Hungry.

Hungry.
Emotionally hurting.
No home.
No friends.
Nothing.

YES! There is hope! Please, I’ll do the crying. I’ll hold the dirty clothed, smelly people in my arms for all of us. But I can’t buy their food, hygiene products and other necessities. But you can and will.

Open Door Mission – an outreach of Full Spirit Ministries church – will do the physical. You do the monetary and we all do the caring.
Twenty four years of caring and doing.

Rev. Thebo

Thanksgiving Holiday Dinner

We will be serving a full Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, November 24th at 12:00 noon. Everyone is welcome to come!

This will be a time for friends coming together with friends, and lonely people meeting other lonely people. Loneliness will leave and new friendships will begin!

All donations for this special meal are greatly appreciated. If there are any funds not used for the cost of this meal, they will help tremendously in the lean months ahead.

Volunteer slots for serving have all been filled. Volunteer slots for filling food baskets have all been filled. Now, please help us fill the baskets and the bellies of hurting people.

Rev. Thebo

Thanksgiving is upon us.

Please make this a delicious holiday. Joining together with relatives and friends is great. In the beginning, the Pilgrims joins with the Indians. You can join with the homeless and poor by donating food or money to buy food and doing so in love and caring.

Do it by giving to the Open Door Mission and be assured all will be used wisely to help those in desperate need of you as a wonderful selfless person. Open Door Mission knows you care.

You make your love show when you donate through the Open Door Mission. We are a church with the Open Door Mission as an outreach. We need you to reach out to others using the Open Door Mission.

Please don't let one family or one person go without fellowship and delicious meals. Give big.

In Christ's Name,
Rev. Thebo

Many are donating to a large city nearby and ignoring those here. Please help at home first. We need you here. We make it simple for you: call 970-224-4302, ext 13to donate food. Use our secure website to donate funds by credit card, or you can call 970-224-4302, ext 10 or 11 to donate by credit card over the phone. Mail checks or money orders to the Open Door Mission, PO Box 1873, Fort Collins, CO 80522

24 Years Here - 8 Years There

That adds up to many years of ministering to the homeless, impoverished, and the hurting. And I do not regret any of it. Would I do anything differently? Of course. We all would. Hindsight is so wonderful; but meaningless if you don't learn from it.

We moved into 316 Jefferson St. in December of 1993 Making an empty building into a shelter, storage, kitchen, bathroom and showers. Now, we feed an average of 120 or more meals a day and sleep 35-40 people per night. Unfortunately, the city wants and is going to plant more trees and put in sidewalks and bike lanes. Forget the homeless! But not entirely, for they realize that full Spirit Ministries and Open Door Mission are needed. Please pray for hurting people and for our city government. What's next? I am only certain that we are needed and so are you!

Holidays are coming on. Prices are going up. Utilities are increasing. There are more hurting people to help. You have brought us through the years. Even more of your financial help is needed now.

What we do is help people.

What we need is more of you!

Working together to help others who cannot help themselves.

You get mailings to send your donations to Denver. Why? We need you here!

Can we in turn help you? Christ is the answer for all of us. We are the body, working together for Christ, the head.

In Christ,

Rev. Thebo

By the way....I just had my second 35th birthday, and I'm feeling great!

A note about this Christian ministry.....

We strive to help and accommodate everyone we can in the name of Jesus Christ.

We do not voice an opinion on political matters, or people's beliefs in any political matters. We strive to help feed, clothe, shelter and counsel, get jobs, etc. Many programs are done by other agencies. We look to the inner person first: spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. This starts with Christ. The Word says Christ is the respecter of no persons. This means He cares for us all equally. That doesn't mean we agree on everything privately - on different matters. It does mean that we love and care for all without prejudice. If you would ever like to say something about what we do in the name of Christ, PLEASE write us and set up a time to come by. I will give you a personal tour of where God has Opened the Doors to help people.

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Rev. Thebo

P.S. Would you like to write something about this ministry? Send your opinion to Open Door Mission, PO Box 1873, Fort Collins, CO 80522; Attn: Director and Pastor

Hallelujah 24!

Hallelujah 24! No, that's not my age, but it is one of my ages. On December 16, 1976, God spoke to me. I listened but didn't understand when He said "Rich, change now before it's too late." God does not have laryngitis. On December 24, 1976, I cried out to God that if He would listen to someone like me, to please come into my life and clean me up inside and out. He did! I was so hungry to hear God's word that even after working 16 to 24 hours straight, I beat the Pastor to the church. It has never changed. Evangelism and night school brought me a Bible College education, learning through night courses and weekends. Then on to starting a church. I do not walk in other people's footsteps; only in the Holy Spirit's leading. Then the Lord told me to go to Colorado. I did. He led. I started another church after being in Fort Collins for a week. But unbeknownst to me, it wasn't just a church. It was a beginning of what He really wanted me to do: start a rescue mission. No real problem. I was eating in a soup kitchen by the time I was three years old.



I started ministering just a few months into 1977. Guess where! You have it - in a resuce mission. And the ironic thing is that it was the same one that started out as a soup kitchen I knew in 1943. I can't say enough good about Rev. and Mrs. Buckely, who founded City Union Mission in Kansas City, MO. The old, and sometimes the new, missions start out as a place to eat and stay at in the daytime, just as Open Door Mission did. But I'm just getting ahead of myself. Sometimes that's the problem. I know what to do and jump right in before I explain it to others.



I was offered a position back east, only for God to tell me to go back to Fort Collins, CO and start a mission. OK. I'll start a coffee shop and pass out gospel tracs and witness about Jesus Christ. Sorry, but God obviously had more in mind. Twenty-four years later, Open Door Mission feeds an average of 3,500 meals per month and sleeps an average of 950 per month. Counseling and many other opportunities happened to help people. Often it seems impulsive. It is not. It is God. He says "Behold, I stand at the door knocking. If any open I will come in and sup with him." I open and He comes in and shows me what to do, and He equips.



Twenty-four years. A lot of heartaches. A lot of victories. People often ask me, How do you know when you're successful?" I say, "When they never come back." That's not entirely true. God says to take one day at a time, for tomorrow has enough problems in itself. What Open Door Mission does is lay the foundation for a better tomorrow, by helping to wipe out the past. Success is measured daily for we know not what the future holds for any of us. Live for Christ by helping others. Once we come to know Christ as our Savior, it becomes our responsibility to help others. Am I my brother's keeper? YES! Never stop!

Success often comes in the small things of life.

Over the years, I've had both male and female come to me and say "Thank you. You've saved my life." This is sometimes meant as if to say: you fed me when I had no food, and nowhere else to get a meal. Sometimes it is in regard to counseling. Heartache is a terrible thing. Sleeping out without even a blanket is a terrifying experience to a person who has never been homeless before. Then there is the ultimate: a person who has been contemplating suicide.
The fear of not seeing anything but the unknown...
Darkness without seeing light at the end of the tunnel of failure...
Hiding from a mate who has used you as a punching bag...
Shaking inside from that unknown tomorrow....

I've seen and felt all of these things over 33 years of being used by the Lord; in shelters, on the streets, in jails and numerous other places. So when someone says thank you for saving my life, they mean it. And they aren't speaking to just me. It's you and me, caring for that person beyond just saying "that poor soul."

Please, never look at the mistakes the unfortunate have made. We all make mistakes. But sometimes, the results are much worse for the homeless.

I ask you to care for those, right here at home. Then reach out farther as God gives you the resources to do so. Save a life.