Teen Challenge at Bethany Lutheran

Last Sunday the Teen Challenge team had a great opportunity to prepare for their final challenge while making a difference for someone. Bethany Lutheran is a small church in North East Portland that is working to revive its congregation and establish itself as a community center. After many years, lots of general stuff has accumulated in the various side rooms, classrooms, and other parts of the beautiful little church. With an aging congregation, there has been little done about some of the larger, heavier items, and the clutter has simply accumulated.

As a team, our goal was simple - in two hours do as much as we could to help clean up and clear out the messy rooms. After a little tour by one of the board members and a quick meeting as a team, we split up and got to work. Heavy lifting was our main task, as much of the stuff was far to heavy for the older congregation. The guys took the downstairs - clearing up a game room, and office, while the girls set to work sterilizing and clearing up two children's rooms. The result was spectacular. "It's amazing just how much brighter it looked afterwards," said Jake, "it made a real difference in the place"