Clark County’s newest family shelter opened March 31.
Where is it located? It depends on the week.
Family Promise of Clark County provides overnight shelter for up to 14 people at a different congregation each week. This week, the shelter is Battle Ground Community United Methodist Church, which is hosting four families with children.
The Rev. Susan Boegli was introduced to Family Promise (back when it was called the Interfaith Hospitality network) when she was associate pastor at a church in Salem, Oregon. Before moving to Battle Ground, she lived in Alaska, where a group was trying to get an affiliate started in Juneau.
So, when Family Promise of Clark County board president Mike Pervere contacted her and said he was trying to start a local affiliate, she said “yes” to him presenting at her church.
“People from the congregation have to see the beauty of it and be the driving force,” Boegli said.
Congregant Jean Brown said the church initially agreed to be a support church, providing meals and volunteers to host churches. But, as she learned more about the program and talked with pastors around the county, she wondered: Why couldn’t their small Battle Ground church take in people for just a week?
The decision “didn’t happen overnight, but I think it was pretty quick in church time” — about two weeks, Brown said. People had fears, doubts and questions, and she tried to quell them; Family Promise has been around since 1986 and has more than 200 affiliates, so there isn’t a situation or roadblock that the national organization hasn’t already dealt with, she said. There are nearby Family Promise affiliates in Longview, Beaverton, Oregon, Tigard, Oregon, and Hillsboro, Oregon.
At Battle Ground Community United Methodist, a series of cots were set up in a small worship room, a classroom, a nursery and even a cordoned-off area of the sanctuary. The lobby became a play area, lounge and dining room. It took some creative thinking to effectively turn portions of the church into temporary hotel rooms for the week.
It was set up Sunday, April 7 after services and will be taken down before services this Sunday, the cots hauled to the next host congregation. Brown said it’ll be smooth sailing when they next host people in July.
“You don’t need to have much to be a part of this,” Boegli said.
“Well, we have the heart,” Brown added.
She asked her quilting groups to make 20 pillowcases for the effort, and she ended up with 69 pillowcases.
Boegli welcomes other congregations to visit her church and see how they’ve set up the space. So far, she said, her congregants are energized and inspired by the volunteer experience.
“One of the most beautiful things is these four families are becoming a family in and of themselves,” Boegli said. “The teenagers are reading to the children, the 8-year-old is hiding Easter eggs for the 3-year-old, one of the dads is talking to another couple and saying ‘we’re in this together.’ There’s just a beautiful connection that’s happening with these four families.”
With a maximum of 14 people participating, it’s an intimate program and congregants can really get to know people in the program.
