It was a year ago today that I arrived in this drowsy little town situated on a skinny sandbar along Clear Creek in Clear Creek County. Idaho Springs, Colorado is nationally noted as the skinniest town in America measuring only 3 miles long east to west and about a half mile wide north to south for a total of 2.2 square miles.
Interstate 70 which heads east to west cuts along the south edge of town takes the skiers to the slopes west of town.
Idaho Springs is squeezed in tightly between two steep rocky canyon walls rising up a thousand feet straight up towards the Colorado sky. Idaho Springs, Colorado an old gold mining town was the center of the Colorado gold rush in 1859. Today, it's the local tourist mecca for skiers who come here from all over the world to swoosh down powdery slopes at nearby Echo Mtn, Loveland, Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen.
After getting squared away at my new digs an 1872 two story Victorian known as the Lucas House situated on a spacious lot located at the corner of Ninth and Colorado Blvd, I decided to search out the coffee/roaster shop I had noticed on a car trip to Idaho Springs just a few weeks prior to my arrival.
I bent down to open the oversized 8 foot tall entrance door. The door handle is located only 2 feet off the floor. Everybody who enters the Frothy Cup Coffee Shop has a certain degree of difficulty opening this door, some more than others.
As I walked in, the sound of my shoe leather slapping the old wood planked floor made the patrons there that day look up and wonder who this new guy was.
I moseyed on up to the beautifully wood paneled bar and introduced myself to the pretty red headed barista named Donna. After the normal pleasantries were exchanged I directed the conversation to my mission which brought me here on foot from back home in Peoria, Illinois. After hearing about the whys and wherefores of my westward journey Donna put a dollar in the cash register and told me that my coffee was on her.
Since that day Donna, the other baristas, Patti, Amy Sue, Paul and Cindy have become my very close friends. Glenda and Randy Watson who own the Frothy Cup have also become close friends and fantastic supporters of my journey and routinely offer their home in Lone Tree for a respite away from Idaho Springs.
The past year has been a busy one to be sure. I have worked with three churches, the First Baptist, United Church and Clear Creek Neighborhood Church by preaching, facilitating events and teaching.
Pastors Dawit Woldyhannes and Bill Robertson have been supportive and hospitable towards my mission here. Brian and Becky Blackwell have so graciously offered the Lucas House rent free and have paid for all of the utilities. Furthermore, they have me over for meatloaf suppers every Wednesday evening.
My mission here has centered around creating relationships with as many people here in town and by doing so proclaiming the love and Kingdom of God.
In that I have been successful. Clear Creek County is a tough nut to crack spiritually speaking. It has a population of just under 10,000. On a good Sunday morning around 100 people gather in the churches in Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Empire, Dumont, Downieville and Lawson. That's 1% of the population which attends church here in Clear Creek County. Admittedly, some people drive down the hill to Jefferson and Denver County for church. But, I suspect that maybe only another 100-200 people account for that group.
What accounts for this seeming lack of interest in organized religion? The local pastors all have their theories. I suspect it has something to do with a generational factor going all the way back to the gold rush days when greed, avarice and even murder dominated the culture here. These anti-christian traits found their way into the DNA of Clear Creek County.
It could be that these vices have had a residual effect on the population especially the old families of this County. But, who knows? All I know is that previous church planters and missionaries have all had more than typical difficulties in establishing and furthering churches and fellowships here.
Now, I also recognize a difference between "spirituality" and "religion" especially organized institutionalized religion. There is probably a sizeable number of people who consider themselves spiritual but not necessarily religious.
I have been able to appeal to both groups without sacrificing my own adherence to both the so-called spiritual and to the religious. I am a firm believer in the "Church Universal." Having said that, I have also critiqued the Church where such criticism is warranted. I have likewise looked inward and found myself wanting. I have been hypocritical at times by not adhering to the tenets of God's Word yet at the same time espousing those principals. I am a work in progress that's for sure.
It's been a wonderful year trying at times but fruitful too. I owe a lot to the great people of Idaho Springs but I owe everything to God who cleared my way from Illinois to this unique little town in the mountains of Colorado and who provided me with everything I needed and then some.
I have no idea if I will have the same success in the towns, villages and cities up ahead on the road westward. That remains to be developed. But, I do know that God is with me. So, who or what circumstance should I fear?
So, finally, I thank all who those I have encountered and fallen in love with in Idaho Springs, Colorado. My thanks go to the town itself. And of course thanks again be to God who rains on the just and unjust alike.
And, so we Christ followers should likewise rain God's love on all, just and unjust.
Pics are of Donna, Melissa, Amy, Jerry, Brian and Donna(who took me out to Tommyknockers for dinner). Craig also came by to say hi. He's Pastor of Calvary Church in Evergreen.
BR Schoenbein
January 21, 2016- Thursday
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