We had a neighborhood ice cream social this past Sunday. We live on a street that is not a cul-de-sac, but has no outlet. There are about 45 homes. We made fliers and I walked around the neighborhood with my dog, distributing one to each home. We invited everyone to bring their dogs.

Everyone considered the ice cream social a success! Only a couple of people brought their dogs, and they were well received. Several people did need or want the sugar-free or lactose-free options and seemed to really appreciate having them available. Several neighbors said we should make it an annual event, and some said we could have it at their yard some year. One man came, who is quite disabled, who no one in the neighborhood had ever met before; even people who have lived here for years and take walks around the neighborhood often. He seemed to enjoy himself and everyone enjoyed visiting with him. Altogether we estimated about 40 people attended.

– Nita

Some of things that we have done in the neighborhood have been from very simple street BBQ’s to actually having a block party just so each of us can truly embrace each of our neighbors and get to know them better. It is more than just waving as each other drive by but it is actually getting involved from the heart and reaching out to see what your own neighbors needs may be. One item that has just taken off has been that our next door neighbors husband passed away 14 months ago and each neighbor has taken turns doing the shoveling and yard cleanup. It has come to the point that each neighbor not only will shovel the widows walk but will shovel numerous houses. It seems that the first man that is up after a snow storm just goes out and does it. No one leaves a note saying I did your walks we all just do it. It has been really a fantastic at times you come home and your walks are already done, but my neighbors can say the same thing. I know that this is just a small example but what it really comes down to is getting involved and making that first contact, no one pushes religion but if that door is opened I’ll be the first to engage and try to explain that that is how Christ has chosen me to work in my life and in others, by being a servant.

– Dennis

A woman from our church was walking from her apartment to church this past Sunday. She saw a few guys hanging out in the driveway of a house and said hi to them (trying to be a good neighbor). They said hello and she started talking with them. One of the men asked where she was headed and she told him she was going to church. He replied, “I know I need to change my life, can I come with you?”

You just never know what they Holy Spirit might want to do when you’re open to it!

– Trevor

Near as I can tell our neighborhood has become so caring for a couple of reasons. First off – we are all people who DO care. Second – I have always talked to people when I’m in my front yard or on a walk. Eventually people start to respond and notice more around them.

A bit of background – In 2003 I became very, very ill. Lost my job because I couldn’t stand up for more than 5 minutes and was basically bedridden for 6-8 months. After I was able to walk around a bit I started to slowly walk more in the neighborhood, just trying to get stronger, and saw the same people every day. I always greet people, no matter what. People could see that I was sick and I think that is what started it. Sometimes they would ask what was wrong with me but mostly just little insignificant chats. To me – they were huge chats because I was completely isolated. People would stand and talk, then someone else would come over to say “Hi”, thus they would meet. Viola – instant caring neighborhood.

Now my close neighbors understand my medical issues and if they don’t see me moving around, someone calls. Two of them have keys and they have let themselves in if they felt I needed checking on and wasn’t calling back. I think all of them have taken me to the store or a Dr. appt at some time, Bless them. I pet sit, vacation sit, etc for them. Rosemary told me the other day that she met someone new everytime she went for a walk with me – just because I say Hi.

– Sheila

We have a really neat and tight-knit neighborhood. We get together formally 2 times per year at an End of the Summer Block Party and for a Progressive Christmas Dinner in December. There are about 70 people that come to these 2 events that have been going on since before we moved in 11 years ago. We also get together informally mostly in the summer when people are outside more. I grew up in a neighborhood that had block parties in the summer and was so excited when I found out our neighborhood does this! Our children are friends with all of the neighborhood kids, so I guess you just become friends with their parents kind of by default! We are not afraid to talk about our faith with these people. One of our neighbors is a pastor and his wife teaches at a large Christian school in the area, and they are really into missions. Many of our neighbors have come to VBS and church with our kids, and then their parents started coming to Christmas and Easter services.

– Julie

Several weeks ago after hearing the second of the series of “neighboring” sermons and after my less than stellar attempt at filling in the names and basic information on the neighbors living around us in my own neighborhood, I decided to take on the challenge of reaching out to an elderly couple that lived across the street.

For nearly 13 years, I’ve seen this pair working in their yard, shoveling the snow and walking in the neighborhood but never once took the initiative to actually walk over and introduce myself. I didn’t even know their names. My perception of them (which I found out to be totally inaccurate) was that they weren’t the friendliest pair. This of course was based on my weak attempts at being “neighborly” which amounted to an occasional wave as I drove past them on my busy way. Was it any surprise that they just stared at me with blank looks on their faces and didn’t wave back?

As I returned home from church after hearing the sermon, I noticed that the woman was doing some work in her front yard. I went inside, changed my clothes and walked across the street and introduced myself. I sheepishly told her that I was a little embarrassed to take so long to introduce myself after living within 100 yards for over 13 years but was pleasantly surprised by her friendly response. We talked for several minutes and exchanged some basic information. I offered to help her with the work she was doing but she declined by explaining that this was how she got her exercise.

A few days later, I answered a knock at the front door. It was the husband. He introduced himself and thanked me for coming over and offering to help his wife with the yard work. Again, we exchanged some background information and shared some neighborhood stories. I again offered my assistance should either of them need it.

About a week later, I answered another knock on the front door. It was the husband again but this time he asked me if I had a couple of minutes to help him. As we walked across the street to his house, he explained that he had a problem with a low area in his wood deck in the back yard. He also said he needed some help figuring out a problem he was having with his sprinkler system. Not being an expert in either deck or sprinkler system repair, I wondered what I was getting myself into. I soon found out. In the middle of the aging deck, there was a noticeable low spot where water had been accumulating. After some lengthy discussion on how to fix the problem, we decided that I would pull up “a few” boards, see what was underneath and then formulate a plan to level the low spot. Seemed simple enough – 1 or 2 hour project, done before lunchtime.. Right?

Well, two days later and after about 16 hours of back-breaking, nail pulling, screw stripping, splinter plucking agony, I finished the job – just in time before our last spring snowstorm of the year rolled in. Deck repairman I am not but most of the low spot was leveled – not perfectly level but much better than before. However, even though there was some satisfaction associated with repairing the deck, it hardly compared with the satisfaction of meeting these two very special people and establishing a friendship. A week later, I was covered with mud – this time happily helping to dig up part of their sprinkler system in an attempt to figure out why they weren’t getting pressure to one of their sprinkler heads.

I’ve learned a lot during the past several weeks – a little about deck and sprinkler system repair and how to grow tomato plants. More importantly, I’ve learned that amazing things can happen if you just take the initiative and step outside your comfort zone. I found out that perceptions aren’t always reality and God works in wonderful ways if you just give Him a chance.

– Bill & Tracey

We had a 2nd Annaul potluck picnic at the park in our neighborhood. We put flyers a couple of weeks prior to the picnic and had great participation.

Neighbors got to know each other and find commonalities. Kids played with each other and found new friendships. Work was found to be in common or completely differnt but so interesting! We have our 2nd Annual Soup Stop scheduled for Halloween where neighbors will make soup and others will just enjoy eating it as tricker or treaters make their way around….

It’s so great to belong to a neighborhood rather than just live in one….

– Nancy

We were excited to hear about “Building Blocks” and it gave us ideas and encouragement to go into deeper relationship with our neighbors. We were part of East Ends Days (Superior, WI) rummage sale yesterday. We loved seeing old and new friends and neighbors. We hadn’t met one of our neighbors and we had the opportunity yesterday to do so. He is recently divorced and mentioned to us that we should have a neighborhood BBQ party. Then we go to church that night and the “Building Blocks” discussion was starting. We know there are no coincidences with God, so I was excited to see that there was a Neighborhood Block Party kit I could request. We are so excited to see the larger impact this will have on several communities. We are thrilled to be a part of it!

– Hector & Jeanne

July 31st was a hot day but just enough shade was found under an evergreen in front of the condo. A few months ago I was challenged by Dave to build community and my wife and I accepted that challenge. I posted a bulliten; Neighborhood B-B-Que July 31st All Welcome at the community mailbox. All of the phone number tags were taken but received only one call and that person didn’t show. A dear neighbor from across the street volunteered to bring a cooler, ice and misc. items, my neighbor below me brought delicious cookies and another neighbor brought drinks a cooler and a side dish. Didn’t know if anyone else would come; 36 hamburgers, 36 hotdogs were going to the homeless downtown if no one showed. Seventeen neighbors (five were my family) showed, it was great. We talked, laughed and had too much fun in the shade of that evergreen, moving the chairs as the day slipped by, no one wanted it to end. My wife and I look forward to hosting another get-together with our new friends at the Arbor Green Condos. Thanks; Michael, Linda, Dean, Deb and Gloria you’re the best.

– David

Several neighbors at One Bear Creek, met for lunch in May and discovered that each of us had been requested by our churches to be more neighborly and to consider a block party. We have done the planning and figured out a wonderful backyard venue where we held a potluck Saturday evening, August 27, for 30 people in attendance. It was especially friendly this year, and we made a great effort to be loving, kind, gracious, and generous. We are rebuilding a feeling of community in a couple of blocks where turnover is occuring with aging in place. However, several newer families and singles are revitalizing us all. This is a great blessing!

– Mary

Last year, after the challenge to meet our neighbors went out, three of us decided to resurrect the neighborhood picnic that had disappeared when the kids grew up and left home years before.

Our neighborhood is experiencing a rebirth with a number of new families with young children moving in. The picnic last year was a great success so we decided to do another one.

This year, we had families from Covenant Church, Foothills Community Church, The Vineyard, Spirit of Christ and another wonderful neighbor who put the picnic together. One crafty mom pulled little girls together for a fun session to hand make invitations, which were then distributed personally to each neighbor.

During the picnic, we had mini-tennis, complete with a volunteer certified instructor, and sidewalk chalk for the little kids. Due to a grant we received from the City of Arvada we were able to provide hamburgers, hot dogs, buns and ice cream.

Everyone brought lawn chairs and a side dish. Fifty people attended this year and many stayed longer than last year. Neighbors are renewing old friendships and making new ones. An added plus is our getting to know the little ones in the neighborhood so we can look out for them. This project is a blessing for us all.

– Candy

The house next door had been vacant for almost two years. We started to pray about who our new neighbors would be and how we might bless them. Well, they moved in and they have 3 pit bulls, noisy teens, smelly fires in the fire pit and a salty old Uncle living with them. The sermons on neighboring are reminding me to keep an open heart and mind and look for ways to show Christ beyond the obligatory pan of moving day brownies.

– Kay

I feel very motivated by the concept of ‘rediscovering the art of neighboring.’ Two weeks ago, I baked muffins as an excuse for my husband and me to introduce ourselves to our neighbors in our apt. complex.

It was a success! Several good connections were made with the potential for new relationships to be formed. My husband and I had dinner with one of the other couples this past weekend. Turns out they just moved here from across the country and were feeling pretty isolated. Amazing what a few chocolate chip banana muffins can do! ;0)

– Ruth

I once read this in a fortune cookie “Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain.” My husband and I have talked about having a block party for 4 years! FOUR YEARS!!! During that time we had successfully come up with hundreds of lame excuses! Fear of no one coming (failure) was on top of the excuse list!

But last weekend we did the very thing we feared….we had a block party! It was AWESOME! We have 16 homes on our street and 10 of those 16 came! We had a bounce house for the kids and had a BBQ in our back yard. Everyone talked and talked and stayed way later than we anticipated them to. They just didn’t want to go home. It was AMAZING!

A friend asked me how we were going to talk to them about the Lord. I told him I had no idea but God knew. He gave us 3 opportunities to talk about Him and it was so wonderful. I was so pumped with adrenaline that I didn’t go to sleep until 2a.m. I KNOW God is up to something here! We were invited to drop by two of the attendee’s homes on Sunday (which we did) and tomorrow I am going to coffee with another neighbor lady who has been through a hard battle with cancer. I had never met her before the party but am looking forward to helping her any way I can on this hard road she know finds herself on!

I just feel like God has opened the flood gates and great things are happening. I can’t wait to see what HE has in store!

– Sheri & Bret

In our neighborhood we have 2 families at Faith, one at Spirit of Christ and one at Grace. It certainly has been a blessing to discuss a shared sermon series like this!

Our idea involves something we have done occasionally in the past that has been a lot of fun. Gina used some old fabric to sew together a “screen” that covers our entire garage and then one of the other neighbors supplies a DVD player, projector, and sound system, and we have movie nights with a “drive-in” feel.

The families who have been part of our series are hoping to put together a schedule for our neighborhood this summer and expand the movie nights to include some grilling and eating before the movie. In the process of planning the movies for the summer, we will be able to include a variety of shows and certainly put in a few that have a distinctly Christian message.

For others looking for ideas, I would simply pass on that this “drive-in” idea is really not that hard to pull off and is a lot of fun – when we have done it in the past we get a lot of participation from many neighbors as everyone brings a lawn chair and comes out to enjoy a nice Colorado night.

– Andrew

When we were presented with the challenge of hosting some kind of a neighborhood event, we got very excited. We began talking to one of our neighbors who also attends Grace, and we co-hosted a BBQ together with her and her sons.

We simply put up flyers on all our neighbors’ doors and at the community mailboxes. We hosted our event on June 6 and had a wonderful response! A few days before the BBQ, we began hearing from all our neighbors about how excited they were and how they don’t ever do things like this in the community!

Well, the day of the BBQ came and we had about 40 in attendance. Most people asked why we were doing this and we were able to explain to them a little about the challenge that our church gave us. We discovered how many believers live around us!

We were truly blessed and had such a great afternoon getting to know people in our community. We are still hearing from our neighbors how much fun they had and how they were impacted.

Putting on the BBQ was such an easy way to make a difference in our community! It’s true what our pastor said about the multitude of people that can be served when we follow God’s command of being a good neighbor!

– Aaron & Christi