Letter from the Director: October 2019

Dear Friends,

Several years ago, there was a young man who traveled from the East Coast to Colorado to visit Harvest Farm’s Fall Festival. He was planning to spend some quality time with his sister and her children. His sister, on the other hand, had planned this trip for a different reason.

She noticed her brother’s life on the East Coast becoming progressively more dangerous, and his substance use increasing. He had been pushing the boundaries, even in his recreational activities— seeing how fast his motorcycle could go on the interstate—and was getting into brawls outside of bars late at night.

By the way things were going, she felt he was destined to one day show up in the papers—a story ending in destruction and loss. But on the hay ride during the Fall Festival, this young man heard the story of someone similar to his, who had been equally lost and yet was finding a path back to wholeness, health and a life with meaning.

This young man eventually entered the New Life Program at Harvest Farm. Over the next year, he learned how to control his emotions and urges, how to read and write, and he found a purpose in life that had been alluding him through the relationships he built. Now, almost a decade later, we hired that same young man for a muchneeded renovation of Harvest Farm’s commercial kitchen. He owns his own business, and is not only helping us do our work better, but making a positive impact across Northern Colorado every day through his skill and craft.

Thinking back on this man’s transformation, I’m reminded of the last lines of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante writes that his work is only made possible by “the love that moves the sun and the stars.” When you come out to support the Fall Festival, when you donate to Denver Rescue Mission and pray for those who are lost, you participate in the work we do at Harvest Farm. If Harvest Farm is a place where even one man’s life is transformed from hopelessness to purpose, then I believe this is a place where love moves the sun and the stars. Thank you for making Harvest Farm a place where that miracle can happen.