RHYTHMS | PRAYER, PRACTICE, PLACE
Vol 3. Issue 17
Friends,
The increasing coolness in the air each night signals the shift in seasons as students in Colorado begin to return to classes over the next two weeks. This issue invites us to consider how we love our neighbors and neighborhoods through our local schools.
There is a Prayer for Students written by Bekah Stewart, a Practice of Volunteering at a Local School from a conversation with Tina Lin, and Save Our Youth as a sacred Place serving students in our city since 1994.
All blessings.
Jared Mackey
P.S. - We’re thrilled to be collaborating with National Good Neighbor Day. More about the movement is included at the end of this issue.
PRAYER | STUDENTS
By Bekah Stewart
Great Teacher,
We pray for students of every age and every stage
As they enter a new season of learning.
May they find safe space
To pay attention and process the many emotions that arise.
Would they come to trust no amount of knowledge will matter
If they have not learned how to study the depths of their own emotional world.
May they become familiar with their physical limits and boundaries,
And consider care for their bodies as sacred stewardship.
Would they be quick to bring their weary and worn selves to Jesus
And keep company with Him so they could learn to live freely and lightly.
May your grace and truth be guideposts of their mental framework.
Would their every thought be filtered through your abundant love for the world,
Offering hope for the journey and energizing them
To pursue all that is good, beautiful, and true.
May they be open to Your presence and pursuit in all places,
That they would come to trust how You hold all things together.
Give them eyes to see and ears to hear,
That they might explore their learnings with the gift of discernment.
May every student be given the gift of a diversity of relationships:
Good, hard, different, and deep.
May their most tangible and lasting lessons
Be learning to see the image of God in every classmate,
And the God story in every endeavor.
Amen.
Bekah Stewart (BekahStewart.com) is a spiritual director, LifePlan guide, and creator of Girl Stand Up: A 9 month Guided Passage for Women. Her debut book Permission to Matter: Reclaiming Women's Humanity & Authority at the Invitation of Jesus just released in June.
PRACTICE | VOLUNTEER AT A LOCAL SCHOOL
By Jared Mackey
“My favorite part of volunteering was getting to know a picture of the whole family.”
Practice
Be a safe person. Complete the necessary background check to be available.
Consistency is key. Commit to consistent involvement, even once a month.
Acknowledge education is complex work. Approach volunteering with curiosity about the students and staff in your neighborhood.
Few practices connect us to our neighborhoods more than volunteering at our local school. Local schools are where diverse families from the neighborhood daily converge in car lines and classrooms. Volunteering at your local school provides a front row seat to your neighborhood’s needs and dreams.
Tina Lin volunteered and worked at Denver’s Isabella Bird Community School for 9 years. “Education is uniquely challenging work,” Tina says. “Volunteers don’t fix everything, but they ease the load.” Volunteering at a local school does not require a teaching background or a child enrolled at the school. What is needed most is the willingness and consistency to show up. Whether it’s helping with reading or being an adult presence during recess or lunch, being there makes a difference. “Your presence helps create a sense of safety for students and staff,” she says.
Schools are where the neighborhood and needs intersect clearly and consistently. Elementary Schools need and welcome the most volunteers—from classroom reading buddies to lunch monitors and field trip chaperones. Reading one-on-one with a student is a simple and significant way to show up—especially in Title I schools where needs are high and volunteers are few. “It’s simple,” Tina explains. “You sit with one student to read, and over time, you get to know their family, their story.” As students grow, volunteer opportunities shift. Middle school volunteers are required for field days and support staff. High Schools benefit from adult involvement with a PTA, extracurricular activities, and opportunities for mentoring relationships. Wherever you serve, it’s less about the tasks and more about the trust you are building with the students and staff at the school.
The local school is a place where the needs of many in our neighborhoods are met every day. Students and staff both benefit from adults showing up and serving. The local school is a place to practice the Way of Jesus, being one who comes not to be served, but to serve.
Thank you to Tina Lin for her conversation and contribution to this article.
PLACE | SAVE OUR YOUTH
By Jared Mackey
“It is easier to build strong children, than to repair broken men.”
In the heart of the Sunnyside neighborhood is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the well-being of youth in Denver. Save Our Youth was founded in response to the tumultuous "summer of violence" in Denver in 1993. It provides one-to-one mentorship to young people ages 10-17 as a pathway to help them overcome adverse experiences and learn to embrace hope. To cultivate the belief that they can have something better, and they have a role to play in making it better. With over three decades of faithful presence and practice, Save Our Youth has walked alongside thousands of youths, providing mentoring relationships that nurture spiritual, emotional, and economic hope.
Save Our Youth currently serves over 300 youth annually. Their goal for 2025 is 90 new mentoring matches (45 were already established by July), which reflects their commitment to growth. The culture of Save Our Youth is a nonprofit that is led from a place of abundance, not scarcity. Russel Dains, the Executive Director since 2019, has created a shared value of generosity among staff, donors, mentors, and youth. Under Russel’s leadership, the organization has built on its legacy while infusing new vitality into its mission.
Save Our Youth’s mentoring model is rooted in proximity. They have a relational and operational network to match mentors and mentees who live within 15 minutes of each other. It provides mentors another perspective on their own neighborhood. Through the relationship, both mentors and mentees experience their city differently, being together in places one or the other might have otherwise never entered. Mentors serve as guides for navigating life, from locating the local library to taking public transportation, filling out job applications, and applying for college scholarships.
One of the unique aspects of Save Our Youth is their choice to work only with youth that personally choose to participate. "It cannot be forced on them. It cannot be a parent decision. They have to choose it," explains Program Director, Maria Borrego. She shares about a mentee who began her journey with Save Our Youth feeling isolated and angry. But week after week, her mentor returned—not with quick fixes, but with steady faithfulness. “That young girl needed to know someone would come back,” Maria says. “And we did.”
The influence of having a faithful presence in the lives of youth manifests in tangible ways. Mentees develop confidence visible in their body language and decision-making abilities. "They hold conversations more confidently," shares Borrego. Most significantly, the mentor relationship builds trust—an invaluable commodity for youth facing challenging circumstances. A mentor is often the person in their lives whom they feel they can call when they don’t know what to do.
Transformation is not only an outcome for the youth, but also for the mentor. The experience transforms their perspective about younger generations and about the resilience required to overcome life obstacles. The initial invitation is for mentors to commit to 12 months. Beginning with one hour a week for the first 4 months and moving to a rhythm of quality time over quantity of time as the relational foundation is established. The support of Save Our Youth creates an environment for true friendships to be formed. It is incredibly inspiring that the average mentor relationship at Save Our Youth is 54 months.
Save Our Youth is a place of intentional mentoring relationships, bridging divides, and building hope. Save Our Youth is a sacred place.
Thank you to Maria Borrego for her conversation and contribution to this article. Thank you to Save Our Youth for leadership and legacy of mentoring in our city.
PARTICIPATE | NATIONAL GOOD NEIGHBOR DAY
“The noblest human concern is concern for others…this sense of community is nurtured in our neighborhoods.”
National Good Neighbor Day was created in the 1970s and officially recognized by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. We invite you to participate in National Good Neighbor Day.
Need ideas? Our partners at nationalgoodneighborday.org have practical ideas, conversation starters, and resources to help you connect with your neighbors.
More rhythms to root your faith in place.
Sacred Place provides a beautiful bi-weekly publication to share the rhythms of a Prayer, Practice, and Place as simple ways to help cultivate love for our neighbors and neighborhoods.
