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Summer bash moves to Parkrose HS TIM CURRAN THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
In its fifth year - held annually at Eastside Foursquare Church on Sandy Boulevard inside the Quality Inn & Suites before it burned down - the Parkrose Summer Bash is comprised of a canned food drive, craft vendors, live music, display booths from area churches, and inflatable games and activities for children. This year's event, re-named Summer Bash, relocated to the Parkrose High School Community Center campus, and held in conjunction with Parkrose Farmers' Market, in benefit for CityTeam Ministries' Portland chapter and Union Gospel Mission's Shepherd's Door women's and children's shelter. At previous events, thousands of pounds of donated canned and dry food were collected for the two ministries to share. It takes churches and ministries, who all theologically have some differences, but we have so much more in common, and we can serve the same community together, said Whittlesey. We can put those things aside and say 'look we're here to benefit this community because this is where we live and this is where we serve.' For our first year (here) it's smaller than we'd like to do in the future, but it's a good thing, we've got four good bands, several ministries represented, it's been a good one, said Whittlesey. If we do it again in the future we can really develop it into something big, with the focus being on Parkrose, sponsored by Parkrose churches. CityTeam Ministries Development Officer Christine Thiessen attributes the change in venue and the economy to food donations being down. I wish we could raise more food, she said. Everything else is going great; they were hoping for about 30,000 pounds of food to share between the two groups. Last year we did about 20,000 pounds, but Eastside Foursquare was responsible for about half of that. This is God's people doing something together, and everybody gets the credit, said Whittlesey. However, he wanted the Parkrose Ministry Network committee that produced the event to get extra credit: David Walmer, formerly with Eastside Foursquare Church; Bill Gates, Parkrose United Methodist Church; Mike Brace, Abundant Life Church and Karl Hester, Resurrection Lutheran Church. Put together a year ago to encourage each other as a group of churches, representatives from 11 Mid-county churches banded together, formed the Parkrose Ministry Network and met once a month at Crossroads Church for lunch to see if there were projects they could do together. In addition to this event, church representatives have undergone training to assist at the new Gateway Domestic Violence Center that opened this month. Parkrose Ministry Network members: Abundant Life Church Crossroads Church Eastside Foursquare Church Gateway Baptist Church Glisan St. Baptist Church Parkrose United Church of Christ Parkrose United Methodist Church Resurrection Life Center Resurrection Lutheran Church Rivercrest Community Church Woodland Park Baptist Church |
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