February 10

Dear Mayor Wheeler,

I’ve been building relationships with the campers out around Lewis and Clark Park for several years. When I first started my outreach I was primarily there to prevent my daughter from delivering gleaned food without an escort. Most days her husband went with her but occasionally he wasn’t available so I went.

About seven years ago, at a family gathering, my daughter had a conversation with her cousin about his experiences as a volunteer fireman for the Corbett Oregon fire department. Seth told her about emergency calls to the dog park on the Sandy Delta where there were camps scattered over the 1000 acres.  Ana had not known about the homeless living there before this conversation. Though the park is just across the Sandy River from Troutdale, it is protected by the Corbett Volunteer Fire Department rather then the more logical professional department across the river. 

Ana and her husband had been looking for a way to reach out to the poor of our community and decided to serve hot soup to the homeless.  The problem was making contact with them. The first thing they did was hang signs in the bathrooms at the delta and Lewis and Clark State park, attempting to let the campers know they’d be there at a certain time. But when they set up their temporary shelter no one came. Not to be discouraged Ana started talking to homeless advocates and found out there was another couple who brought gleaned food every Wednesday afternoon. The men and a few women who lived in the woods knew to meet them just off I-84 at 4pm, and so, Ana and Chad started meeting them at that time too. Pretty soon Chad was taking requests from the guys and bringing them donated items per their requests and Ana was making the soup she wanted to serve. Others also supported them, and I often came along to be my daughter’s protection.  

Chad and Ana quit their outreach for awhile due to medical issues and the fact it was spring meant the needs were less acute.  When health was restored and fall was progressing it was time to go back. Jack and Fran were the couple bringing the gleaned food. The week they returned I also went with them. It had been about 6 months since they’d ministered to the homeless’ needs. Fran was there with her brother instead of Jack. Her brother was in town because Jack had died. He accompanied Fran to bring her very last supply of food, she had been crippled for several years and she couldn’t do it without Jack. It was not many months when we got word Fran had also passed away. It was obvious and providential; Ana and Chad were “chosen” to take the reins.

When they first started taking gleaned food to the camps, they got their food from the Corbett Grange Gleaners. But then Sheriff “Rocky”(Joe Graziano) told the president of the Corbett gleaners that feeding the homeless just encouraged them to be homeless. So, on Rocky’s advice he refused to let them take food to the delta anymore. ( I guess it’s so great to be homeless that everyone would choose to be homeless if they just had enough to eat!)

So we were on the lookout for more supplies. When we told Steve Kimes what had happened he helped us get more food but we needed to change our meeting day to Fridays.  Ana and Chad eventually dropped out of the project but I am still going every Friday with groceries.

This is a God thing. I was in a rather dry period in my Christian walk when I stumbled into God’s will for me. But even my dryness was part of His preparation for me for this very project. In fact everything that’s ever happened to me seems to have been for this time, to equip me with the understanding, the patience, the hope and the detachment needed to minister to the poorest of the poor. I have accepted that God loves me, but working with the poor I have learned of His very great love for them. I have experienced blessing after blessing seeking to help them meet their needs. God honors them above all others. If you want to find out about God, start caring for the homeless.

 The homeless are poor in nearly every sense but I have found them rich in ways I could never be. They are rich in humility, in thankfulness, and especially in ingenuity. They experience constant losses but seldom give up.  They are despised but still desire acceptance. They are willing to give you a chance to be a real. But they’ve also been hurt and tricked over and over. Lied to, stolen from and demeaned. And that primarily by the “authorities”.  

Good night Mayor.

Frani