10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JULY 12, 2017
Local church gets into the swing of summer
As most Cottage Grove
teachers
are winding
For The Sentinel
down their school year in
June, many local church
youth and children’s leaders are beginning prepa-
rations for the months ahead. Between some
churches leading vacation bible schools, all-night
lock ins, festivals, summer camps, and much
more, it can be a busy time of year for those lead-
ing these individual ministries.
“I just love getting kids to camp. For me camp
was super pivotal in my life and my walk with
God. The Lord did specifi c things for me in camp.
He gave me specifi c words, and called me onto a
ministry path,” said Patti Guerra, a youth leader
at Cottage Grove Faith Center. I’m sure you can
hear from God anywhere, but I feel like camp is
a time where your kind of separated and have a
like mind. You don’t have the distractions of daily
life around you. For me it’s really important when
kid’s kind of catch the fever for camp, get really
excited, and work really hard to get there.”
With all the different events taking place over
the summer for children and youth in the faith
communities, it can also be expensive on families
to afford it all. But many Cottage Grove churches
rely heavily on fundraising to help support fami-
lies in sending their kids to camps and other ac-
tivities.
“If there is a kid who doesn’t go to camp be-
cause they didn’t have the money, it is not because
we didn’t give them the opportunity, we have so
much going on right now that can get them to
camp,” said Guerra.
It can be an exhausting process for those that
lead each ministry, but very rewarding. ‘Riverside
Community Church of God’ recently held a bene-
By Kyle McGowen
fi t garage sale, a dessert auction, and
are selling raffl e ticket to Disneyland
theme parks (that were donated to the
church by Disney) in hopes of their
youth attending ‘Creation Festival’ in
Kennewick, WA in July. The Church-
es teenagers helped at each fundrais-
er and has raised nearly $3,000 com-
bined so far, an effort that has left
very few teens at ‘Riverside’ having
to pay anything all.
“It is very rewarding to have all
the kids paid for, for the simple fact
that most teens can’t afford to spend
a bunch of money on a big summer
experience like this,” said Courtney
McGowen, a youth leader at ‘Riv-
erside church’. “Knowing that the
teens are going to get touched by God
makes all the work and effort reward-
ing.”
Cottage Grove Faith Center held
similar efforts this week as Guerra
made the commitment to drive to Beaverton ear-
ly Saturday morning in order to pick up Krispy
Kreme donuts and then drive back to Cottage
Grove to sell the donuts most of that hot afternoon
at a local restaurant with some of the teens and
children that attend her church.
“We had to have the cash to buy them. We
have to be careful, we don’t want to waste a lot
of food, money, or time. So we presold about 50
dozen, we also bought an extra 50 dozen to sell.
We get $6.50 out of every $12.00 (that they sell
for). It’s an easy thing, we can do it again in a few
months,” Guerra said.
Faith Center will be sending their children to
camp Crestview and their teenagers to Momen-
tum and held their pie auction among their church
community the following day. This is the sixth
year the church has held their pie auction. Church
member Traci Beach has led the event annually.
“Typically our kids have made a good chunk of
their money from the pie auction,” Guerra add-
ed. “All the kids have accounts so that the money
they earn throughout the year, such as from baby
sitting at a church events, Krispy Kreme sales, or
the Pie auction goes into their own youth account
and they can use that money when it comes time
for camp. In theory a kid who is willing to work
for it will have all their camp paid for, plus some.”
Many faith based communities in Cottage
Grove spend a signifi cant amount of time lead-
ing up to and during the summer helping children
and teenagers raise the money needed, something
many of them believe is well worth it.
“I feel like it changes a lot about their expe-
riences about camp, they worked for this and
earned this. Not to say that kids that can just write
a check don’t have that, but at the same time I feel
like it’s a pretty powerful thing to know for them
that they worked for it and earned it. I love camp,
man I love camp,” Guerra concluded.
Legislature Continued from A1
had lawmakers crossing the aisles and battling
through to come up with a $5.3 transportation
package. It included money for rural areas but
most funds went to Portland with the plan also
including toll roads for the city.
• A $600 million tax on providers was the
solution for thousands of Oregonians who
faced losing the health care coverage they
had obtained under the Affordable Care
Act, or Obamacare.
• In other health care news, women in the
state were the subject of emotional debate
on the chamber fl oor but eventually, law-
makers passed provisions that mandate
insurers cover reproductive care, including
abortions.
• Women of Oregon were also given the
right to earn the same as a man for doing
the same job. House Bill 2005 makes it il-
•
•
•
legal for an employer to pay a woman less
than a man for performing the same job.
Workers in companies with at least 500
employees will now have a much more
predictable work schedule thanks to the
Oregon Legislature. The body passed leg-
islation forcing employers to notify em-
ployees of their work schedules two weeks
in advance.
Children under the age of 18 who are in
the country illegally will now be entitled to
Medicaid coverage in a bill that was sup-
ported by both democrats and republicans.
Nitrous oxide was not the only tobacco
shop product to see an age change. Orego-
nians under the age of 21 will not be per-
mitted to purchase cigarettes under a new
law passed by the legislature that raises the
legal age from 18 to 21.
•
Charges to drug possession will change af-
ter the legislature opted to pass a bill that
altered punishments for those caught with
illegal substances. Individuals found to be
carrying "user-levels" of cocaine, meth and
heroin will be charged with misdemeanors
and not felonies.
• House Bill 2355 is expected to land on
Governor Brown's desk as a way to tackle
racial discrimination. The law would man-
date that law enforcement collect and sub-
mit data related to a person's age, sex and
ethnicity after conducting a traffi c stop.
Governor Kate Brown released a statement re-
garding the end of the legislative session, say-
ing, "This legislative session was tough but re-
warding. We began the year with a $1.6 billion
budget defi cit and the ambition to build a stron-
ger education system, invest in our transporta-
tion system, ensure all Oregon children have
access to health care, and create a safer, more
equitable Oregon. Today, we have balanced the
budget and achieved these critical goals while
standing up for Oregonians' values." She went
on to say, " My priorities were supported by
both parties because these solutions came from
the Oregonians I’ve met across the state," Gov-
ernor Brown said. "It took a lot of hard work to
build bipartisan support and I’m proud of the
Legislature for supporting transformative poli-
cy for Oregon. While the legislative session has
ended, our work continues. I look forward to
building on our successes and lessons learned
for a brighter future in Oregon."
To track a specifi c bill, please visit oregonlegis-
lature.gov and use the search option to the right
of the screen.
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