Past Projects

Legs 4 Lexi

Four year old Lexi was diagnosed with Spastic Triplegia Cerebral Palsy when she was six months old. Lexi’s disability has handicapped her with the use of only the right arm/hand. She is unable to speak, crawl, sit unassisted, or walk.

She will soon undergo a surgical procedure that will eliminate the spasticity in her body that currently restricts normal body movements while giving her relief and the ability to focus on her muscles to control her body.  .  UPDATE:  She has undergone the surgery and Lexi has received special leg braces.  However, additional surgeries will be needed and the ongoing therapy is costly.  Donations are still being accepted.

If you would like to donate to this project please use the DONATE button and type "Legs 4 Lexi" in the "add instruction to seller" field.


Summit Ridge

Real Life Church purchased 90 acres of forested land where they wanted to build a church and develop into a place for the community.  The property contained 9 miles of single track trails and a hillside with unauthorized jumps for bikes. The church tore down the jumps since they looked dangerous and the builders did not have permission to build. In addition, the church hired a logging company to thin the forest to make it healthier which made the 9 miles of trails in-usable. All of this caused quite a community backlash with the mountain bikers that had been using the trails.

Ravensdale Trailer Park

The King County Health Department approached a local pastor with a concern about one of the residents living at the Ravensdale Trailer Park. The resident was living in unhealthy conditions with multiple code violations. Since she was elderly and was without the resources she wasn't able to meet the demands. Upon further investigation, the entire trailer park had many violations with the majority of the residents incapable compliance. 

Storehouse

The number of vulnerable families in the greater Covington area has been growing each year, as measured by the number of children in the Kent School District on free or reduced lunches and the annual “Communities Count” report.

Area churches were reporting an increase in “walk in” requests for food making it necessary for each church to establish an emergency food pantry of non-perishable food yet none were able to address the community-wide issue on their own.

At the same time, it was discovered that many grocery stores, restaurants and food distributors have food that must be removed from shelves and discarded as it nears its expiration date (but is still good) or is in surplus.

International Wheelchair Project:

 In 2013, 500 wheelchairs were purchased and sent to the Philippine Islands and Ghana, West Africa. Covington Christian Fellowship Church and Real Life Church joined their two churches together to make one church and in an effort for the two congregations to become unified, they engaged in a project that went “Beyond” themselves. It was suggested that the church reach out to local schools and Rotary Clubs. The schools of Kentlake, Kentwood and Tahoma High Schools raised over $6000 and donated it to the Covington Rotary Club. The Rotary matched it with an additional $6000 and then engage the Maple Valley Rotary which also gave $6000.
 
In addition, the International Rotary matched the contribution of the two clubs. Real Life Church contributed to the balance of over $12,000, raising the total donations to over $48,000. A team from the community traveled to Ghana and helped people get fitted into their wheelchairs. They also were able to set up a computer lab in a remote village with donated computers from Tahoma High School. By combining financial and human resources the project went far beyond the ability of any of the individual groups.
 

Sharing Firewood with Our Community

Beyond Us organized a “Bucking Up for the Community “project in October 2017 to provide firewood to the community through Alliance Bible Church’s Firewood ministry.

Multiple churches, non-profits and service clubs provided volunteers to clear seasoned, fallen timber from the "Summit Ridge" mountain bike park to provide firewood to Alliance Bible Church which benefits families who need firewood to heat their homes during the winter.

Our thanks to the volunteers from Real Life Church, Alliance Bible Church, Maple Valley Rotary, John Volken Academy, and Maple Valley Young Life who worked to make this a successful event.

Reimagine Charity Seminar and Workshop

In November 2017 Beyond Us hosted a dynamic training event for community leaders to reimagine charity in ways that will lead to real and lasting change.

Lead by Dr. Shawn Duncan with the Lupton Center, this workshop shared principals of ensuring that the charity provided is not harming those it serves but helping them to flourish and covered:
  • The reasons why traditional charity paradigms are not working
  • The principles of responsible charity
  • The framework of charitable efforts & where change must begin
What makes the Reimagine Charity Seminar unique?

Community-driven: At this event, people sit at tables interacting, listening, sharing, and learning together. The power to transform the paradigm for charity is in the partners already present in your community. We want to facilitate that transformative exchange of ideas.

Research-based: The material that we present and the exercises we facilitate are based on our own experience in this work, continual research, and partnerships with innovative organizations around the country.