Christmas Day at Union Gospel Mission

It's 1:20 pm on Christmas Day, and the snow is falling! (Can you make out the snowflakes on the picture taken in front of the Mission minutes ago?)

Today Union Gospel Mission is serving a meal and distributing clothing to those who are homeless or in need of a meal and companionship on Christmas Day.

As of 1:00 pm we had served 560 meals, and we are on our way to serving about 700 or so.

Here is the scene in Union Gospel Mission's dining hall, where a meal of ham, mashed potatoes, yams, dinner rolls, fruit and pie are served.

Volunteers distributed gifts of clothing, hygiene items and toys for children from our garage entrance. Thanks to adidas, we were able to hand out bags of new clothing to people in need.

A team of volunteers from Union Gospel Mission took to the streets to distribute bags of clothing and reach out to people in need on the street. They stopped to chat with and wish a Merry Christmas to the gentleman with the blue coat and beard. This volunteer team distributed socks, underwear and few plates of food to people they encountered on Burnside street near Union Gospel Mission.

We are very blessed this Christmas to share a meal with people who come to the Mission, the volunteers and the donors who have been so generous.

Merry Christmas!

Getting ready for a Merry Christmas

Christmas is nearly here. In the kitchen the LifeChange addiction recovery residents assigned to the kitchen- Amber, Mary, Lisa are preparing ham, stuffing, yams, mixed fruit, dinner rolls and pie. Union Gospel Mission along with about 200 volunteers will serve the food, and hand out clothing to people in need Christmas Day from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm at 15 NW Third Avenue. We anticipate serving as many as 700 meals. It's not too late to help, you can donate to feed people in need at http://www.ugmportland.org/donate.html

LifeChange recovery residents and Union Gospel Mission staff had an early Christmas party and retreat at the Oregon Coast. It was a great time of prayer, fellowship and some pretty zany fun.

For some reason, many of the pictures from our retreat featured people with something funny on their head:

LifeChange resident Willie sports a furry hat. Actually, this is sort of Willie's signature look this fall and winter- he has several of these hats.

Union Gospel Mission's LifeChange men's facilitator, Dave, has moose antler's on...(no, this isn't Dave's signature look)

In addition to a great time, outings and events for people in LifeChange help residents overcoming addiction learn to have fun without drugs and alcohol. The Christmas retreat was a welcome break for the LifeChange recovery community during the busy holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you adidas!

You might think from the hats that Santa's elves were at work, but actually, it was an awesome volunteer group from adidas. This is the second group that came to Union Gospel Mission with donations of clothing and hygiene items which will be handed out Christmas Day to Portland's homeless and needy.


The adidas team donated bags as well as clothing and hygiene items. A team of 60 people were here this morning assembling these gift bags, which will be distributed on Christmas Day. For some people, this gift bag is the only Christmas present they will receive.

The adidas team engineered an assembly line in the Mission dining area and quickly put together the gift bags, and labeled them and sorted them! Generous and efficient- who could ask for more?

What a blessing...thanks to the adidas team, people who are struggling will know that people care this Christmas.

It's not too late to help out- For the Christmas event, boneless hams, instant potatoes, and yams are still needed. Clothing and blankets are always welcome in this cold weather.

You can make a donation online at http://www.ugmportland.org/donate.html

Thank you adidas for spreading Christmas cheer!

Kickin' It- the impact of an Oregon "kicker" check

News reports indicate that Oregonians will be receive a very nice "kicker" check, and the average amount of the check is $612 dollars.

Some people are considering donating their kicker check to charities. If you were to select Union Gospel Mission as the beneficiary of your kicker check, this is the impact it would have:

With an average cost of $1.92 per meal, the average kicker check of $612 would purchase 318 meals for people who are homeless or needy. Every weekday, Union Gospel Mission hands out sack lunches at 6:30 am, and every weekday evening, Union Gospel Mission provides a hot meal and a chapel service.

A donation of a kicker check can go a long way in helping someone who is seeking to turn their lives around in Union Gospel Mission's LifeChange addiction recovery program. Many who are in LifeChange were long-term addicts, involved with meth and other destructive drugs. Some were in and out of jail, living on the streets, and their lives turned into a nightmare. When they came to LifeChange, they found a second chance and a way out.

This week LifeChange welcomed two new members, two people who are choosing to break away from addiction and a destructive lifestyle. Anyone who would like to donate their kicker check to support LifeChange would be helping these two residents and other LifeChange members on the road to recovery and a new life.

If you would like to learn more about Union Gospel Mission and LifeChange, check out our website, www.ugmportland.org or give us a call at 503 -274-4483.

We Need Blankets! We had great volunteers here today!

This is turning out to be a busy Friday! First of all, with the cold weather coming, Union Gospel Mission may become a temporary overflow shelter for the homeless. If that happens we REALLY NEED BLANKETS. We don't have cots so we make bedrolls out of blankets, and right now, we don't have nearly enough. If you can drop off blankets, please do so at 15 NW Third Ave. in Portland (nearest cross street is Burnside) or give us a call at 503-274-4483 for more information.

We had some awesome volunteers here today from adidas. They had (and are still having) a clothing and hygiene item drive. They are sending a second volunteer team on December 14. This is a huge blessing! We will be handing out the clothing during the cold weather and also as gift bags on Christmas Day.

Here's the adidas volunteer group assembling clothing bags. They brought a lot of clothing that will help people who are homeless or in need.

The volunteers from adidas also assembled hygiene kits to give away. Hygiene kits consist of toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, deordorant, and lotion. These kits are given to the homeless and will be part of the Christmas Day give away.

It was really awesome to have the adidas group volunteering and it will make a great difference to people in need this holiday season.

The holidays and the cold weather are times of great need for the homeless, so donations of blankets, clothing, hygiene items and food are very appreciated. Donations can also be made online at http://www.ugmportland.org/donate.html

Thank you and God Bless...

Thanksgiving Day!

The day has finally arrived. After around the clock turkey cooking, planning and excitement, Thanksgiving Day started at Union Gospel Mission. It started early....

By 6:00 am the tent donated by N.W Natural Gas had arrived, the street was blocked off and volunteers began assembling the tent.

By 8:00 am the tent was up and the volunteers were setting up tables and chairs

By 9:00 am the waiting to get into the Thanksgiving event was stretching down the block on Burnside.

Volunteers had the tables ready for the 10:00 am kick-off

The doors were open, and volunteers greeted the Thanksgiving guests coming for a meal and checked bags and ushered them into the tent.

Live music greeted the guests. Musical acts included Theovox and The Decisions.

Volunteers put meals together in a quick and efficient assembly line. Other volunteers served meals out in the tent.

Soon the tent was full of people enjoying a great Thanksgiving meal!

Over 1,000 meals had been served by the end of the event at 2:00 pm and few meals were still going out to people in need. Thank you to the over 200 volunteers who helped make it happen. Thank you to our donors who supported the meal and donated food. Thank you to the LifeChange recovery community who worked to make it happen!

God bless and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving by the numbers

How do you prepare 1,500 Thanksgiving meals?

Here's Union Gospel Mission's Thanksgiving by the numbers:

100 Turkeys
175 pounds of stuffing
450 pounds of mashed potatoes
60 gallons of gravy
200 pounds of yams
150 pounds of cranberry sauce
2000 dinner rolls
225 pies
60 gallons of juice

Getting ready for Thanksgiving has become an around the clock endeavor at Union Gospel Mission. We have be so blessed with many donations of food, and wonderful volunteers!

Union Gospel Mission's ovens are going 24 hours a day, cooking turkeys! Residents of Union Gospel Mission's LifeChange recovery community take turns on a night shift cooking up the turkeys.

Donations of food have been coming in steadily, frozen turkeys and other food items show up daily from generous people.

We aren't forgetting about dessert! Pies, pies, and more pies line the table in Union Gospel Mission's dining area.

Thank you Portland for your generous support. Thanks to you, someone who is homeless or just in need of a meal will have a terrific meal with all the trimmings on Thanksgiving Day.

Turkey time!

This is the time of year when Union Gospel Mission becomes a hive of activity! We are busily preparing for a Thanksgiving feast- a real feast- enough to serve 1,500 traditional Thanksgiving meals. Just to give you an idea- we will serve 100 turkeys, 450 pounds (yes, pounds) of mashed potatoes, 60 gallons of gravy...you get the idea.

This special meal is for people who are homeless or in need. We want to be great!

Right now, we need turkeys...that's LifeChange resident Marc, posing with our blow up turkey mascot in the Mission dining room. The sign says, "We need turkeys!" We do...drop them off at 15 NW Third Ave., in Portland. You can give us a "virtual turkey" by donating to support the meal at http://www.ugmportland.org/

Thank you...and we hope you are blessed as we move into the holidays.

Banquet and Food Drive kick-off

It has been a busy time here at Union Gospel Mission Portland! On October 27, our fall fundraising banquet was held at the Red Lion Hotel on the River. KPDQ's Georgene Rice served as Master of Ceremonies, and violinist David Klinkenberg treated those in attendance to an outstanding mini-concert -check out his website http://www.davidklinkenberg.com/ his music is amazing.

The banquet was a fundraiser for Union Gospel Mission's recovery community.

Friday November 2, was Union Gospel Mission's Thanksgiving Food drive kick-off took place at Food 4 Less, with our partner, K103 radio http://www.k103.com/main.html

This was all about fun! The event started off with a supermarket dash by a K103 contest winner, and Food 4 Less matched the contest winner's grocery tab to give to Union Gospel Mission. $352.70! Miss Oregon, Sharita McKenzie, joined in the fun, and a volunteer became "Tom Turkey" to encourage people to donate food. Union Gospel Mission also set up a round of turkey bowling in the parking lot to highlight the food drive effort.

Union Gospel Mission's own "Tom Turkey" poses with Miss Oregon, and grocery dash winner, Paula.

A Union Gospel Mission supporter participates in turkey bowling. Many strikes were bowled!

Miss Oregon, Sharita McKenzie, poses with Union Gospel Mission's Executive Director Bill Russell.

Our Thanksgiving food drive is on-going. Donation barrels are available at Food 4 Less, 7979 SE Powell Blvd. in Portland until November 21.

Union Gospel Mission's radio partner, K103 is making it easier than ever to support Union Gospel Mission- just click this link http://www.k103.com/cc-common/pdx/click/donate.php?id=14 and 10 cents will be donated to Union Gospel Mission. Please pass the link on to your friends!

Union Gospel Mission welcomes you!

Welcome to Union Gospel Mission's blog! Here you will get to know us and we hope to get to know you.

Here's a picture of our LifeChange Center on the corner of Third and Burnside in downtown Portland. We moved in this year, and we're pretty excited about what the future holds.

At the Mission, we have meals for the homeless - a sack lunch at 6:30 am and hot dinner and chapel service dinner every weeknight. We also hand out clothing, provide referrals, and provide meals at Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and "Operation Overcoat."

Our new building is called the "LifeChange Center" because at the heart of our ministry is LifeChange, a long-term Christian recovery community for men and women. The men and women in LifeChange live and work at the Mission or work at the Mission's thrift store in Tigard.

It's a busy time here! Tomorrow is our fundraising banquet, and next Friday we are kicking off our Thanksgiving food drive.

Thanks for checking us out! Leave a comment, we will respond! Thanks and God Bless.