:30AM, that changed the trajectory of our work in Kensington. We woke to a 7 alarm fire, being fearlessly fought by over 170 firefighters - one of the worst fires our neighborhood has ever seen. This was an historic turning point for our organization, when that neglected, city-owned factory caught on fire and burned down a block of our neighborhood, displacing over 100 families.
Since then, it has been our dream to restore the land burnt by the fire, where the factory used to be, and after 5 long years, we now have access to this city owned land! We have had success stabilizing families who lost their homes, we have restored nearly a dozen abandoned houses, and created community gardens on 5 formerly vacant, trash-strewn lots.

Shepherd’s Hope has sought to begin urban farming in our community for over a year.  By GOD’S grace the 5700 block of Lowe Ave is about to become the food center of Englewood.  Over the winter the LORD placed on the heart of Executive Director Brian Anderson that HE wanted us to use a different method of urban farming in the Englewood community.  A relatively new type of farming that could take place year-round.  After doing some research, it sounded relatively easy and used very little water compared to conventional farming.  The method would provide protein, fruits and vegetables using a symbiotic relationship in a greenhouse environment.  The LORD had peaked his interest and so he and another team member from Shepherd’s Hope attended a 3-day seminar in Milwaukee on aquaponic farming.  After 3 days their heads were spinning and the LORD was right again; this would be the perfect way to farm this Englewood community.

Since its inception as an organized nonprofit organization Miles of Help Through Christ has operated out of its founder’s residential home, which is a six bedroom home that is equally divided between his living space and the ministry space that serves as the organization’s office, storage, and operating facility.

Gus Martinez, the founder, has not minded the hundreds of volunteers and other personnel that have come and gone in the process. In some cases he has opened up his living space as additional storage or to allow displaced volunteers sleep overs.

The ministry itself has suffered limitations because of the residential address. Such as not being considered for the needed services of a pantry because of a residential address which organizations such as Second Harvest require a commercial address in order to assist. Valencia College will not permit students to complete community service hours or internships from a residential address and also require a commercial office.

Additionally, large corporations and philanthropist continue to pass us by because of the residential address.  We are in need of a start up office in order to benefit from those opportunities that have passed us by in our desire to continue helping the homeless and needy.

Finally, because we do not have a central point we our senior volunteers working from the streets and their homes which limits their reach because of required additional driving.

Broken Heart exists to meet the relational, spiritual, and physical needs of the broken-hearted living and working on the streets.

One of the ways we do this is with a weekly bible study and meal on the street called The Refuge, for those who might otherwise be overlooked or even rejected from typical churches.

In order to keep providing these resources we need your help! Our weekly Bible study consists of sharing the love of God by building relationships with our friends on the street, prayer, sharing meals and listening to their stories. 

Each story makes a difference, and in order to change the route of their story to happiness we need your help. The cost to do this is $3,200. Broken Heart believes that if 200 people give $16, we can make an impact in every broken-hearted in the city of Los Angeles.  Can YOU join us?

We believe that the solution to the greatest humanitarian crises of the last century is the Gospel being deeply rooted in, and lived out, through the people of God. Project love is a multimedia (video/web based)local church resource and challenge being developed for believers of all ages. It consists of teaching and testimony videos that demystify a missional lifestyle of evangelism, and at the same time, calls the audience into a 20 day challenge: Partner with God, to sow the good news of Jesus, everyday, for 20 days. The project challenges and equips.
Initially, Project:love will be spread organically though social media. There will be an official start date for project:love (June 1st).  Once the 20 days are completed, project:love will continue to be made freely available to the local church as a powerful catalytic resource. We foresee the resource/challenge being accepted by small groups, and youth/young-adult groups long after the initial 20 day challenge is over!
We believe the next great move of God is not going to be thousands and millions gathering around leaders with strong personalities (though there is nothing wrong with that). Rather, the next great awakening is going to be laymen led. We see, on the horizon, the pew sitter lining up on stage at local churches throughout the modern world giving testimony of the power of the Gospel flowing through them in every day life. Through project:love, we believe thousands will be provoked to spread everywhere the fragrance of life (Jesus)!

Seraphim Manor provides domestic violence workshops and seminars to educate our clergy and faith leaders in the most effective way of assisting their congregants in how to extricate themselves from dangerous and abusive situations.

It is imperative that our clergy have proper, Bible-based theology regarding issues that deal with violence and abuse in the Christian family. Too often certain scriptures are use to council victims improperly about the issues of submission and family headship which causes situations of even more abuse.

Seraphim Manor needs sufficient resource materials and supplies to continue our classes to our faith leaders and provide low-cost and/or free educational programs.

Psychosine is the toxic substance that destroys the white matter of the brain in those who suffer from Krabbe leukodystrophy, leading to severe suffering, complete disability, and ultimately death.  The University of Rochester is conducting trials into an already FDA-approved drug that shows promising potential for arresting the impact of psychosine on the brain.  The implications for treating Krabbe disease are potentially dramatic.

Judson’s Legacy would like to assist in funding a grant that will help continue this important research.

We give life to the children we serve by being The Voice of More for foster children who have been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused and neglected. Children 6 to 12 years old head up to cam in the mountains with us for five days of positive memories. We share God’s plan for their lives and teach them how to build a firm foundation, pray to God, trust God, and follow a Godly plan…with the partnership of the Department of Human Services here in El Paso County in Colorado Springs. Royal Family KIDS’ Camp occurs in 36 states around the country each summer, reaching about five percent of foster children each summer. Here in Colorado Springs, we have a tea party one afternoon for the girls to speak identity, affirmation, and encouragement into them - and treat them royally - and have Camp Grandpa and Grandma pray over them and show them that men can value them just because they’re valuable. We have a Birthday Party for EVERY child in the middle of the week since most have never had a birthday party, tried cake, nor have they been celebrated. We also have a variety/talent show that the kids can sing, dance, whistle, kick dirt…whatever their talent is. We go crazy with applause! Each day is spent with time singing songs, listening to Bible Stories, watching puppet skits and dramas with camp staff, and loads of activity time to swim, ride horses, paint, play basketball, and other activities.