It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom [of God’s love] is not only beyond our efforts,

it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent

enterprise that is God’s work.

—The Prayer of Óscar Romero*

Dear friends,

Turning the page to 2023, this year will open a very big chapter for Mile High Ministries. It will bring the grand opening of Clara Brown Commons!

The milestone has us pausing, in the words of a favorite prayer for our staff, “to step back and take the long view.” In the next few weeks of updates, I invite you to take a wide-angle view with us—the past, present, and future of our unfolding story.

Clara Brown Commons is big, and we’re dreaming even bigger. Not for bigness sake, but from our deep love of people in our city and our desire for all to flourish together. We envision several more housing communities in coming years, and a catalyst role in helping others implement cutting-edge approaches to the homelessness crisis.

For MHM to reach our ambitious goals, we need to grow our capacity and expertise at the board, staff, and volunteer levels. And of course, we’ll need to raise more money—an obvious prerequisite for building new communities modeled after Joshua Station and Clara Brown Commons.

When we “step back and take long view,” we feel enormously grateful for the friends and partners—old and new—who have been in this work with us over the course of 35 years. Our hearts leap when we look ahead to the big opportunities represented by our “tiny fraction” of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

With joyful anticipation,

Jeff Johnsen

Executive Director

*By Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, composed in 1979 in honor of Saint Óscar Romero of San Salvador. The prayer inspired the title of our book, Beyond our Efforts: A Celebration of Denver Peacemaking, available here.