We went downtown and sought out the housing and food insecure folks again this week and we had a really great showing. We ran out of the terrific egg/sausage/potato/pepper scramble we put together this morning in only one hour.

We hadn’t seen some of these folks before, and we hadn’t seen as many of them during the winter as we were used to. In fact, we were wondering if we needed to change strategies so we wouldn’t miss anybody. Sometimes turnout was in single digits, despite the somewhat gentler weather this winter, and it gets disheartening to have to send the pastor (that’s the big guy in the plaid shirt) out in his car with a warmer filled with breakfast burritos to the various places where your unhoused neighbors hang out, so nothing will go to waste.

One of the ways we try and make our ministry different is the amount of time we spend with our neighbors. One of my (Pastor Tim) favorite parts of the meals is sitting with the neighbors and hearing them tell their own stories. People need to be listened to, to have their lives and their struggles validated, to have their humanity accepted. The winter was a struggle for me because I didn’t have that opportunity as much as I would have liked. Nice to be able to sit and talk with folks.

We’re going to strategize anyway, always room to improve. Blessings to all

We have long had the proud stand of trees lining the border of the property here at our Saviour’s Lutheran Church.

The came the thunderstorm this past week.

I was right next door and didn’t hear a thing, but this is what happened!

The miraculous bit is that it didn’t touch those power lines you can see in the pictures. It could not have fallen any better if it had been on purpose.

I’ll give credit where credit is due, it was Berserker Tree Service out of Kennewick who made the trek out to us and took care of the tree the very next day.

And then it was gone! Thanks to everyone for keeping tabs on the work. It was nice of ti not to cause any other damage, don’t you think?

I showed up, I can’t remember what for, and there was Bob, constructing some shelves. They probably won’t get everything off of the floor, (we have cases of some things), but it’ll help!

We’ve started a partnership with some neighbors, who gave their own time in 2025 to plan and host some community gatherings as a part of the National Night Out celebration last August. They started in the nearby Upland Park, but realized that they would like to have some more facilities, especially bathrooms, if they were going to be gathering a bunch of kids together, let alone parents.

They approached us and asked if we would allow them to use our church facilities, (the building and the property) for some future gatherings. We replied that we would much prefer partnering with them, combining our strengths, to bring the community together up here on the hill in Sunnyside.

To that end, they hosted a Valentine’s Day card making and cookie decorating party up at Our Saviour’s this past Wednesday with some special guests from the Sunnyside Police Department.

We’re grateful to our neighbors Catti Alvarez-Vilanueva and Jessica Caballero for planing and arranging our first gathering of 2026. We are looking forward to getting together many more times in the coming months, and working together to make our community stronger, safer, and more fun to live in.