On a hot Saturday afternoon in August, a large group of people gathered in a parking lot for a barbecue on East Colfax in a suburb of Denver.
Most of the people who attended live in a motel in the area, while others were volunteers from Eastern Hills Community Christian Reformed Church in Aurora, seeking to share food and Jesus’ love.
Greg Skahill grills hotdogs for neighbors in Aurora, Colo.
Sarah Boonstra
About once a month the church partners with Restoration Outreach Programs to feed people living in transitory, low-income conditions in the East Colfax area of Aurora. Eastern Hills provides hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, condiments, sides, and dinnerware for about 100 people, as well as volunteers.
“The barbecues give us the opportunity to reach out to the people who are trapped in some pretty tough living conditions in these motels,” said Kent Scroggs, executive director of Restoration Outreach Programs. “We can make life a little more pleasant for [them], at least for the afternoon or evening.”
Volunteers are also there to share a little Christian warmth. “We fire up the grill and we start cooking hotdogs and hamburgers, and we try to get a good, healthy meal into the bellies of these folks. Then we get to know them at a relational level. We may not be preaching the love of Jesus Christ, but we are showing them the love of Jesus Christ,” said Mark DeNooy, spiritual formation pastor for Eastern Hills.