We Go to Church and Talk to Strangers about Fires

Samaritan’s Purse

The Bridge Church, Santa Rosa, California

We’d already decided to spend last weekend in Santa Rosa when Mindy started looking for places where we could volunteer while we were there. It’s a good thing that she had a hard time finding a place that would let us help -- there are many organizations working on many projects, but most had more than enough volunteers for the Saturday we were available.

Eventually she remembered that Samaritan’s Purse, the international relief organization, was working through The Bridge Church in Santa Rosa (not connected with The Bridge Fresno), and she applied for Saturday morning training and work with other one-day volunteers. Due to a breakdown in marital communications (I’m sure it only happens to us), I had given up on volunteering and arranged for us to meet friends for lunch.

Nevertheless, Mindy went to the training early Saturday morning, if only to apologize that she couldn’t go out with the groups. She got permission sit in on the orientation that prepared volunteers for the work they’d be doing that day.

The group watched a video that prepared them to work at sites where homes had so recently been. They were reminded to wear protective gear, which would be provided on-site. They were trained to avoid nails and to be considerate of the homeowners, who would also be on the property. Then they were assigned to groups to go to the various area sites. Mindy had noticed a few people with The Bridge Church t-shirts, and when she asked if they were part of the church, she found herself talking with Eli Contreras, the church’s worship and young adults pastor. A few minutes later, that group was excited to find out they’d be working at the home of friends from The Bridge Church.

After the volunteers left to go to their work sites, Mindy came back to fetch me. We drove into the hills of the Fountaingrove area on the northeast side of Santa Rosa, where we were introduced to one of the property’s owners who was looking at what had been saved and what had been lost to the fire.

The house was gone except for a few stone walls, but the tree house in an oak tree was fine. Their beehives had survived the fire, but the smoke might have weakened the bees that were left, allowing yellowjackets to invade and take over the hives. She graciously allowed us to take pictures of the work on her property (Samaritan’s Purse requires volunteers to get permission for photos, and common courtesy does too).

Mindy introduced me to Eli, who was unrecognizable in Tyvek coverall and breathing mask. As we watched, Keith, the site supervisor from Samaritan’s Purse, advised people to keep away from the area around a damaged wall. That area would be cordoned off to prevent accidental injury.

People were hauling metal conduit to a pile for recycling, and everyone seemed to be in good (but not jovial) spirits. Though we were in a beautiful hilltop on a beautiful day, a sense of loss hung over the morning. Later, when some of the debris had been hauled away, the group expected to help the owners sift through the ruins of the house for belongings that might have survived the firestorm. They also hoped to catch sight of the family's cat, who'd been missing since the night of the fire.

That night, when we went to the Saturday evening worship service at The Bridge Church, we couldn’t help noticing the big Samaritan’s Purse trailer parked in the lot. We heard that the trailers had been built for NASCAR and were equipped with tools and shop materials as well as supplies for use on disaster sites.

The Bridge Church meets at the Santa Rosa Alliance Church on Fulton Road (near, but outside one of the fire evacuation areas). The Bridge was a two-location church, with one congregation meeting in the Larkfield neighborhood of northeast Santa Rosa at a Seventh Day Adventist School. The congregation had kept the equipment they set up every week in a trailer stored in the school’s parking lot, and the school was destroyed in the fire. The church assumed all their equipment was lost along with the meeting site, but when, after the fires, they were allowed back onsite, they found their trailer in perfect condition by a wall on the edge of the parking lot (we saw the trailer in the Alliance Church parking lot that evening).

The Saturday evening service began promptly at 5:00 pm with music followed by a greeting time (with a timer), more singing, then the sermon. Pastor Billy Andre was beginning a series, “Different,” on the Apostle Peter’s first letter.

In his introduction, Billy mentioned that the letter was written to a church that was enduring great persecution under the Emperor Nero (famed for fiddling while Rome burned), and the Bible verses that especially struck me were from I Peter 1 -- the quite relevant verses 6 & 7: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Billy said people of Sonoma County are suffering immensely, but not only from the fires. As is true in any time, in any place, people have struggles with health, relationships, and finances. These trials, he said, are a test of our faith, but our God is a God who can redeem painful situations.

The message was perhaps more powerful because Pastor Andre, like many in his congregation, is going through a trial of his own. His family’s home was destroyed in the firestorm, and they’re staying in their fourth residence in a month. He told about going to where his home used to be to sift through the ashes. He and his wife hoped, more than anything else, to find their original wedding rings, which had been in a dish on their dresser.

They did find them. They also found something that surprised them: a picture of Jesus. It wasn’t from a book they’d owned, and they had no idea where it came from, but there it was in the ashes where their shed had been: a reminder that God was with them.

The service closed with the song  “I Have This Hope” by Tenth Avenue North, which includes the lyrics, “I have this hope in the depth of my soul: in the flood or the fire, You’re with me and You won’t let go.”

Many of my friends lost their homes in the fires, including Mike, who I've known since elementary school. I remember biking to his house to hunt with BB guns...I accidentally shot him once. This week, his wife Carol posted on Facebook, "From this day, we move forward. Samaritan's Purse showed up today with a team of twenty people to help us sift. Beauty from ashes. God has a good plan for our family."

I trust also that God has a good plan for the people of Sonoma County, and I'm grateful that Samaritan's Purse -- and the churches in the community -- are working with them to help find it out.

We Go to Church (but is it Really a Church?) before a Meal

Redwood Gospel Mission, Santa Rosa, California

Our trip last year, where we visited a worship service in every state, could have been completed so much more quickly -- perhaps in two months rather than a year -- if we’d mostly gone to places like Redwood Gospel Mission. Last year, each state required a week since we generally attended Saturday or Sunday services, but RGM has a worship service every evening at 6:00 pm.

Technically, one could argue that Redwood Gospel Mission is not a church. The people at the Mission would not call themselves a church. During the worship service, worshipers are encouraged to attend a church. But RGM certainly has worship services, so if we said that we would visit a worship service (rather than a worship service in a church), we might have found missions throughout the country, and the trip would have been a lot quicker. (Still, we have no regrets.)

When we arrived at the Mission a few minutes before the evening worship service, we saw an ambulance outside. Inside the building,I heard people speculating about who was in the ambulance and the reason the person was in it. No one seemed to really know, but speculation abounded.

As we looked around the chapel, we noticed a few women, but men filled almost all the seats in the chapel. I noticed a few men on their phones, and the man in front of us was looking at a local weekly. Christmas decorations were hanging up near the ceiling.

A minute or two before the scheduled time, a man stood in front of the group and quickly read through a list of announcements (among them, the fact that there’s a 6:00 pm worship service at the mission every day of the year, followed by the 7:00 dinner; he also announced a 6:30 am service followed immediately by breakfast). He also let the group know about the Mission’s drug and alcohol recovery program, the Manna Home ministry for women and children, and shelter availability for the night.

Someone led a prayer of thanksgiving for the day’s lovely weather and for the lovely mission. The two men on stage with guitars introduced themselves as Tim and Steve, who attend two different churches that meet in the same building (The Bridge and Alliance Christian Fellowship). Redwood Gospel Mission has a rotation of churches that lead worship for their evening service.

A few technical difficulties with the sound needed to be worked through (“Your mic’s not working yet!” “Got it!” “Karen, can you turn down the guitars a bit?”), but they carried on with a bit of static coming through the system. Tim said, “If we can lift God up and praise Him, it’s a blessing to everyone.” Almost every comment and song was met with scattered “Amens” and “Hallelujahs” from the crowd.

Tim introduced a Bob Dylan song by reminding us that we all need to make some choices (“It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody.”) Someone praised his singing with a loud “Brave-Oh!”

As we sang, a man came from behind us and tousled the hair of the man looking at the newspaper in front of us. The man responded good naturedly. A different man went to the front of the chapel and raised his clenched fist triumphantly for no reason we could discern.

Karen, who had been doing the sound, came forward to give the message. I heard a man behind me make a crude remark that would have more often be heard in a strip club than a chapel, but fortunately he quit after that.

Karen initially had problems with the sound system and also apologized for a scratchy throat. She apparently had been to the Mission before, saying, “I see a lot of faces I’ve known for a long time.”  She read a bit from the Robert Frost poem about the road less traveled, drawing a parallel with Matthew 7:15 where Jesus talked about the wide road leading to destruction and the narrow road to salvation.

She spoke of the many choices we make in our day to day life, but said the most crucial choice was whether we would accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, a choice between eternal life and eternal condemnation. She quoted Scripture demonstrating our need for God’s forgiveness for our sins that condemn us to death. She told the story of a California governor who offered clemency to a convict on death row. The convict refused the reprieve and went to his death. She said we have the same choice about whether to accept God’s offer of life. (Side note: Mindy wasn't able to verify this story)

She closed with an offer to pray the sinner’s prayer accepting God’s gift of salvation. “Close your eyes and say these words in your heart,” she said, but many in the chapel repeated her words of contrition and request for forgiveness out loud. “If you prayed that prayer, you are a new creation,” Karen said as she closed.

People stirred, getting ready to go into the meal. “Women and children first” was repeated by several people, and it seemed to be a regular prelude to forming the line to the dining room.

We went in to eat with the crowd, hoping to engage in conversation but almost everyone was  much more intent on clearing their very full plates rather than talking. (I did hear a man at another table say, “I have the munchies from hell; if anyone doesn’t want anything on your plate, it’s going in my pockets, somehow.”)

A few days later, I went without Mindy to the 6:30 am Bible study that preceded breakfast. On my way to the Mission, I saw many people walking from the freeway underpass (where they had spent the night) to the warmth of the Mission.

Before the service there was gossip about a rumor that people from the nearby shopping mall were taking pictures of the homeless that might be used to evict folks. Someone said the photographers might be coming to the services, which led one woman to respond, “You don’t have to be homeless to come to church here.” As in the evening service, the seats were pretty well filled, and there was a greater percentage of women.

A leader read a devotion from The Daily Bread and then asked if anyone had any Scripture to share. A woman shared an extended portion from Isaiah, a man shared from John 15 (“I am the vine and you are the branches”), and another man shared a quote from Joyce Myers.

People were then dismissed for breakfast, again with the admonition, “Women and children first”.

During our 2016 journey to every state, we went to a number of missions along the way. Though most of those places wouldn’t call themselves “churches,” at those places and at Redwood Gospel Mission, we certainly saw the Church at work.

Statistics

Evening Service / Morning Service

Service Length: 59 minutes / 15 minutes

Sermon Length: 17 minutes / none

Visitor Treatment: No special recognition of visitors, but there was a time for people to greet those around them.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none (no attendance record)

Our Rough Count: 47 / 50

Probable Ushers’ Count: none

Snacks: spagetti, fruit salad, green salad, French bread, green beans, cupcakes, pie, milk, water /didn’t stay for breakfast

Musicians: acoustic guitars (2 men) / none

Songs: “Our God”

“Hear our Praises”

“Gotta Serve Somebody” (solo)

“Mighty to Save”

“Cornerstone”

“Revelatation Song”

“Lord, in Your Name we Lift up our Hands”

“How Marvelous, How Wonderful”

“Listen to our Hearts”

Miles to Church: 2

Church Website: srmission.org

WiFi Availability: none

Tie/Suit Count: 0 / 0

The Bridge, Church at the Park, Santa Rosa

I'm all for these words being used in every sermon: "When I finish up we'll be serving root beer floats," along with these kind words, "Sorry, Ken, but you'll have to wait for the kids to go first." (I suppose the 'Ken' is optional.)  There had been food served before the service this week, hot dogs and chips and potato salad and brownies. Not surprisingly, some people left after getting their lunches -- no floats for them.

The Bridge, a Christian Missionary Alliance Church in Santa Rosa, holds an outreach service for the homeless the last Sunday of every month at Bicentennial Park. Even the day before, we didn't expect to be there (we didn't even know about it). Please excuse a digression about how God brought us there.

Every month we have a theme for the places we'll worship. For Urban Churches Month, there was no shortage of churches to choose from, any more than there was a shortage of places to go to Rural Church Month. This month, we decided to have Outdoor Worship Month, but we found there were not as many churches to choose from, which kind of surprised us. For the last Sunday of the month we were looking at two Southern California possibilities. Then Mindy had a vehicular mishap involving a curb last Wednesday. It wasn't serious, but we weren't going to be driving on a long trip until the car was fixed right. So we invited people to join us in the park to worship. We didn't know if anyone would come.

Since we thought perhaps no one would show, on Sunday morning, we decided to go online and look for a later Sunday service, maybe something Sunday night. In a listing of area worship services, Mindy noticed that The Bridge held Church at the Park the last Sunday of the month; an outreach to the homeless, from noon until 3:00 pm. We decided to catch it after out little service at Shiloh Ranch Regional Park.

Only one person met us at Shiloh Ranch, our friend Jeff, who is looking for a church; a church that has a ministry to the homeless. God can be funny.

Folks from The Bridge were still serving hot dogs off the grill when we got to Bicentennial Park. We noticed a couple of large boxes of clothes that people were sorting through. I talked to Jennifer, who had just scored a pair of tennis shoes. They were a little big but she said they were much better than wearing her Sunday shoes every day, which she'd been doing for the past few days.

Darby (who started the ministry), realized they'd run out of food before everyone was served. So she ran off to buy dollar burgers at a nearby Carl's Jr. Four years ago, Darby started making food in her kitchen and delivering it to homeless people on the street and in the park. When the Bridge began a couple of years ago, Jim McKee, the outreach pastor of the church, was looking for ways to involve people in minister. He adopted Darby's ministry, leaving her in charge but bringing more people aboard.

Apparently most Sundays they also offer haircuts, but the gentleman with the shears was on vacation. They usually offer "survival packs" with granola bars, tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, and other hygiene products. The most important thing they offer, though, is relationship.

It was a short -- very short -- worship service. The guy leading the singing apologized for forgetting his guitar. We sang "Amazing Grace" a cappella and without song sheets. The church's Celebrate Recovery pastor, David, spoke. (Celebrate Recovery is ministry to those dealing with addiction.) David talked about how everyone is important to Jesus. There were a few children present, and David talked about how important children were to Jesus (and that kids would be first in line for the floats; orange soda floats were also an option). He closed with Romans 5:8, saying that God loves us sinners.

I enjoyed the chance to talk to some of the folks who came to the service. Ken isn't technically homeless; he rents a cabin. But he said he has a hard time sleeping there with cats on the roof and animals making noise. He is struggling and appreciates the hot food.

I talked to Linda who admitted she was homeless partly by choice. She has grown daughters and could live with them but doesn't want to be a burden. My brother does work preserving big cats (lions and tigers, not bears) and we talked about that for a bit. Linda said that she believed God had given people instincts to live outdoors like He'd given instincts to animals.

I'm not sure about that. I am sure that God has provided good folks from The Bridge to care for the homeless. One of the best things I heard from David was that he said their ministry isn't once a month. They meet people once a month in the park, rain or shine, but when they see them at other times, they stop to talk with them. Jim said the homeless folks have his cell phone number and he's received calls at 2:00 am.

David said they didn't believe the church should be confined within four walls. We agree, and were happy to find that Outdoor Worship isn't a rare a thing.

Statistics:

Service Length: 10 minutes

Sermon Length: 8 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Everybody was greeted. We were  asked to fill out a visitors' card, if we wanted to (we did)

Our Rough Count: 30 adults, 4 children, 2 dogs

Probable Ushers' Count: 50

Snacks: Hot dogs, soda, lots of water, chips, potato salad, root beer and orange floats, brownies

Musicians: one singer (male)

Songs: Amazing Grace

Miles to place: 8

Total California Miles: 10,709

-- Dean