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“This Job’s a Picnic”–Envoy Phil Bogle
ENVOY NANCY BOGLE–tells Bible stories as children enjoy picnics created from donated food.
Summer picnics are paving the way for hundreds of children to hear the Gospel in Tillamook County, Ore., thanks to the creative direction of Envoys Phil and Nancy Bogle, the Oregon Summer Food Service program, and People Count! prayers.
Devastated by spring flooding, the North Coast Corps saw its Sunday school membership nose-dive when parents lost work, relationships dissolved from stress, and families were unable to keep focused on the issues of restarting their lives. While fixing meals, delivering bread to dairy farms and trying to locate hay and supplies, the Bogles continued to pray for the dwindling congregation.
A few phone calls revealed the county had about 800 children on the school breakfast/lunch program who would continue to need meals during the summer.
With no federal funding, the Bogles decided to move ahead on the program with a $4,000 grant from Oregon Food Bank for food carriers, milk and fruits. They relied on corps volunteer Jeanine Upshaw’s experience and information on food sources to gather the remaining needed items.
The program took off in a big way, and has now grown to six stops with more than 200 children three days a week. There is an additional lunch served with vacation Bible school and crafts on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
“When Estella comes squealing out to hug the buttons off your shirt while her disabled mother pulls up a chair to listen to the Bible story, or three-year-old Crystal tells you everything she can think of, or Jonathan grins while he remembers gluing a rock to Goliath’s forehead,” says Nancy Bogle “the reaction of the children is a reward in itself.”
These new lives in Christ will serve as a lasting reminder of what prayer can do when People Count! in the lives of the corps officers and their soldiery.
