“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
— Jesus, Matthew 25:40
People who are homeless and people struggling to hold onto their homes or to keep warm. Desperate soon-to-be-parents who truly want to be good mothers and fathers but don’t even know if they’ll keep their baby. People who are sick and hurting but can’t afford care.
There are a lot of our friends and neighbors needing help, and last Sunday my church hosted a roundtable discussion of people who are stepping up boldly and humbly to meet those needs. Their conversation was equal parts fascinating and jolt-you-out-of-your-chair inspirational.
It’s hard to summarize such a deep look at people and groups who are putting their hands on the wounds of our community, but I’ll try. (You can also watch the whole thing via a video on Bethel Church’s Facebook page from their March 10 service. Their talk starts about 42:30 into the video.)
We heard from Rollin Caryl, director of the Lewis County Gospel Mission. This group operates a small day-respite center on Chehalis Avenue, across from the Darigold plant. The group was founded in 1996 to help people recently incarcerated (I wrote one of my first-ever stories for The Chronicle about this group in 2000 as they prayed with inmates in the jail). Now they offer meals and mentoring seven days a week to serve people that the rest of us might just write off as unredeemable.
“Organizations that provide a faith-based entry to recovery are much more successful in moving people from homelessness to homed,” Caryl said. “We see a lot of resistance to faith-based organizations, yet they provide the best avenue to recovery.”
Melodee Bailey is executive director of Love INC (In the Name of Christ) in Chehalis. Founded in 1990, this multi-denominational group provides furniture, bedding, firewood, propane, gas or laundry vouchers, and most of all, prayer for people in need.
“We think it's us/them and that's not true,” Bailey said. “We're all created in God's image. Sometimes we're in need and sometimes we can help.”
(Want to support Love INC or make connections? They’ll be hosting their annual Super Souper Supper fundraiser on April 12.)
Janae Wood is the outreach coordinator for Health and Hope Medical Outreach, which for a decade has provided a free Christian-led medical clinic open once a week in Centralia to provide holistic medical care to those who are under-insured or uninsured.
“The people we serve typically cannot get medical care anywhere else,” Wood said. “It's important for us as Christians... I think everyone should have access to quality health care.”
Melissa Couch is executive director of Possibilities Women’s Center in Centralia, which last year celebrated 30 years of providing free resources, encouragement and options “for families every step of the way without judgment,” she said.
They offer diapers, formula and classes in parenting and life skills for both moms and dads. While the stereotype is that a pregnant teen might feel that her life is over, Couch said that time and again she has seen the baby save the mom and dad because of the changes they make for the newborn.
“We try to minister to the whole family,” Couch said. “We pray for the baby to be born and for the parents to be born again.”
These organizations all are driven by volunteers, and they would all welcome people with a Christ-centered heart for their neighbors to join their holy work. They aim not just to offer hand-outs to people remaining mired in misery, but with God’s help to help truly transform lives.
If that sounds at all interesting to you, reach out to them. They are working to heal the hurts in our towns — labors with echoes that will ring for eternity.
As Melodee Bailey of Love INC said: “God doesn't write anybody off, ever, and we would do well to heed that.”
Dad Joke of the Week
The DJotW comes from Brian Moog of Centralia, who told this to me on Sunday as he was manning the Health & Hope Medical Outreach table between services at Bethel. Moog is the treasurer of Health & Hope, but don’t hold that against them if by some slim chance you don’t like my telling of his top-notch dad joke.
“Did you know there’s a battle between yogurt and penicillin? One is probiotic and one is antibiotic. Yeah, it’s a culture war.”
Brian Mittge’s column appears in The Chronicle every Saturday. He would like to feature other hard-striving community groups in future columns. Send him recommendations: brianmittge@hotmail.com.
