Author: Rick McPherson

January Newsletter, 2016  Rick McPherson

When you live in the Pacific Northwest, you get used to the rain.  You drive in it.  You work in it.  You live in it.  One local TV station spoofs the rain by making commercials of people doing all sorts of activities in the drenching, soaking rain.  They’re actually quite funny, if you have a weird sense of humor.  

But, last month was no laughing matter.  We had more rain in December than any month since Noah was around.    Over 15” is what they said.  That’s a lot of water. 

And in the middle of all that water we were taking trips to the Reservations and delivering Christmas loads with groceries, children’s toys, gifts, household supplies (blankets, pillows, sheets, and appliances), fresh produce, bread, Bibles and warm jackets, hats and gloves.  All of the loads were delivered as an expression of God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness.  

Back in November we had made our plans to serve three Reservations and God helped us fulfill our plans.  We were blessed to be chosen as one of the non-profits to receive a portion of the toys donated to the Les Schwab Toy Drive.  These toys, along with many others that were donated at our store, Low Prices, and given by customers and friends of the Mission, helped us make Christmas a wonderful experience for many Native American children.  Because of the weather and the late schedule for truck deliveries, we actually sent five large boxes of toys by UPS to a distant Reservation address.  Not quite like the Pony Express, but you get the idea!

You’ll see some great pictures of these outreaches on the back:

1.  QUINAULT RESERVATION, Lake Quinault, Washington
2. NEZ PERCE RESERVATION, Lapwai, Idaho
3. CELILO INDIAN VILLAGE,  The Dalles, Oregon

December Newsletter, 2015  Rick McPherson

November Newsletter, 2015 Rick McPherson

It is?  Excuse me, but yesterday was Labor Day and the day before that was Independence Day.  It can’t be the Holiday Season, can it?  Christmas?  New Year’s?  I’ve just gotten used to writing 2015 and now, 16?  My, my … time does fly! 

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not complaining.  Christmas and the Holiday Season are my favorites.  The lights, music, family, friends, food and festivities are the highlights of my year.  I love them all.  It just seems that they are returning a little quicker than ever before. 

With the schedule as busy as it is, we add to the mix our planned trips to three Native American Reservations.  Last month we outlined our plans to help the following:

Nez Perce, Lapwai, Idaho

Quinault, Lake Quinault, Washington

Yakama, Celilo Indian Village, Oregon

We’re working hard to build family food boxes, collect unwrapped children’s toys, diapers, unexpired baby formula, leather boots, knit-hats and new or gently used winter coats to be distributed before Christmas.  You can help us!  Spread the word to friends or your local church and tell them about Pacific NW Outreach, Inc. and what we do.  Then, pray.  Ask God’s blessings to be extended to the Native Americans that we serve.  Pray that  God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness will shine through everything that we do.  Finally, you can give.  Your financial gift will enable us to do this work.  The expenses of the ministry continue with our efforts to deliver these gifts to distant and difficult destinations.  Your gift combined with others will get the job done.  No one can do everything but everyone can do something. 

As the year comes to a close, remember your year-end giving.  Take advantage of the last few weeks of 2015 and send your gift to Pacific NW Outreach, Inc. today.  If you would like a tax receipt for your annual giving, simply call the office and we’ll send it immediately.  If you have a question about the last few ministry trips of this year, we’d love to hear from you. 

One last thing … enjoy!

Enjoy the Christmas Season.

Laugh with your family and friends.

Eat well.

Rest.

Sing.

Give thanks.

Be kind.

Slow down.

Hug.

Be generous.

Smile.

October Newsletter, 2015,  Rick McPherson

I like hats.  I collect them.  I wear them.   Since going bald about twenty years ago, I need them to keep my head warm in the cold.  Most folks know that if your head is warm, you’re warm!

Some hats are all about function and some are not.  Remember the hats the ladies used to wear to church on Sunday mornings?  Not really functional, but did they ever look good!  If you were caught in a snow-storm however, I’m not sure they would help.  

We have a friend of the mission who has been knitting hats for Native American children and adults for years.  Every year at this time we receive a box with about a hundred hats that she has knit and asks that we distribute them on the Reservations for Christmas.  I have personally delivered boxes full of hats and the results are always the same…big smiles and happy eyes!  When your head is cold and your ears are freezing, a beautiful, colorful, warm, hand-knit hat is a great gift.  

Well this year we learned that Dixie Potter, the hat lady, had suffered several strokes and had spent three months in the hospital and rehabilitation.  She told her care-givers,

“I’ve got to get better so I can get back to knitting hats for the children!” 

We now have the privilege of delivering Dixie’s hats.  Most of the people who will wear one will never know her story.  It may be one of those “secrets” that will be revealed in Heaven someday.  Rest assured that the One who takes perfect notes of these acts has already recorded it.  Perhaps there will be an awards ceremony and the hat lady will receive extra jewels in her hat, er, crown!

In the meantime, we’ve got work to do!  We would like to deliver our Christmas groceries, children’s toys and Dixie’s hats before the first of December.  You can help us!  Our target  Reservations for this year are:

1. Nez Perce, Lapwai, Idaho
2. Quinault, Lake Quinault, Washington
3. Yakama, Celilo Indian Village, Oregon

Please PRAY for these outreach trips and the Native Americans on these Reservations.  Pray for the salvation of souls and for the message of God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness as it is presented. 

Please GIVE to help us make these trips.  Your financial gift, no matter what the amount, is needed at this time.  Thank you for giving and caring…

September Newsletter, 2015  Rick McPherson

As a kid I never liked Labor Day.  Why name a day for work and then celebrate it nationally?  Mostly, I didn’t like it because it meant summer vacation was over and we had to go back to school.  Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to go, it was just a fact that school followed the holiday.   July and August were a memory and there was a September calendar on the kitchen wall with a red circle drawn around that fateful Tuesday.  Like it or not, ready or not, it was back to school. 

The halls and classrooms and gymnasium always had a unique smell.  The vice-principal stood on patrol and the new home room teacher wrote on the chalk-board, “Welcome, my name is Mr. Horton.”  At least that’s what I remember from 4th grade.  Had he not been my first male teacher, I probably wouldn’t remember anything at all.  What is in my memory are the books, reports, assignments, tests and report cards.  Learning had a curriculum and there was a master plan that I didn’t know.   Much later I learned that learning was a lifestyle that would never stop.

Now I’m reliving my childhood vicariously through my grandsons.  Nothing has changed much.  They too think that Labor Day is an intrusion into a perfectly wonderful summer schedule of camps, paintball, fishing and baseball.  Why bother with school?  But somehow I hear myself talking and trying to explain to them that there is indeed a greater plan and learning is a major part of it all.  Although they’re listening, I’m not sure they’re buying it, yet. 

Then I remembered these words that Paul the Apostle said to his young friend, Timothy.  “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”  II Timothy 3:14-15

In our ministry here at Pacific NW Outreach, Inc., we are constantly learning. 

Everyday there are problems to solve, reports to be written (like this one), facts and figures to be processed,  projects to be organized, schedules to be  made, people to be coordinated and things to be learned.  It never stops.  Learning is a lifestyle. 

The Apostle was right when he said, “you must continue…”   Not only do we continue to work, we continue to learn.  We continue to learn the Native American culture, we continue to learn what works and what doesn’t, we continue to learn how to pay our expenses, we continue to learn how to save money, we continue to learn to pray, to forgive, to serve.  It never stops!

And many of you who receive this newsletter have, “continued.”    You have not stopped your lifestyle of learning, praying, giving, helping.  Thank you and God bless you for staying in school and not dropping out!

***

July Newsletter, 2015  Rick McPherson

The title of this month’s newsletter is Gallery. We’ve selected photos from the past months that depict our ministry at Pacific NW Outreach.  You’ll see regalia, teepees, parades, preaching, groceries, trucks, kids, families and God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness in real life.  Enjoy!

Although the pictures show ministry throughout the year, it is the middle of the summer.  This year we have experienced record-breaking heat here in the Pacific Northwest.  The lack of rainfall and the intense heat have affected us badly.  We need your financial help, particularly at this time, to make it.  Please pray for us and then help us with a generous financial gift.  Thank you and God bless you for your gift. 

 

May Newsletter, 2015  Rick McPherson

Both of our grandsons are playing Little League baseball this year.   They have uniforms and gloves, batting helmets and cleats, aluminum bats and sunflower seeds.  They have everything you need to play the game …except for one thing, experience.  They’re beginners.  In order for them to improve and play well they have to practice the same thing, over and over.  Hitting, hitting with power, running, catching and throwing all are achieved the same way, practice.    You must do the same thing hundreds and then thousands of times to become good.  Repetition is the key ingredient.  Repetition is a good thing! 

When you think about it, repetition affects everything we do.  And, the most important things in life, the words that we speak, need to be repeated constantly.  Words like, “I love you,” “I forgive you,” and “I appreciate you.”

With that in mind, I want to repeat myself in this newsletter.   Allow me to say again what I have said before.  These are statistics about the people that we serve in this ministry, “the forgotten people,” Native Americans. They are as important as any people-group or culture on planet earth, yet they experience conditions every day that are unbelievable.   For example:

*The infant mortality rate among Native people is about 300 percent higher than the national average.

*Nearly 10 percent of all Native American families are homeless.  The rate of Native homes without electricity is about 10 times the national average and 20 percent of Native homes have no running water.

*Native Americans have the highest poverty and unemployment rates in the United States.  The poverty rate is 25 percent.

*From 1999 to 2004, Native males from 15-24 years had the highest suicide rate compared to males of any other racial group. 

 I could also tell you about alcoholism, drug addiction, gang violence, domestic abuse and abominable activities that are common place on the Reservations and in Native communities.  But, my point is to remind you that there is still work to be done.  Ministry is not stopped because the statistics are overwhelming.  In fact the message of God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness is even more meaningful than ever. 

When John the Baptist had heard in prison of the works of Christ, he sent his disciples to ask, “Are you the Coming One , or do we look for another?”

Jesus said, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”  St. Matthew 11:4-6

In this incredible list of miracles, authenticating His ministry, Jesus includes the fact that the Gospel is being preached to the poor!  That bears repeating, the Gospel is being preached to the poor.  The needs are great, the statistics are staggering, the suffering is overwhelming but the message of God’s love is being delivered. 

So, let’s keep doing it.   Let’s keep repeating ourselves.  Let’s tell the story of Jesus.  Let’s tell of His mercy, grace, patience, kindness, joy, peace, gentleness and goodness.  Keep saying it.  Keep singing it.  Keep praying it.  Keep repeating it.

After all, repetition is a good thing!

PS  Thank you…for repeating your support of this ministry.  Your gift, whether large or small, enables us to continue this work.  No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.  God bless you!

April Newsletter, 2015  Rick McPherson

A lady called me the other day and asked if we still accept vehicle donations for the Mission.  “Sure do,” I said. 

I asked where she lived and what kind of vehicle it was and if she had the title.

“Oh, it’s way out in the county and it’s a one ton truck that my late husband used to haul his horse trailer and yes I have the title,” she answered. 

After calling in a few favors I headed out with two friends, one of our own trucks with a trailer and winch and found the truck in the blackberry bushes in the rain.  She was right; it was way out in the country.  But we prevailed and finally had the truck on the trailer and headed home.  It was an adventure, so to speak. 

Not all of our vehicle donations are quite as challenging.  But all of them are important to us.  You see, when people donate a vehicle to us; and it can be a truck, car, motorcycle, boat, airplane, moped, jet-ski, motorhome or trailer, it helps us greatly.  In fact, if it has a title we can accept it.  And, as a 501 (c) (3) corporation we can provide a tax receipt for the donation. 

Some of the vehicles that are donated are given to needy individuals on Reservations.  Depending on the type of vehicle, like four-wheel drive trucks and Jeeps, some are well-suited for the rough terrain that we often experience on the Rez.  Others are sold at auction and the proceeds are used for the work of the Mission.  Either way, the vehicle’s value really helps us! 

You may have a vehicle right now that’s in your driveway or just in the way and you’re wondering what to do with it.  We can help!  You can donate it to the Mission and we’ll arrange to have it towed and solve your problem.  Or, you may have a vehicle in the carport or shed or barn or just sitting under a tree with a wind-blown tarp covering it.  Once again, we can help!  And your donation will help us as we help you.  To coin a phrase, “it’s a win-win situation!”

In today’s economy, we watch every penny so that we can continue doing this ministry.  We also are direct in asking people to help us financially.   By donating that vehicle you will be helping us as we help Native Americans.  Take a moment today and call me, (503) 492-0904 and let’s put that old vehicle to use again.  Or, you may want to use the enclosed envelope and make a donation by writing a check.  Whatever the amount, whether large or small, your gift will be appreciated and used in this ministry helping families and children know more about God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness. 

You may also have friends or relatives who are wondering what do with that old Chevy parked by the barn, or the Honda with the bad paint job.  We’ll gladly receive them and use them for this ministry.  Tell your buddies at work about what we do and help us get the word out…WE ACCEPT VEHICLE DONATIONS. 

I’m not expecting every vehicle retrieval to be an adventure that ends up in the blackberry bushes, but if that’s what it takes … so be it!  I’m all in.