December 2009

Ruby's Pearl

by Terri Conlin

Northwest Childrens Outreach Banner

Ruby’s life work is connecting the poor with resources and support. She has been a caseworker for various social agencies over the past decade, visiting migrant camps, conducting home visits to families in crisis, and meeting with schools to support children at risk. Six years ago she discovered the gem that is Northwest Children’s Outreach, a non-profit organization with a heart to provide basic necessities to children. Through the generosity of NCO, Ruby can give coats, clothing, shoes, diapers, and sometimes formula or carseats to her desperate clients. Before NCO, resources were buried as in an abandoned mine. Now those treasures can be reached with the click of a button shining light into the dark shaft that is poverty. Ruby estimates she has been able to help almost 10,000 families over the years because of Northwest Children’s Outreach.

Ruby remembers one pregnant homeless woman walking through her door with nothing for her baby. NCO gave the essentials for bringing the infant home while Ruby worked on reconnecting her client with family and friends for housing and support. That first moment of grace provided through NCO cleared the path to establishing trust and revealing deeper hurts and needs. Recently Ruby experienced her own moment of grace. While expecting their first baby, her husband lost his job with health benefits. Suddenly, her fledgling family was in the distress she had seen many times in her work. Ruby is grateful for family and friends encircling her with encouragement and support through the birth of her baby, but realizes many she serves are disconnected from family.  

Currently Ruby is an Outreach Specialist providing prevention services, such as parenting classes, to families at risk. She works closely with Child Advocates who first make a home visit to assess needs followed by a family action plan complete with goals. A parent’s willingness to work with the Advocate toward a healthy family prompts an order with NCO. Orders include the child’s age and gender along with a wishlist of needs and sizes. Volunteers sort and organize donations, then tag large black bags with orders. One night a week volunteers arrive to fill the bags from the orderly shelves of the warehouse praying as they go. Toward the end of the week caseworkers come to their local NCO warehouse to pick up orders. Ruby began serving families from the original Beaverton location, but now her local warehouse is in the Pearl District.

Ruby says NCO is a miracle where needs and resources meet through the faithful hands of countless donors and volunteers. She is impressed, inspired, and intrigued by their sparkling spirit of generosity that has allowed her at times to deliver up to 50 bags per week to children wearing their last threads. Ruby’s heart reflects the glistening gratefulness spread across family faces blessed by NCO. Ruby’s best days are when familiar families return with their own donation for Northwest Children’s Outreach.

Two Women, Same Heart

by Terri Conlin

Greg and Marylyn Janes

She sat in a doctor’s office flipping through a magazine, when an article about mothers struggling to care for their children caught her eye. Ten minutes later, her cozy blanket of a world had been torn and she shivered from the gaping hole. She read of mothers stuck in relentless poverty without basic supplies for their children—formula, diapers, coats, warm clothing, shoes, undergarments, and essential toiletries. Many of these families were in distress on top of crisis on top of poverty. They included the vulnerable children of battered women, homeless teen runaways, and those in the foster care system.

For Carolyn Quatier, a question echoed in her heart— “Who will stand in the gap for children of poverty?” Northwest Children’s Outreach became her answer. NCO is a faith-based organization filling the hole in a child’s life left by poverty and upheaval.  A quiet army of volunteers serves from behind plain metal doors of forgotten warehouses filling orders from caseworkers. With basic resources provided by NCO, burdened caseworkers from over 150 caring agencies can move on to address deep root causes of a family in distress.
Back in 2001, Carolyn began with one warehouse to collect, sort, and distribute goods to 1400 children. Today there are four such warehouses serving over 28,000 children with three more scheduled to open soon.  One of those new locations will be right here in the Lower Level  of Rolling Hills Community Church.

About halfway through NCO’s journey, another woman inherited a small ministry to families in need at Christmas. Rolling Hills has always had a heart to bless families struggling to provide for their children both within the congregation and beyond. Rolling Hills Christmas Blessing (RHCB) is a ministry to families within the local community from that heart of generosity. Like Northwest Children’s Outreach, it matches donated resources to needs. This time the matchmaker is Marilyn Janes.

Along with her team, Marilyn collects family names and their needs from Rolling Hills staff and school counselors at five area schools. Once a wishlist is complied, she begins the call for donors of time, resources and goods. The donors can be individuals, families, Community Groups, youth groups, Bible studies, or businesses. There is always room for donations big and small, practical and creative, interactive and anonymous.

RHCB has grown from serving a handful of families the first year to 135 families last year.  Most of the needs are for food and clothing, but one unique and growing aspect of this ministry is the collection and delivery of donated furniture. Many of the families have just acquired housing and need beds and bedding, chests for clothes, tables to gather around for meals, and basic appliances.

We all know a child born into poverty with no place to lay his head. His mother wrapped her baby in rags and laid him in a feeding trough filled with hay. Many who knew his heritage brought gifts. Will you be one of them?

With Christmas just around the corner, prayerfully consider expanding your giving list to include a child in need. The ways to give can be as varied as your handprints.  Encourage your children to add “give” to their list of “gets,” adopt a family to bless, or inspire your company to match coworkers’ giving to one of these ministries to needy children in our community. Look for more specific giving opportunities to follow.

Full Circle

by Terri Conlin

Carolyn Q. and the Northwest Childrens Outreach Banner

“A little one shall become a thousand, And a small one a strong nation.”  Isaiah 60:22 (NKJV)

You may just now be hearing about Northwest Children’s Outreach, but the non-profit organization has a long-standing history with Rolling Hills Community Church. For one woman, NCO’s journey to Rolling Hills has come full circle. Almost ten years ago, Debbie Sherwood and her family, former RHCC members, adopted Birthday Corner at the original Beaverton warehouse as their family ministry. Although the Sherwoods now attend a church in their neighborhood, sharing hearts for Portland’s children in need crosses any boundaries between church homes; it is the body of Christ at work. Debbie was a busy stay-at-home mom of five young children, and this ministry was a good fit for her large family to reach out to needy children. She often took the children to shop for gifts and party goods. Hugging mom’s knees, they helped organize the gifts into age groups and onto shelves.

Almost a decade later, NCO has four locations in the greater Portland area and the Sherwoods have only two children left at home. The family still oversees Birthday Corner, but now at the Pearl District Warehouse, and Debbie is on the NCO Board of Directors. Many volunteers enjoy sorting and organizing resources or packing bags for children, and Debbie has happily done all of these jobs; but her joy has come in connecting with the caseworkers when they arrive to pick up orders for the families they represent. These are the soldiers on the front lines of the never-ending war on poverty, often overwhelmed and overworked. One day, a caseworker came in especially burdened for the children she serves. Debbie could see it in her face and in the slump of her shoulders. Her role was essentially a substitute “Mom” to children of battered women who had finally made it to a shelter. Her day was full of taking kids to the library, doctor, and dental appointments; providing help with homework; and chaperoning field trips, all while the moms received intensive counseling to begin new lives of strength and dignity. It is common for these children to arrive with their terrified mothers in the dead of night with just the clothes on their backs. The caseworker places an order with NCO for a few age-specific essentials, so the kids can make it through the turbulent transition while the agency helps the moms heal and strengthen their parenting skills.

The women of domestic violence are just one of the many faces of poverty that Debbie has discovered during her time with NCO. Other faces include homeless teens; unwed mothers; mothers addicted to drugs and alcohol; families without jobs and little or no education, resources, or parenting skills; and expectant moms struggling to deliver a drug-free baby. NCO’s vision is to find a place in each community, supported by local volunteers who serve needy children through caring agencies within that region. The new location at Rolling Hills Community Church will fill the gap in reaching Clackamas and Marion counties.

The new space is currently an empty shell that needs to be finished to prepare for the 100% volunteer-run operations of Northwest Children’s Outreach. Beginning this weekend, opportunities to contribute to the new NCO center at Rolling Hills are available at the Equip station. Your purchase of donation certificates can be given as a Christmas gift to a loved one, in loving memory of a friend or family member, or on behalf of your business. Your generous heart can bring a smile to the innocent faces of poverty and hope to a child’s future.