There are so many needs

Outreach to bring the grace of Christ is our hope and goal.
 

Backpacks for Beaverton School District students, August 21, 2010

Social Concerns is collecting school supplies for LoveINC.'s "Packed With Love" 2010 effort to supply 700 middle and high school students in the Beaverton School District with backpacks and supplies for the upcoming school year. Please bring your donations of glue sticks, "Pink Pearl" type erasers, and boxes of colored pencils to church by Sunday, August 15th and place them in the box under Social Concerns' bulletin board in the Rainbow Room.

If you would like to join us in volunteering to help on August 21st, please see LoveINC.'s sign up page at: http://www.loveincbeaverton.org/eventsnew.php

SOV Hunger Challenge 2010

This Spring, Social Concerns invites you to take our hunger challenge and learn more about yourself, your local community, and the problem of hunger in our world. If you'd like to accept our challenge, view and print the shopping list and hunger verses below.

LoveINC's GAP Ministries

Thank you to everyone who donated household cleaning and laundry items for one of LoveINC.'s GAP ministries, which provide non-food items for local families in need. For more information on LoveINC. and their GAP ministries, please see their site at: www.loveincbeaverton.org.

Feed My Starving Children

Thank you to our eight volunteers who attended the "Feed My Starving Children MobilePack Event" at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Aloha on Saturday, May 22. It was a wonderful event filled with love for the children of the world, fellowship for our volunteers as well as between churches, education about world hunger and children, and fun. It was especially appropriate that this event was the day before Pentecost as the Holy Spirit was most definitely working through the over 500 volunteers who helped out over the 12 hours of the event! Together, we packed 104,000 specially formulated nourishing meals for hungry children throughout the world. Thanks also to our donors who made it possible for us to contribute over $400 to help pay for those meals! And a big thank you to Bethlehem Lutheran for arranging the event and making it possible for volunteers from many different churches to work together to truly be the "body of Christ".

If you would like more information on Feed My Starving Children, you can access their site at: www.fmsc.org.

Health kits

Thank you to everyone who donated kits and funds for Lutheran World Relief's Health Kits. We were able to give 77 kits for the 2010 Spring Ingathering. The kits were especially needed this year due to the January earthquake in Haiti which depleted LWR's stock.

Christmas 2009

Thank you to everyone who donated funds and/or wish-list items to the Portland VA Medical Center! If you missed our Christmas drive but would still like to donate funds, time, or items from their wish-list, please click here to check their site for information on how to donate and what they need.

Refugee resettlement

For its 35 years Shepherd of the Valley has sought relief and new life for people in the community. Perhaps our ministry of greatest emphasis has been refugee resettlement, adopting families with the aid of Lutheran Community Services Northwest. Resettlement includes finding an apartment, furnishing the home, stocking the cupboards and then beginning the process of adjustment with visits to health, welfare and job professionals. Our Shepherd volunteers have gotten to know many people over the years.

If you are interested in helping our refugee families, please contact Mert.

Food basket distribution

Social Concerns assembles and distributes food baskets to people struggling with the cost of food on Tuesdays from 1:00 until 2:00. Food basket requests are handled through Care to Share; please call them to arrange for a basket. From August, 2008 through July, 2009 we distributed 102 baskets.

On Saturday, November 21st, 37 volunteers from SOV came together to help 58 families have a happy Thanksgiving. Each family received food boxes containing chicken or a turkey, milk, bread, stuffing, rolls, eggs, flour, fresh fruits and vegetables, rice and dessert. Thank you to everyone who helped share God's love with hungry people in our community!

Sending children's books abroad

In the Spring of 2009, one of our members took donations of children's books to India to be used in local churches there. Make sure to check the Social Concerns bulletin board in the Rainbow Room for pictures!