We have a vision of 19,000 crosses being assembled and planted on a prominent hillside of Durango. The vision includes a banner by the crosses, big enough to be read by passing traffic. The banner explains that each day 19,000 children die in the world from hunger and the effects of poverty.
The Hope:
Our hope is that once people are made aware of this daily tragedy that they will be stirred into action. The hope is that people will realize that a small sacrifice on their part could help children survive their poverty and could relieve their suffering. Our hope is that people would realize that for the price of a gallon of gas they could feed a child for 3 days. Our hope is that people will realize that as our nation mourns the death of 20 children that were senselessly slaughtered, that almost 1000 times that number of children are mourned by their families and villages every day! Our hope is that people will realize that Jesus mourns also as these children are allowed to die so that we can have our luxuries.
The Progress:
As Christmas 2012 approaches we have made one tenth (1,900) of the crosses in our vision. So far we have displayed them twice; once at Fort Lewis College in October (2012) for a day, and the second time at our church in Bayfield. At the college we placed the crosses around the clock tower in the middle of campus and that evening we presented a program on world poverty. The program was a joint effort of two Christian ministries on campus and also Engineers w/o Borders. About 60 people attended the event.
When we planted the crosses at our church we left them up through a few weeks of November. They were placed on the hillside in front of our church with a small banner explaining what they symbolized. It seemed so ironic to celebrate the holiday whose primary event is a banquet when so many struggled for food just to stay alive.
After taking the crosses down we realized that many crosses would have to be reassembled. The crosses are fashioned using paint stir sticks. The vertical member is one paint stick and ½ of a paint stick is used for the cross piece. We have tried gluing the crosses together but found that was both slow and structurally inferior to stapling the cross pieces together.
Our Group:
We have been assembling and praying over these crosses primarily on Saturday evenings. The youth group at our church led by our youth pastor, Joe Reimers, meets at 6:30 p.m. Since many in the group including Joe wanted to help with the project, we have usually met at 5:00 to do our work.
Several adults from our church have been faithful supporters of the Project. Their financial support and faithful help in assembly and prayer have been encouraging.
Our Plan:
As we continue to be obedient to our God given vision, we have set up a tentative work schedule. We have agreed to meet on Saturday the 29th of December at 5:00. Then the first Saturday of January (the 5th of January) and will continue to meet on the first Saturday of the month through the winter.
In the early summer, when the ground thaws, we will start to look for opportunities to set out the crosses once again.
The Future:
Be praying! We believe that if we are obedient to the calling God has set before us…who knows as Caleb said in Joshua 14, “perhaps the Lord will be with me!”
Who knows – if the Lord is with us perhaps He will see fit to display His compassion for the poor through these crosses in our area. Our Pastor Randy Ash has suggested that it may be in God’s plan to give us a large truck/trailer to store the finished crosses and perhaps transport them across this nation making people more aware of the plight of thousands of children every day.
Who knows? Perhaps the Lord will be with us…
And He may use this project in a mighty way.
The Invitation:
Please join us in our efforts!
1st -Pray for the poor children of the world and for us at the Crosses Project to be obedient and faithful
2nd -Give to the effort – directly to World Hunger Fund or another similar organization to feed children now
And/or
3rd -Give to the Crosses Project as we try to leverage this money and raise awareness of this tragedy in the 4 corners and across our nation
Notes:
We need about $1,000 more for the paint sticks necessary to finish the project (Click to Donate)
For more information, please feel free to contact Joe at (970) 946-9540.
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