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The Clackamas Review, Nov 25, 2008, Updated Nov 25, 2008
At first the two little boys were "reticent — they didn’t want to talk or look us in the eye. But when we put the ladder up, one of the boys got part way up the on the bunk, and the other saw and went up too.
"Then both of them were up on top of [the bunk beds] just smiling,” said Joe Sawtell
The bunk beds were made by Sawtell and a group of men from the Prince of Life Lutheran Church in Oregon City, which is one of more than 50 churches in Clackamas County that participate in a national, non-profit organization called Love In the Name of Christ, or Love INC.
Normally another group would have delivered this particular set of beds, but Sawtell and his wife Yvonne ended up driving to Estacada to set up the bunk beds for Leeann Gaines and her husband who were fostering the two boys, both of whom were born to drug-addicted mothers, and both of whom have feeding tubes in their stomachs as a result of esophageal damage.
Yvonne Sawtell said she heard the story about the feeding tubes and learned that one of the little boys had an arm “that had been broken in three places that was never set. We saw their little angelic faces, and never dreamed that they had issues. That was the part that made us all teary eyed.”
Her husband added, “There is no question there is an incentive to make these beds.”
The two boys have since been adopted by Gaines and her husband, who are Mennonites, and the children “like the bunk beds,” Gaines said, adding that the beds were a “welcome gift” to the family.
Bunk bed ministry
The idea for a specific bunk bed project came about this past June, Yvonne Sawtell said, “when one girl volunteer [at Love INC of Clackamas County] took a call from a family with two foster children. They were living in small quarters and didn’t have anywhere to put [the children] to sleep.”
Volunteers at Love INC then realized that they were taking many calls from people who lived in cramped circumstances.
And then Bev Spilseth, who is the church ministry coordinator for Prince of Life Lutheran Church and a Love INC volunteer, came up with the name “Bunk bed ministry,” Sawtell said, adding that she volunteered her husband to make the beds.
Joe Sawtell said he downloaded a free pattern off the Internet, and he and fellow parishioner Ed Minster modified the plans so that the sturdy beds can be taken apart and made into twin beds.
“These are husky bunk beds,” noted Bert Cranston, one of the eight men who shows up on Wednesday nights to cut the lumber, sand, varnish and put the beds together.
At different times the group has received discounts and donations from Wilco and Miller Paint for the project.
Yvonne Sawtell said the group is grateful to TR Cauthorn, who has donated all the lumber for the bunkbeds.
“It’s a tremendous donation,” she said.
“I’d like to emphasize our need for mattresses — the situation is getting desperate,” added Yvonne Sawtell, noting that the organization does not have “an in” with any mattress companies.
Need in county
Spilseth said that there is an increasing need for help in the county, since “new statistics on homeless children show that North Clackamas has the highest [numbers].”
Love INC does work closely with the Department of Human Services, she noted, but “DHS does not provide beds, diapers or furniture.”
So she considers what Love INC does to be part of a series of “gap ministries — that fill a hole in the network.”
In February of 2004, she said, Betsy Packer, a member of Prince of Life Lutheran Church “had the interest in starting Love INC of Clackamas County.”
Packer and her husband had a farm and for three years the organization kept furniture and supplies there.
Now the organization has a warehouse in Canby where all supplies are stored, and a grant through DHS helps pay the rent there, Spilseth said.
All 40 participating churches sponsor various ministries Spilseth said, noting that volunteers from the organization repair bicycles, provide firewood, and make various supplies available including furniture, bedding, household goods and linens.
“We have beautiful layettes for newborns,” Yvonne Sawtell added.
Hand up, not out
Families may apply to receive help from Love INC, but the “process is pretty rigid, because we need to make sure there is a need,” Spilseth said, adding, “We want to give a hand up, not a handout.”
Volunteers take calls from needy families, but “verification of need comes from a social worker or minister,” Yvonne Sawtell said.
Love INC of Clackamas County is a non-profit organization, and is always looking for donations and volunteers, Spilseth said.
She and Yvonne Sawtell added, “Money is always welcome and [monetary donations] can be tagged to a specific project that tugs at your heart.”
Spilseth added, “We want to show Christ’s connection to the people and share our love of Christ through our actions, rather than words.”
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