Help For the Needy

Most people don’t know that we live in a third world country.

I don’t mean that ALL of the United States is the third world. But there is a third world section of our nation. We have people who live in slums, in desperate poverty, without adequate shelter or food. There are people who starve in our country, people who freeze to death, and people who live in tents. And on occasion people who live this way need help to live. Sometimes people need food to live to next week. Sometimes people need shelter so they don’t freeze to death. It would be better if they had the means to take care of this themselves, but sometimes relief work has to happen to save lives.

Right now, Anawim is providing a lot of food to those who otherwise might not have it. And we are providing clothes, sleeping bags and tents, to those who have no other means to get it. We really would like to provide a means for people to help themselves, and in time we will. But in the meantime, sometimes lives must be saved.

I was concerned the other night when there was freezing rain. We had two sixteen year old girls in our facility and the city was talking about shutting us down. The last thing I wanted to do was to send those two girls out in the freezing rain to fend for themselves. They didn’t shut us down that night and we were able to help them.

But there were other nights we weren’t able to help. We had freezing temperatures and we weren’t able to open overnight because we didn’t have enough volunteers to help. We had people with not enough clothes because we didn’t have enough people to sort what we already had. We also had volunteers losing sleep (literally) because we didn’t have enough volunteers to share the load equally.

I guess what I’m saying is that we could use some help. Live, in person help.

Below is a list of areas we could use some volunteer work. If you could help in any of these areas, if you are local and think you can do this, please do. 
Lives are at stake.  Please, this is serious.
by Steve Kimes

"There is no greater love than the one who lays down his life for his friends."

                                                                              ~John 15:13

Night Shelters

In the Portland area, it has been a cold, long winter. Since late November, there have been more freezing nights than is usual. For those of you in other parts of the country, you may be saying, “It’s been below freezing all winter for us!” But since here in the Willamette Valley we are used to milder temperatures, most people are not prepared for a more severe winter. And if the homeless and homeless services are not prepared, then there are the possibilities of hypothermia, and even death due to being unprepared in the cold. Anawim has tried to be prepared. Since Thanksgiving, Anawim in Gresham has opened for 13 nights to allow people on the street to get out of the freezing, windy weather to stay in the warmth and safety of our Sanctuary’s fellowship hall. SE Anawim has been open 5 nights in our facility in Portland. There are already city shelters in Portland and Gresham and they are very helpful in saving lives in the most severe weather conditions. However, if, say in Gresham, there is a night that is 27 degrees with a 10 mph wind, the city won’t open their shelters, even if there is the possibility of snow. We opened our shelters with the idea that we would keep the homeless safe from the worst weather, only when the city shelters weren't open.

Recently the city discovered that we were opening our Gresham shelter (which we called the Gresham Underground Emergency Shelter, or GUESs), and the Fire Marshal came to visit. The fire code in Gresham, currently, has a few requirements that we have difficulty meeting for a shelter, such as a sprinkler system with a central alarm, and a limitation of 200 square feet per person. They gave us a one night leave so no one would have to sleep out in the freezing rain and then came the next day and shut us down, until we are able to work with the city.

Now we have a quandary. If we accept all the city’s limitations we would not be able to open on some of the nights of the worst weather. Since we have a requirement from the Lord to love the needy, especially those of our own group, then I have a hard time telling our folks to go out in the snow or freezing temperatures when we have the capacity to help them. Or we could try to meet all the fire code and then we have the freedom to help maybe 15 people in our building (we’ve been hosting as many as 30). Please pray as we work with the city and do our best to love our brothers.