What Can One Dollar "Buy"??? Rather—
What God can do with one dollar!

In 2000, the Evangelical Covenant Church of Indian Orchard made the faith-filled decision to call a full-time youth pastor. This position would consist of half-time outreach to the teen community of the area. The goal was to reach the 85% of youth who would never walk into a church or traditional youth program. We knew that churches function like hospitals—helping to provide spiritual nourishment for those in need. We also knew that God was encouraging us to build a M.A.S.H.-type unit to help those wounded who might not be well enough to get to the "hospital" on their own.

God used Lenneth Dyson, a woman BOLD for Christ, to help make this desire a reality! Because of Lenneth's testimony in the same community over 20 years before, and her willingness to pray for others, a deep relationship was formed and that relationship was part of the catalyst of a 4000 square foot building being donated for $1.00!

The building, now known asThe Lion's Den, has been remodeled, much of it with donated time and materials. It is designed to have a coffeehouse area (a place to "hangout" and play table-type games), an Internet Cafe (with computers on DSL), and a game room (including Playstation 2, foosball, ping pong, and a pool table).

We realized quickly that the unique nature of this project required that it be "owned" by a community of churches in our community—churches that share our belief that Jesus lived, died, rose again, and is coming again. We reached out to them and asked them to buy into this M.A.S.H. unit concept with us.

And they did! The response has been fabulous. Many local churches have found some way to connect with The Lion's Den!This is just a small portion of what has been done for us so far:

•help doing electrical work
•donating food or the funds needed to purchase the food 
•making business connections
•taking special offerings in their churches
•sending their church members to volunteer and
•praying!


Daryl Winters is no stranger to the Lion's Den. Daryl is an Indian Orchard native and a graduate of Putnam Vocational High School. Daryl in his sophomore year at High school served as a summer volunteer at the Den and was acting director of the Den. He is a good decision maker and he displayed that decision making ability when he made the decision to go on to college. After completing his freshman year at UMASS, he transferred to Word of Life Bible Institute where he is completing a intense year of training. Daryl currently is maintaining a 3.75 GPA and is growing in his personal disciplines and his walk with the Lord. Go Daryl!

We've also had great support from local businesses. We are excited about the future as we can see involvement growing from different sources: The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), The Community Anti- Drug Coalition, Springfield College and Maybury Material Handling are just a few of the newer connections with the Lion's Den. As these organizations and their employees find ways to connect at the Lion's Den, we can see our community growing and becoming healthier.