Inspired by work going on in Los Angeles, The Rez has developed a ministry grown over the last six months from one couple clearing its kitchen cupboards to nearly a dozen volunteers feeding the hungry and helping those in need.
The Rez Outreach, as it is called, is a program for those in need, reaching out and helping the families of Sweet Home, Cascadia, Foster and Quartzville, providing food, clothing and basic necessities.
Many of those The Rez Outreach assists are single mothers, widows and disabled. All are living far below the median average of poverty income for the State of Oregon.
The Rez was established in 1998 by Donna Price as a gathering place for families and persons of all ages. The Rez is open the first and third Fridays of each month for praise, worship and testimony. Many gather to sing and play instruments in praise and worship for the Lord. Coffee, pop and snacks help generate income for The Rez Outreach.
Price and her husband, T.R., visited the Dream Center in Los Angeles, and “we saw how their ministry worked on a huge scale in feeding the hungry and meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the homeless and downtrodden,” Price said. “We just scaled it down.”
Around July, The Prices began driving up and down the streets looking for persons that fit the description of homeless. They saw people in trailers and tents. Before, they had just thought that maybe those folks were camping, but they were indeed homeless.
“We went home and started looking in our cupboard,” Price said. “We would just go up and visit with them and give them groceries and water.”
That grew into a ministry of The Rez. There are no restrictions on who gets the help, and it doesn’t matter what the need is, Price said. There are no income brackets.
“When we see a need, we fill it,” Price said. On a weekly basis a staff of 11 volunteers fill boxes for The Rez Outreach.
Monday nights, the staff meets to report on what needs they have seen, then they pray about it. Thursdays and Fridays they fill boxes and distribute boxes.
“This isn’t a family’s only food source,” Price said. “This is just a supplement,” helping take some 30 families through the last week of the month.
The food delivery is personalized, with volunteers visiting with each family.
“We just call it building bridges, building friendships,” Price said. Some of the ladies are widows and have no family nearby. Others are out of work and don’t get out much.
“We get to know them on a personal basis,” volunteer Tiffany Baugh said.
The reason these volunteers spend so much time with the program is written in the Bible in I John 3:17-18, where Christians are commanded show their love through actions and truth.
The program attempts to fill any other needs it finds. Over Christmas, The Rez Outreach purchased a 26-foot trailer for a woman living on the banks of the river. Her old trailer leaked profusely, and she had to make a campfire just to make coffee.
“When we see a need, we do everything possible to meet that need,” Price said. “If we don’t have it, we pray, and God provides what we need to fulfill the need.”
Right now, those needs include a submersible pump.
The Rez Outreach uses funds from its snack bar, but it depends on donations and the volunteers value the consistent contributors. The program also gets some food from Oregon Food Share, and individuals often buy an extra bag of groceries when they shop and drop it at The Rez. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also provided a $1,000 grant.
The Harvest House in Coos Bay was “blessed and they, in turn, blessed us,” Price said. The Rez Outreach received 2,300 pounds of food from that organization, including baby food, oil, juices and even popcorn.
Sweet Home Evangelical Church provided 20 Christmas boxes for The Rez Outreach to distribute.
The Rez Outreach has most of the shelving and refrigerator space it needs, but the program needs freezers.
I John 3:17-18
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, ho can the love of God be in him? Dear children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (NIV)
Matthew 25:35-40
For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will tell them, “I assure you , when you did it to one of the least of these ,my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. (The Living Bible)