May 4, 2017

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Dear Friends,

I recently had the opportunity to spend a weekend with some Sr. High youth and staff at the Street Retreat in Denver. The theme was: Draw the Circle Wide and we spent the time learning about poverty issues. On Sunday morning we shared our experiences with the Denver congregation. As each of the youth shared a brief sentence testimony I was struck by how important weekends like this are.

Here’s why: Our kids (and us too,if we are honest) are living in a world where empathy and compassion are not always valued. Often the culture tells us that these qualities make one weak. In fact, the opposite is true. Empathy is a primary quality that we need to support for our children. They learn this through watching us show empathy, through experiences where their minds are opened to the realities of the world and they are given tools and knowledge to help them respond to what they see with love, and by learning about Jesus and his radical empathy and compassion.

Jesus had a lot to say about power and privilege. And, Jesus did a lot to face these issues in his life. He reached out to those separated from the culture dues to physical and mental health issues, gender status, cultural judgement, etc. He lived a life of empathy and his compassion only strengthened his message. As followers of the way of Jesus, we are called to do the same.

Thank you for your support of the Street Retreat. Your use of the grocery cards, specifically, gave these youth the ability to attend. They, and I, are/am grateful.

May we always look for ways to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world.

In Peace,
Shandra

April 26, 2017

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Dear Friends,
The 2017 Camping Season is upon us!  The Camping Brochure was mailed out this week!  This brochure will invite  youth throughout the mission center to come together in community and explore their relationship with God.  If you are a parent, grandparent, guardian or friend of a young person in the mission center, please encourage them to attend one of the camps.  We would love to welcome them into community.  Super Sunday this year is May 7.  This is a great day to register youth for camps to help jumpstart the camping season!  Please read your brochure to learn about the cost to participate in camps this year. There is exciting news that comes from our Grocery Card program!

Adults, there is a place for you, too, this summer!  Reunions begin in June.  We have three offerings:  Fine Arts Reunion at Camp Paradise June 7-11, Big Spruce ReunionJuly 8-15 and Rockies Family Camp at Peaceful Valley August 2-6.  Each reunion has their own flavor and I would like to invite you to come to one or more of these exciting opportunities for encountering God and friends in God’s beautiful world.

April 20, 2017

Posted on by rmmcadmin

Dear Friends,

Every week I send out announcements accompanied by my thoughts.  I hope these are helpful to you in your planning and involvement in the Mission Center.  We also support Church Updates, a way to share prayer concerns and news from the MC.  This is available to you and all folks within the Mission Center.

This week we will have one of our quarterly Community Calls (see call in info and topic suggestions below in announcements).  This call is one way I am seeking to improve communication.  I’m also in the beginning stages of having one on one calls with pastors and we are getting ready to send out the Camping Brochure.

All of these are ways to communicate, something I think is very important!

If you have suggestions for ways I can increase communication, please let me know.  I always love talking with you.  You are the heartbeat of this Mission Center and I want to support your growth as a disciple.

Have a good week and may you know that you are loved.

Blessings!
Shandra

April 11, 2017

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Dear Friends,

It is with hope and anticipation that I come to you this week.  It is Holy Week and different congregations and different people honor Holy Week in different ways.  Some of you will attend a Maundy Thursday service, some a Good Friday service, some will honor the journey of Jesus in your own way at home, with your family, on your own.  

No matter how you come into this week, you and I and Christians everywhere will end it together Sunday morning on Easter!  Every year we walk this path and every year we are reminded that resurrection happens, He is risen, and we are the continuation of a journey that happened so very long ago.

What does it mean to be on this journey to Easter?  It means the  peace of Jesus Christ which turned the world upside-down and brought radical love to the world is a part of your life.  It means you are among Christian family that knows that death cannot and will not, in the end, win.  It means wild hope in our future.  It means that the song continues and we add our voices when we reach out to those who are in great need in our communities and in the world.

There’s a lot going on around us right now.  It’s hard to find our center.  Easter is a reminder that our center is the risen Christ.  

May you walk the path to the cross knowing that what seems to be the end is truly the beginning.  May you embrace the love of Christ and remember his long journey which will meet us on Sunday morning around the empty tomb.

May you know that you are loved.

Happy Easter!

March 24, 2017

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Dear Friends
Last night the weather folks were warning of a giant spring storm that would knock buds off trees and damage daffodils and other flowers.  You know the type – 18 inches of wet, heavy snow that dos damage before it melts quickly the next day.

In life, sometimes we experience such damage as well.  Maybe we make a mistake and our self talk or the criticism of others knocks us down.  Maybe we have a hard time just getting done what needs to get done.  Maybe we are embarrassed or hopeless.  Lots of things can damage our hearts.

It is part of what we do in community when we support each other through storms.  Jesus calmed the storms on the sea but also in people’s spirits.  We learn how to be there for one another, how to listen to each other, and how to be a calming presence in a chaotic life.

One of the reasons we are connected to a congregation and the mission center is to love and be loved.  We can remind each other that love is the way of Christ and that all beings are of worth.  When our branches are hit by storm, we can be the ones who knock off the snow and nurture the bloom.

Interestingly, last night the storm didn’t come.  I woke up to a slightly dewy lawn and intact flowering trees.  I realized that sometimes we prepare for the worst when really all we will get is a little rain.  I’m thankful for my church community every day.  I know that, storm or sun, I’m a part of something bigger than me and that I’m called to be shelter and support.

Have a good weekend.

With love,
Shandra Newcom
President
Rocky Mountain Mission Center

March 17, 2017

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Dear Friends,

The daffodils are blooming in my back yard and I’m in the mood for spring!  As I walk out in the sun I remember that we are still in the season of Lent and that the wilderness, in the Christian story, is still where we find ourselves.  It’s hard to be in the barrenness when outside the trees are budding, but that’s where we find ourselves.  Easter is coming, but it isn’t here yet.

Being in the season of Lent invites us to slow down and pay attention.  To be mindful.  To notice our lives as they are. Some of our community are lonely.  Some are in pain.  Some have experienced loss.  Some are wandering.  Some are struggling with relationships.  Some are hoping for a change.  None of us are perfect and, even if you’re not feeling lost today, my guess is that there was a time when you have felt alone.

Jesus meets us there.  In that mess of life, in that pain and in that hopelessness, Jesus is there.  He brings the good news of God’s love to us – even when we find ourselves alone.  Easter hasn’t come yet – it’s true – but we know it is coming and we know the end of the story of Jesus.  The end which truly turns out to be the beginning.

If you find yourself alone, lonely, hurting, needing support – I pray that you will be surrounded by a community that can offer you that love.  If you need prayers, let me know.  We have a strong prayer community in the mission center and I would be honored to share your name with them.  If you find yourself strong and happy, please look around and bring in anyone you see who might need your sense of joy.

Let’s do this together!

With love,
Shandra Newcom
President
Rocky Mountain Mission Center

March 2, 2017

Posted on by rmmcadmin

Dear Friends,
Sometimes change comes with growing pains.  As we change some of the types of events, programs and encounters we offer as a mission center, sometimes we plan well and sometimes things don’t work out exactly as we hope.

For example, the Nuts and Bolts Retreat in February was a new offering the mission center hosted in Fort Collins.  It went well and was well attended and received.  But we got a little too excited and scheduled the Leadership Weekend just a couple of weeks later and not enough people were able to come to both.  

So please make a note:  The Leadership Weekend has been rescheduled for early 2018.  This will give opportunity for more people to attend.  It will be an important spiritual growth weekend and all will be welcome.

 Rescheduling, shifting and changing comes when we experiment with new and exciting things.  I see it as growth in knowledge and understanding.  How can you, as a member of a congregation, encourage your folks to experiment with offerings of your own?  Maybe a new outreach program?  Maybe a new Sunday school lesson resource that deepens your understanding of how to live in mission?  Maybe you dream big, discern, and learn that your congregation is called to be different in some wild way – God’s imagination for you is vast and open and you are called.

Not everything will work out the way you think it will.  And that’s ok.  Perhaps the mission opportunity wasn’t at the right time or in the right place. But with every change you learn.  And you grow.  And you become disciples in motion.  Let’s look forward to the experiences we will have together the rest of this year.  Maybe you can come to a reunion.  Perhaps a retreat.  Hopefully, Mission Center Conference.  Maybe your congregation will plan something and we will see each other there.  However we come together, I will look forward to seeing you and being in community with you.  

With love,
Shandra Newcom
President
Rocky Mountain Mission Center

February 24, 2017

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Dear Friends,

Margaret Wheatley in her book, “Turning To One Another” says this:

“Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change – personal change, community and organizational change, planetary change.  If we can sit together and talk about what’s important to us, we begin to come alive.”

I’m wondering where you find conversation in your daily walk?  Who do you take time to talk with?  To listen to? How has conversation helped cultivate conditions for change in your life?  And, importantly, what conversations have you had with God recently?  What has discernment meant for you?  How do you listen to God?

I’ve been a part of many conversations that made me feel alive.  These were times of sharing among new and old friends.  Times of opening up to one another and telling stories and listening to one another.  These conversations have happened in homes, in congregations, at local restaurants, at campgrounds, at parks…so many lovely experiences that have brought me joy.

I’ve been a part of difficult conversations, too-talking and listening that has been deeply meaningful but at times painful.  These conversations also remind me that I am alive because of the dedication to relationship that comes from people sitting together and sharing and listening even when it is difficult to do so.

There are many types of conversations that “cultivate the conditions for change”.  We just need to show up for them.  When we show up and participate in these conversations we are living our discipleship.  We are opening to God in our midst.  We are faithfully sharing and listening in transformative ways.  As you face change, may you see moments ripe for conversation.  May you listen to all voices – especially the ones others are shutting out.  May you be willing to change yourself and may you walk with others.  Blessings to you this week,

Shandra Newcom
President
Rocky Mountain Mission Center

February 16, 2017

Posted on by rmmcadmin

Dear Friends,

Happy heart day!

My heart is full when I think of you and all the gifts and love you share with one another, with me, and with the mission center.

Jesus loved.  He loved the unlovable who, by his culture’s standards, were outcast and despised.  He loved the ones who no one else would even look at or touch.  He loved the marginalized.  He loved radically and he loved completely.  His call to us is to do the same.

Who, in our communities, is unlovable?  Who does the world tell us to ignore?  Who is left out, outcast, despised?  I don’t think you have to look around far to recognize that in this country, at this time, there are people who are our modern “untouchables”.  We are called to love exactly those people.

It’s not easy.  It’s not simple.  It’s not always perfect.  But as Christians our love is an extension of that early Christ-love.  We are his hands and feet and we seek to love, like he did, radically and completely.

May your love-journey be full.  May you have the courage to reach out beyond your comfort zone and love wildly.  May you be blessed in the loving is my prayer.

With deep love,
Shandra Newcom
President
Rocky Mountain Mission Center

February 3, 2017

Posted on by rmmcadmin

Dear Friends,

Welcome is such a powerful word!  I love it when someone welcomes me into their home, into their church, into relationship. I would like to share with you a letter of welcome regarding immigration issues from the First Presidency.  This issue, like this letter, speaks to our hearts.  I hope you will be open hearted as you read and ponder the words of the letter. Please click here for that letter.

What is important in this time is inclusion and welcome.  I would like to invite you to think about how you are engaging in these practices in your own life.

Let us begin!

Shandra Newcom
President
Rocky Mountain Mission Center