Feature by Alyssa Brown A group of MBC students spends Saturday mornings sharing Christ in a tangible way -- helping people in the community with yardwork and home maintenance they can't do themselves

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Features | Send mail to The Voice Community Response Team Makes an Impact Jason Bigelow nails a garage door shut. Teams worked at two houses on Jan. 22. --Rachel Martindale, photo Every Saturday morning, rain or shine, a group of Multnomah Bible College students travel to houses in Portland to preach Christ. They go armed not with sermon notes and Bibles, but with rakes and garbage bags. These Community Response Teams, or CRTs, work at two to four houses each Saturday, doing yard work, painting and performing other household maintenance residents can't do for themselves. Their hope is that building relationships through service will open doors to share Christ. "We come in and help them out," said Jason Bigelow, the team's co-coordinator, "then sort of slip God in under the radar." Bigelow, a sophomore, has been doing CRTs for two years and knew he wanted to be involved even before attending MBC. Bigelow, his co-coordinator Liz Bertram, and the other team members meet in the Stugo office at 9 a.m. on Saturdays to pray. They intercede for the people they have visited in the past, for those people whose houses they will visit that morning, and for the safety of the team. Last year, between four and five students typically showed up. This year, having 13 to 15 is normal. They recently started sending out a team on Thursday afternoons. Some students receive ministry credit for being involved with CRTs. Thirteen students went out on Jan. 22. After praying, they piled into "the monkey," an old delivery van repainted bright blue. On the inside walls hung shovels and rakes. Buckets of tools sat on the floor of the van, along with a wheelbarrow and ladder. Bertram stood up front looking at a map. Bigelow turned down a familiar street, and someone said, "No, not 'Pothole Road' again!" Everyone laughed and hung on as the van lurched along the street, rocking like a boat on choppy water. At the first house, Chris Takano helped Bigelow and others unload rakes, bags and shovels. Bigelow handed the neon green and purple chainsaw to the eager Brennan, pointing out the choke and primer. "Play with it a little and figure it out," Bigelow said. "Just don't cut off your hand." Often Community Response Teams go to the same house more than once. Both houses that day were repeats. "Last time we took out some trees and bags and bags of leaves," Bigelow said. "The place was such a mess." Bigelow and the five remaining team members climbed back into the van to make the bone-rattling ride to the second house. Once there, they spent two hours cleaning out the gutters and raking leaves from under and around the naked bushes. They loaded garbage bags full of wet leaves into the monkey. The team prayed with the occupants, a little white-haired woman named Martha and her daughter, before leaving. "We don't get out much," the daughter said. "My mom's leg bothers her a lot. It's so nice of you to come do this. Otherwise, it just wouldn't get done." Bigelow gave them a list of churches in the area and said to call if they needed help with anything else. After picking up the rest of the team members, who told dramatic tales of Brennan's mishaps with the chainsaw, Bigelow drove back to MBC and parked the van on the north side of the A-Frame. The team unloaded 14 bags of leaves and branches into a nearby dumpster. The day ended at 12:35 p.m. much the way it began -- with prayer, this time over a six-pack of cola and three large Domino's pizzas. Bigelow said, "We go out so that people can see Jesus' love in us and ask about why we do this. Then we can tell them about Him." Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Features | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2005 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.