New Covenant Alpha Omega Ministries

SAFE PLACES

The violence here in Denver over the last few days has been gut-wrenching and profoundly sad. We mourn them all, but so many of us were particularly affected by the shooting in Commerce City. We all hurt. Some seem quick to dispense blame, but there is certainly enough to go around. I heard something Topazz McBride said in her interview on the Channel 7 News. It was a confession and it convicted me. She said, “I wish I would have reached out more.” I echo her sentiments.

We all, as Black men, should feel equally convicted and even somewhat responsible. Where are the safe places for our men (and women) to deal with our trauma, our mental and spiritual health. We may not stop any given situation from happening, but we can certainly try by having some preventative measures in place.

Our non-profit FACEIT (Family Advocacy Crisis Education Intervention Team) has served this community since 2003. We are partnering with Servicios De La Raza and 7 other organizations that form the City of Denver’s STAR (Support Team Assisted Response) Program.

We respond to 911 calls that are appropriately screened and do not require a police response. We are a culturally and linguistically responsive organization serving the City of Denver. We provide trauma-informed care, mental health services, emergency temp/housing, family/individual counseling and interventions around non-violent crises.

Our staff has planned several workshops next month that will inform our community of the resources that are available. You may call us directly if you feel yourself experiencing a mental health crisis or you just need a safe place.

In 2003, our organization was founded as a community response to the police shooting of 15 year-old developmentally disabled child in the doorway of his mother!s home. As a community we all “faced it” then and we will “face it” now. There is plenty of blame to go around for what has and what hasn’t been done in our community.

Let’s create places, safe places, to deal with our mental health and life itself.

https://www.faceitcommunity.org/about-us

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

As we move toward our third Advent Sunday and the theme of PEACE, I am shamefully reminded that I may not have always appreciated the gift of PEACE that God has given to me. I don’t know if you have noticed, (I have) but there seems to be a real shortage of PEACE in our world. It is one thing to see PEACE absent among nations, but it is downright painful to see how this shortage of PEACE is destroying people.

My conviction and confession for having a lack of appreciation for God’s gift of peace has everything to do with the fact that I know I have done so little to address my mental health. I, meticulously, take regular physicals. I do the dental, but not the mental--so little down through the years to address my mental health needs. “I’m good.” Isn’t that what “The Pastor” is supposed to say? (When will I begin to treat my mental health as though it matters?)

I know we all believe we are good and that we won’t ever succumb to the anger, anguish, and anxiety that seem to have overtaken so many in this nation. You won’t ever convince me that the South Carolina policeman who shot that unarmed fleeing black man in the back did not succumb to, or suffer from, some mental illness? No one in their right mind shoots another human being that way unless he is mental. I mean, you can almost see PEACE slipping away in some people.

A Montgomery County (Indiana) mother admitted to killing her two young children before trying to kill herself. Three days ago Colorado’s own Rashaan Salaam, winner of the 1994 Heisman Trophy and former Chicago Bears running back, was found dead outside a Boulder, Colorado Park with a pistol next to his body—an apparent su***de. I know we all believe we are good, but there is a shortage of PEACE within a lot of us.

Jesus may very well have given you the gift of peace, also, but it’s up to us to cultivate it. It is up to us to increase our peace just as we would do with any gift God has given to us. Are we really good? I’m not, but I am thanking God for grace because I know I have done so little to cultivate my peace and promote my mental health. Yet, God has been my peace. I pledge to do better and to also encourage you to increase your peace!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, Happy Kwaanza, and God's grace upon us all!

Join us this Sunday as Rev. Dr. Marjorie Lewis, PhD, and one of the leading mental health professionals in Colorado and an ordained minister of the gospel will be our speaker for this third Sunday of Advent.

Rev. Dr. Lewis will be speaking on the Subject: “Never Underestimate The Power Of Peace.”

9am—Church School
10am—Worship
NEW COVENANT ALPHA OMEGA MINISTRIES
119 Park Avenue West
Denver 80205

Clarence Moses El

Clarence Moses El will be our guest speaker for December 4, 2016. That will be the second Sunday of Advent—the Sunday of HOPE. Clarence has spent the last 28 years incarcerated for a crime he did not convict. After being tried for that crime again this month he was found not guilty and today lives as a free man. Come out and hear this dynamic man of God tell his story and God’s story around his redemption and deliverance. You don’t want to miss this anointed word on HOPE!

Join us every Sunday:

New Covenant Christian Church Alpha & Omega Ministries
119 Park Avenue West
Denver, Co 80231
10am.

Don't Miss It! Please join us as we celebrate Pastor Holmes' birthday!!!!!