Mission 98 is a 501 C3 nonprofit building healthy communities through education, resources and caring ministries in apartments, mobile homes and motels.
Mission 98 takes the best of church to residents in their own communities by hosting programs for children, teens and adults. Members of our team are present through the ups and downs of life, meeting tangible needs with the provision of a food pantry and a clothing room, making hospital visits, and performing weddings and funerals while also enjoying, eating with and teaching the children and teens. This is a ministry of relationships. All that is done is to build and foster real friendships through which real needs can be met – just as Jesus would do.
Mission 98 was started by LuAnn Turner as Multi-Housing Ministry through Bear Valley Church in 2001. It began with a small group and some community building activities in an apartment complex near Bear Valley Church. As they moved into this new arena, more joined, building a team committed to this mission.
Slowly God taught and blessed. Local apartment managers began to hear about this ministry and invite them into their communities. They were soon led to a condo community where one of the owners donated an apartment to use as a church. Today, this condo community serves as the flagship for this mission.
As the result of an army of volunteer missionaries, lives in 14 apartment, mobile home, and motel communities have been impacted. The driving force of this ministry is friendship and relationship, reaching children, teens, and adults through education, resources, and caring ministries.
Because each community is different, the level of engagement at each differs. At one location we have church services and Sunday school on Sundays, homework help, community events, an English conversation class and more. At other locations we provide a mobile clothing room and holiday activities plus kid’s clubs and community events all summer. At others we have year round kid’s club and holiday events. At all we provide back packs filled with school supplies and Christmas parties.
Mission 98 is expanding the Kingdom by mobilizing churches to adopt apartment communities. Our dream is to give each of the over 300,000 apartments in the greater Denver area the on site opportunity for a church connection.
One of the core values of Mission 98 is to encourage students to succeed in their education. In order to do this we:
- provide homework help and computer games
- mobilize college students as role models
- provide backpacks filled with school supplies
- celebrate each victory and graduation along the way
