“Grandma, I can’t talk right now. We’ll be late for Renovo.”
“Renovo?” Grandma questioned. “What do you do at Renovo, Eric?”
Eric looked up at Grandma with a sly little grin.
“I make friends!”

In one simple statement, my 4 –year-old son revealed not only the heart of Renovo Ministries, but also the heart of the gospel: relationship.

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus didn’t hesitate to say to love God with every part of our being (see Matthew 22:34-40). He went further to say that the second greatest commandment was to love people. And then the clincher: not only were these the greatest two commandments, but they were really the only two commandments. Everything else—all the law and all the prophets—were really there to help us do these first two well. Love God, love each other. Relationship.

When we decided to hook up with Renovo, we really didn’t know how a family with three kids (ages 10, 7 and 4) would be received. So many ideas seem good in my head, but in practice they just don’t translate well. Yet from the moment Amy spoke about Renovo in Sunday morning service, I felt a constant tug toward this ministry. So, after a couple of months of wrestling with the idea, we finally decided to step in and see what God would do.

The following is a small sampling of what I’ve heard coming from my family during the time we’ve been involved with Renovo:

“I growl better than Jake*. It always makes him laugh.”
“But Jonathan started the water fight!”
~Annie, age 7

“I won the game of UNO! But Patrick had to help me.”
“When Ronny* sees me, he’ll probably try to tickle me.”
~Eric, age 4

“I get to help Amy serve ice cream.”
“Can Lily come with us to Renovo? I want her to meet everyone.”
~Brynne, age 10

“These guys are just like me.”
~Scott, aka Daddy

I interpret my world in patterns, so as I look at these statements, I find one pattern that quickly jumps out at me. People. Every single statement is about the people. Relationship. Love God, love people.

And yet there’s something more. I couldn’t quite grasp it at first. Our purpose in getting involved was to follow the two commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And I hope that in some way we have been able to do that. But somehow we are learning an even deeper truth: we are loved by God. 1 John 4:19 reminds us that “We love because He first loved us.” As I think through all of the people we have encountered at Renovo, from the fellow server on the food line guiding my children as they pour drinks to the guest who tried to give me his last cigarette, I know we are well-loved by God through His children. Eric was right. We do make friends at Renovo.

~The Tuszynski Family, ECC Members

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