Amy Downing

Amy Downing likes balance. "I love kick boxing," she says. Her other love? "Chocolate chip cookies." They balance each other out.

Balance and discipline are traits she has learned are necessary in running all of the childrens' programs at CCTO. Amy knew the work would involve mentoring and encouraging kids. What she didn't know was that much of the job would be "to nurture the parents and adult volunteers."

The job seemed like a natural step for a woman who came from developing children's books. But moving from book editor to managing 55 adult volunteers and sometimes hundreds of children has brought some surprises. Volunteers occasionally fall through. Supplies can run out unexpectedly. The biggest surprise? "God always provides." Every time something goes awry--like a volunteer calling in sick--a solution appears. "Someone will come up and say, 'How can I help?'"

Amy says her two most important jobs at CCTO are 1) making sure the kids know they're loved, and 2) helping adult volunteers find their "gifts", and matching those gifts to the right job. "All the rest just falls together," she says. "If we're out of glue on Sunday, it's not a big deal."

Amy says she became a Christian in the third grade. "I just remembering sitting on my parents' bed and accepting Jesus into my heart." Like all Christians, her walk in faith has had its ups and downs, but right now, she describes her relationship with God as "almost tangible. I'm talking to Him all the time...I know I need to listen more."

Her greatest struggle is to be in the world but not of it, to avoid "getting caught up in the world's views on what society sees as success...how busy your schedule is, who you hang out with, how 'good' your kids are...It's only when I am in the Word that I can step out of that craziness."

Amy believes her passion for children, books, and spreading God's love "will always be a part of my life." But she's learning to be patient. For example, the children of a neighbor had been coming to VBS for years, but they were never interested in anything more from the church. Amy waited. This year, the mother suggested the kids try Wednesday night Breakouts. They're now regular attendees who eagerly participate. "A God victory," she says.

Dan Dollar

Welcome to a new feature on the CCTO website! We will be posting profiles of many of our members. By letting you get to know each other better, we hope to draw closer together, and use our collective experiences to draw closer to God. Profiles will run the gamut from long-time members to new arrivals, the young as well as the young at heart, people you may know, to those you only think you know. Please send suggested "targets" for profiling to Joe or Karen (Joe@ccto.org, Karen@ccto.org).

MEET DAN DOLLAR

Dan Dollar has had a trying month. His annual golf tournament and fundraiser for New Life Home Trust faced disaster as a storm approached. He wondered how to navigate his physical therapy business into the future. Someone stole most of the tackle out of his stable. And then his horse kicked him.

"I think so much of my walk with God grows with my trust in God," Dan says, rubbing his leg where the horse, Zero, let him have it. Miraculously, Zero didn't break Dan's femur. "I trust God, I just trust Him completely."

Dan joined CCTO at 14, where he was soon baptized. "I really had an appreciation of God," he says. "I understood what prayer was about." He credits prayer as one reason "I never was in deep trouble." He also credits his mother and grandmother, both Christians. "I remember my grandmother praying for me."

His Christian life has often been about coming full circle. Back when Dan joined CCTO, he loved the youth group. It was here where he met his future wife, Jody. Years later, they would run the youth program. Coming full circle.

Through Jody, Dan met a physical therapist who suggested he pursue a career in that field. It turned out to be a good fit. Twenty-one years ago, Dan founded Newbury Park Physical Therapy, providing healing to patients, and jobs for the community. When a CCTO member lost her job, Dan just happened to have an opening. Currently, eight of the 22 employees are CCTO members, and the business continues to grow. "We credit God with all of it, because we're not business people," Dan says. "We've always understood where the money comes from." The money comes from the Lord, Dan says, and it's important to give those gifts back. Coming full circle.

Things you may not know about Dan:

He played baseball at Moorpark College, "the first two years it was open."
He seems to know everyone. Not like people who say they know everyone. Dan actually knows everyone.
He spent four years in the Air Force, stationed in Okinawa, Las Vegas, and Hawaii ("that was rough").

He has much to be thankful for--wife, kids, grandchildren. But when asked what he could do better as a Christian, where he still sees himself failing, Dan pauses a moment. "Not being bolder...in my witness," he says. "I try to let the light of Christ shine through me," but he isn't one to be blunt about his faith with strangers. Still, he says, "they'll know who you are by your love."

Dan's latest charitable passion involves a part of the world he's never seen--Kenya. He used to throw an annual golf tournament and banquet for his employees as a Christmas gift--once even buying a "green jacket" at a Salvation Army store to award the tournament winner, just like The Masters! But after learning about New Life Home Trust (http://www.newlifehometrust.org/), Dan was impressed with the work they were doing rescuing abandoned babies in Kenya. He thought, "Instead of me spending all this money on the golf tournament, let's make some money on this." He turned the event into a fundraiser, which raised $2,000 its first year for NLHT. That grew to $9,000 the following year.

This year the fundraiser was scheduled for Monday, February 22nd, but a severe storm threatened to turn the event into a bust. Dan stressed, and prayed, and then managed to convince Sterling Hills to let him reschedule the golf tourney and dinner to April 25th, a Saturday instead of a Monday. "God is so good," he says. "I can grow (the event) bigger and better. This will be the best one ever."

Finally, what is Dan's greatest hope in life? "To watch my grandkids grow up in Christ. I've been praying for them since before they were born." Just like his grandmother prayed for him. Coming full circle.

CCTO Pastor's Blog

Amy Downing

Dan Dollar