Our group as we are ready to leave from United.
This is the room where most of us slept at the church in Portland.
Bethel Lutheran Church in Portland is the congregation which hosted us.
The first agency we worked at was NE Emergency Food which is a ministry of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.
The food and clothing bank is located at Luther Memorial. Some vandals had sprayed graffiti on the sign and front doors the night before. Several of our group cleaned it off.
The is one of the aisles of the food bank before we stocked many items.
Here are Peter and Daniel stocking bread.
Michael and one of the regular volunteers are stocking vegetables.
David and Michael are stocking pasta.
Alan is the lead volunteer. Here David, Zane, and Daniel are cleaning the walkway.
Daniel and David are cleaning the front doors of the church from the graffiti.
We are getting orientation in being shoppers for the clients at the food bank. We would go with the clients to help them get the items for which they were eligible. The amounts of the various items was based on family size.
NE Emergency Food Bank also has a clothing bank. The lead volunteer said that boys and men did not sort clothes well. So, this part of the task was left to Alex, Genevieve, and Crystal.
Here Peter and Daniel are serving as "shoppers". We helped serve 84 families.
Zane is enjoying time in the cooler.
Alex and Genevieve did a great job with the clothes. They also helped distribute the many pairs of socks which people at United gave.
On Saturday evening, we spend a bit of time at the Oregon Zoo. Here, Genevieve and Peter crawled into an exhibit for a close up look.
Alex enjoying a ride on a safe cat.
Crystal Miller's parents, Ron and Jeanne, hosted us for a delicious dinner. Here the gang is enjoying a lawn game.
On Sunday, after worshiping at Bethel Lutheran, we had a guided tour at Portland's Dignity Village, an authorized community for up to 60 homeless people.
The guard shack at Dignity Village
The shower house which is the only structure with hot running water. Behind the cement blocks there are sinks and faucets. In the background, you can see piles of composting leaves. This is where Portland puts its leaves from street cleanup. Our guide said that a number of people have respiratory problems as a result.
A house at Dignity Village
Another house
It was raining for "Picnic in the Park" and so everything needed to be moved into the parking structure under the park. It appeared to be organized chaos but everything was ready only 15 minutes late. We ended up helping serve 860 people. We served here on Sunday afternoon. This program has been going on every Sunday since 1991.
At the end of the shift
On Sunday evening, we went to the Circuit bouldering gym and climbed for a bit. Here Genevieve gets to the top.
Peter
David also had a great time climbing but I did not get a photo which turned out of him on the wall.
My son, Patrick, joined us for a bit.
Daniel, Crystal's husband
Alex
Yes, even I climbed the wall.
It was an excellent mission trip. Thanks to the youth and adults who went and to all who supported us for it.
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