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Advisory board disaster services committee serves at Portland ceremony.
by Chris Mitchell, Captain –
Portland’s newly formed Disaster Services Committee of the Metropolitan Advisory Board, along with local Salvation Army personnel, planned and implemented an event this past Memorial Day at Willamette National Cemetery. Salvationists, employees, board members and local volunteers served approximately 3,000 donuts (provided free of charge by Franz Bakery in Portland) and approximately 7,000 bottles of water (purchased at a generously discounted rate from a local Safeway store) from a Salvation Army disaster canteen. Members of the Portland Tabernacle Band provided patriotic hymn tunes.
One of the volunteers made the event especially meaningful when he asked Divisional Commander Major Donald Hostetler to pray over an Iraqi flag that was sent to him by friends serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Members of that unit had signed the flag, and Hostetler prayed for their safety as well as God’s sovereignty over the circumstances all military personnel and citizens of Iraq face on a daily basis.
