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Around the world many things are broken. Our vision at flatirons is "To bring the awesome life of Christ to a lost and broken world. As followers of Christ, it is one of our tasks to share the love God has for us with words and with our actions. We know that the needs in this world can, at times, be overwhelming. However, we must not let this sense of being overwhelmed drive us to despair. Rather it must drive us to engage. At flatirons we have chosen to engage with the world by developing a limited number of deep and meaningful relationships with organizations based on the following principles:
- Shared Values
- Focus on community-owned, sustainable models
- A mutual desire for close involvement
- Alignment of our giftedness as a church with opportunities and passions
- A strong sense of stewardship
Our desire is to partner with likeminded organizations in order to be used by God in His work of transforming lives... including our own. It is our hope to develop partnerships in which we are:
"...delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." 1 Thessalonians 2:8.
Click here to go to the short-term team blog.
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At the end of 2009, flatirons entered into a partnership with an organization working among the urban poor in Mexico City. In cooperation with Servant Partners (www.servantpartners.org), a Mexican NGO named Comunidad Mosáico works in a community called Chimalhuacan. According to Geneva Global, in 2008 over 1 billion people (a third of the world's urban population) lived in slums - areas of substandard housing that lack adequate water, city services, healthcare, education, and other basic human needs. Members of the Comunidad Mosáico hail from such places as Switzerland, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, and Mexico. They live in Chimalhuacan and have developed, in cooperation with community leaders from Chimalhuacan, several projects: Youth as Agents of Change, a community health initiative, an initiative to develop healthy children, a holistic church planting initiative, and a number of initiatives to help provide better livelihoods. While all these initiatives are aimed at the transformation of Chimalhuacan, the hope is that each initiative is being carefully evaluated and documented in order to develop templates that can be effectively used to transform slums around the world.
Check back here for the 2012 Mexico trip schedule.
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Since 2007, flatirons has been in partnership with a NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that focuses most of its attention on community development in Afghanistan. Afghanistan ranks 181st out of 182 countries on the UN Human Development Index (the UN HDI measures life expectancy, education, and standard of living). This organization focuses on transformational development through initiatives in health care, education, and economics. flatirons’ primary involvement with this organization rests in its focus on working with returning Afghan refugees and IDPs (Internally Displaced People). Since 2002, more than five million Afghan refugees have returned to their home country, increasing the population by over 20% according to the UN High Commission for Refugees. This scale of people returning to a country that has suffered from decades of war puts a great deal of stress on infrastructures that have been destroyed. flatirons has helped fund three key infrastructures in a new community made up of around 4,000 former IDPs: a school, a clinic, and a water system that provides safe drinking water. flatirons continues to help fund these ongoing operations in partnership with the NGO to create a sustainable economic situation for the residents of this new community.
Find out more about a short-term trip or apply for a trip
1. Download and read the 2012 Trip Dates for Afghanistan. (pdf)
2. Download and read the Information Packet for Afghanistan. (pdf)
3. Complete the Online Application for Afghanistan.
By submitting this application, you understand the expectations and financial commitment as outlined in the Information Packet for Short-term Trips
(Download the Afghanistan Information Packet here).
For more information contact:
Cyndy Kamin | Administrative Director
Office | 303-664-5524 x251
Email | cyndy_kamin@flatironschurch.com
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Beginning in November, 2011 flatirons entered into a partnership is with Musana Children’s Home in Uganda. Musana was started in the summer of 2008 by a few students that were a part of MERGE College Age Ministry at flatirons along with 2 Ugandan young men. Musana Children’s Home arose in response to orphans and vulnerable children who were living at another orphanage in deplorable conditions. Musana has grown into much more than that. While caring for orphans and vulnerable children, Musana has begun to ask and attempt to answer some important questions: Why are there so many orphans and vulnerable children in this area? Are the children who come to us really orphans? Certainly HIV/AIDS has resulted in many children losing one or both parents. There are also social and religious factors in the area which have led to family sizes that are not able to sustain themselves. What can be done to prevent this situation? Musana is working with parents to help create jobs that can lead to sustainability for some families. Perhaps most significantly, Musana is working to build a template where the Chidren’s Home and school are financially sustainable within the Ugandan economy and socially sustainable within the Ugandan society. In addition to sustainability for the Children’s Home, school, and families, the sustainability projects Musana is implementing will serve as examples to the community at large. Some of these projects include a café, a craft business, a farm, dairy cows, chickens and a tilapia farm. Musana is not just providing education and a loving home for vulnerable children it’s impacting a community for generations to come.
Find out more about a short-term trip or apply for a trip
1. Download and read the 2012 Trip Dates for Musana. (pdf)
2. Download and read the Information Packet for Musana. (pdf)
3. Complete the Online Application for Musana.
By submitting this application, you understand the expectations and financial commitment as outlined in the Information Packet for Short-term Trips
(Download the Musana Information Packet here).
For more information contact:
Cyndy Kamin | Administrative Director
Office | 303-664-5524 x251
Email | cyndy_kamin@flatironschurch.com
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