Kelly, 27, with her sons Dylan, 2, and Gavin, 8, graduated from the Denver Rescue Mission’s Champa House in September. Photo: ABS/Francine Lange (USA06DJ-17.JPG)

Thanks to a generous gift from the estate of Eleanor Searle Whitney McCollum, the American Bible Society is making the special-edition Butterfly New Testament available free of charge in the United States. It uses the easy-to-read Good News translation, making it suitable for outreach. On the back flap there are some words from Mrs McCollum: ‘If you want to know how your life can be changed by Jesus Christ, read the verses underlined.’ Photo: ABS/Francine Lange (USA06DJ-23.JPG)

USA — Single mothers in desperate circumstances have limited options when searching for shelter. In Denver, though, there is a Christ-centred program that helps these families at their time of greatest need. Now, thanks to an American Bible Society donor, each woman entering Champa House will receive a specially-designed Butterfly New Testament.

On the east side of Denver there is a large red brick house. Its porch is swept clean and decorated with flowers and ferns. A delicate lace curtain lends a dignified privacy to the glass-windowed front door. To the left, under a side window, a sign reads, ‘Ring buzzer to enter’. A row of tiny fingers pushes aside the blinds covering the window, revealing a child with blond hair, blue eyes and a mischievous grin.

Smiling toddler

This neighbourhood, close to Denver’s notorious Five Points area, is experiencing a steady upturn as wise developers with an eye to the future buy up homes and restore or rebuild them. This particular house shows no signs of having been restored, but the smiling toddler, his mother and the other women and children who live here are experiencing their own restoration: of the heart, mind, body and spirit.

Childhood neglect

Two-year-old Dylan, his brother Gavin, eight, and their mother Kelly, 27, moved into Champa House nearly a year ago. Kelly tells her story, one of childhood neglect, a troubled adolescence, spending time in jail and temporarily losing custody of her two sons. She suffered abuse at the hands of a drug-addicted boyfriend and became pregnant with her third child at a time when she was struggling to pay the rent. In the depths of her despair, she met a Christian couple who would eventually adopt her unborn child. Then she heard about a program that would open the door to a life she had only ever dreamed about.

“I was very scared,” she recalls of the orientation session at Champa House, a transitional home for single mothers run by the Denver Rescue Mission. As well as shelter and food, this facility provides job training, advice on life and parenting skills and family and individual therapy for up to 27 months. Its five-phase New Life program adapts teaching to individual needs, but is always geared towards self-sufficiency.

Safe place

Residents are required to study for their General Educational Development (GED) High School Equivalency Diploma test, to undertake household tasks and to attend church and weekly Bible study. Rules include no mobile phones, no boyfriends and a curfew. Also, Kelly adds, “I had to get rid of my car.”

Structure and rules improve the program’s effectiveness. “It’s a safe place to live,” says Angela Magnotta, the Program Director for Champa House, adding that the facility achieves a 50 per cent success rate.

Submersed in Scripture

All the activities and training are based on biblical principles. “It always comes back to, ‘What does the Scripture say?’” says Ms Magnotta. “Whatever the residents are doing, they’re being submersed in the Word of God. Even if they don’t complete the program, every woman who lives here has her life changed.”

The house, donated to the Denver Rescue Mission in 1990, offers a refuge to mothers and their children fleeing from violent situations, and those recovering from substance abuse. More than three-quarters of the residents have experienced some form of domestic violence. Faith-based initiatives of this kind are vital to this often overlooked and rejected social group, according to Linda Murphy, Executive Director of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI). “We couldn’t manage without them,” she says.

She goes on to give some statistics. On January 23, 2006, her organisation counted 9,091 people in the metropolitan area of Denver. Volunteers identified 3,261 children and young people and 1,150 single mothers. Another study of homeless families in nine major American cities finds that a typical family comprises a single mother with two children under the age of five. “It’s deplorable when you see how young these children are,” says Ms Murphy. MDHI works with 175 different agencies, including Mile High United Way and government, church and business groups. “We’re all partnering to put our arms around this issue,” she adds.

At Champa House, church and outreach groups play a vital role. Workers from the Greek Orthodox church in Denver helped to renovate the living areas, for example, painting and carpeting the rooms in colours the residents had chosen. Similarly, the women’s ministry at Bethel Biblical church in Lakewood has ‘adopted’ the families at Champa House.

Start a new life

They hold a going away/housewarming party for each family that graduates from the program and a Christmas celebration for all the residents. They supply the items that the mothers need as they start a new life with their children, such as bedding, kitchen equipment and cleaning supplies. The Christmas gifts may also include craft supplies, shoes or clothes. “Most of the families have nothing when they come here,” says Norma Mummert of the women’s ministry. “We make sure that all the items we give them are new, so that they can truly make a fresh start. It’s a blessing for us to bless those who have worked so hard to better themselves.”

In future, the Bethel Biblical ministry at Champa House will also include providing a New Testament to each mother who enters the New Life program. The special-edition Butterfly New Testament, the result of a gift to the American Bible Society, has a cover featuring a green and blue-tinged butterfly on a background of a cross (see image).

Kelly is due to graduate soon. Her thoughts are turning to what would have happened if she had not come to Champa House. “I wouldn’t still have my children,” she says. She might also have gone back to drugs. Her stay here has turned a desperate situation into one of hope, with clear goals for the future. “I’ve already achieved one of my goals: my GED,” she says proudly. Now she wants to find a stable job, possibly as a portrait photographer. “I want to make my children happy. I just want to be normal and not to have to worry about where I’m going to find clothes for my children.”