Overnight Shelter Volunteer Training LAST CHANCE!

This week there is training for those wanting to assist in overnight warming shelters.  


This training is led by the City of Gresham, and it is preparation for warming centers held at Anawim Christian Community, First Baptist of Gresham and St, Henry's Catholic Church.  These shelters are church led and staffed by volunteers from local churches.  


The last opportunity of training for this winter is Thursday, January 26 from 6 to 8:30pm.  It will be held at Anawim, 19626 NE Glisan, Gresham. 


 If you have any further questions, please contact Steve Kimes at 503-888-4453. 

Winter Needs

Fall has fallen and it is getting colder!  There are a lot of donated items that we need, in order to prepare for the really cold weather!

~Many of our homeless folks have had their sleeping gear stolen or ripped up.  We could use (RIGHT NOW!) a number of sleeping bags,  two to four man tents, and tarps (brown or green, please).

~Socks!  Our sock supply has greatly diminished and socks are on sale in the stores.  It’s a great time to provide Anawim with socks!

~Hand warmers. A single hand warmer can keep a homeless person warm all night, even below freezing!

~Volunteers! If you are in or near Multnomah County,  we need a few more volunteers for our day shelter and many more people to sign up for the Gresham Emergency Weather Shelters.  Contact Steve about the day shelters and go to

https://compassionconnect.webconnex.com/events/warming

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