Farmer’s Market Farmer’s Market

He moved to Newport WA to be near his dad, an aging physician. From there he worked on large cabins building decks counters railings furniture and other high end wood items. Donnie also liked being in the woods since he is an avid outdoorsmen.

Several years ago, he was bitten by a spider and had a severe allergic reaction. It caused severe skin rashes and internal problems for him. Spe-cialists were brought in to treat him at a local hospital. After returning to his house in the woods, complications set in with his kidney’s and his body shut down. He went into a semi-comatose state and passed out alone in his cabin. He wasn’t found for two days.

When we invited the neighbor-hood to our church for a meal and conversation, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. A year ago I would have told you that most street people are criminals, drug addicts, severe alcoholics or men-tally deranged. I’m finding out those descriptions are accurate for half the people who come in. A great percentage are people who have hit some kind of wall in life and could not keep going. I’d like to introduce you to — Donnie Covert.

Donnie and his dog Delilah have been coming for a long time. We recently had a great conversation about his life. Donnie used to be a phenomenal woodworker and glass artist.. As you can see by the pictures. At the height of his ca-reer, hotels and casino’s in Las Vegas demanded his work.

Guess Who’s Coming To Church?!

Special points of interest:

> Glass for the

sanctuary?

> From Homeless

to Hope

> Blooms Day

Minute In Order

To Win It

> Baking Time

Again

> Comfort during

grief

212 South Division

St.. Spokane, WA,

Zip 99202

Phone

509-747-2818

Inside this issue:

More of Donnie Covert’s story

2

Donnie’s Art 3

God of Second Chances

4

Blooms Day

Blast 5

Baby Blanket

Ministry 6

Farmer’s Mar-

ket Volunteers 6

The GrapeVine

May 2010 YEAR 121 - Issue 5

212 South Division, Spokane, WA. Zip: 99202 Phone: 509 -747-2818 E-mail: Office@fccspokane.org / Rob@fccspokane.org

People Accepted! Lives Changed!

Year #121

Issue #5

state has demanded the church pay property taxes for housing the farmer’s market. The farmers paid the tax last year amounting to over $4,000.

First Covenant will still participate in the market. E very year , between $2,000—$3,00 are brought in through this work to sup-port church ministries. Every

The Market is set to open, but this year, rather than being in our parking lot, they have moved to the grassy park across the freeway on 4th Ave. This decision was made in part because 2nd Avenue was scheduled to be under construction this summer. Rumor has it that those plans have now been post-poned. In addition, the

Page 6

Tuesday and Friday Frances Pierce will be baking and is still looking for more volun-teers to join her team. She also needs people to bag and label the items and there are duties needed working the booth as well on Wednesdays and Fridays. If you can help or would like to join this team, Please contact Frances Pierce.

The Baby Blanket Ministry kets. They select the color they want and the babies are presented to them in the blankets. They are kept as keepsakes of their child.” At this time, the hospital is in need of gender specific blan-kets – pinks, blues, and pur-ples.

It is amazing to see how our church has responded to this need by providing over 40 blankets since the begin-ning of this year. We had so many flannel blankets that we have expanded our minis-try to provide baby blankets to the Evangelical Covenant Church World Missions pro-

The Baby Blanket Minis-try at First Covenant pro-vides members of our church with an avenue to serve the Spokane commu-nity by showing God’s love and compassion to families who have stillborn babies at Sacred Heart Hospital. A group of women who attend our church and a few who don’t, have been making crocheted, quilted, and flannel baby blankets for this ministry.

Pastor Michelle Crosby at Sacred Heart Hospital says “the families are really appreciative of these blan-

gram - the Congo Medical Ministries. This ministry provides medical supplies of bandages, gauze squares and layettes to hospital staff in the Congo, where resources are sparse. Covenant women have been providing rolled bandages and stitched layettes to the Congo for over 65 years.

If you would like more information, please contact Maria Brooks at 509-413-6342. I would like to thank you all for supporting this ministry and we give God all the glory. Your sister in Christ, - Maria Brooks

Dozens of people walking by asked what we were doing and when they heard the story of our outreach to the poor they cheered us on giving us a proverbial pat on the back. Men from our church who were out early patrolling the parking lot found themselves giving away tons of literature about our church and we collected over $140 from people passing by who just wanted to support our out-reach efforts to the down and out in our community.

Many of our regular church people stayed away that day feeling out of place and unable to contribute. We assure you that anyone can be a part of loving the poor. If you aren’t sure what to say or do, ask any of our regular workers who will be glad to introduce you to safe people for conversation or find a place to work behind the scenes helping out!

Paul said “Forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Jesus Christ.” Phil 3:13-14

Rather than be a burden to his father, he choose to come to Spokane and live in a shelter. He misses working with his hands though. We have begun talking about hav-ing him redo the windows in our sanctuary which are in terrible need of repair. He says,

”I’ve Been thinking about your window situation, I am sure I can help. I have also had some design Ideas pop in to the old head, more than one so it would be worth talking about. How about asking the congre-gation about it?, What would they want?, maybe get suggestions. I have a knack for emulation, could combine many different ideas into one cohesive piece. I'll tell you a secret, I have always wanted to do glass for a church, never had the opportunity. The way I see it, these skills are gifts from God, I would like to glorify the Lord by the use of them. I can think of no better way.”

So folks—take a look at Donnie’s glass art work on the next insert page and let us know what you think. - Pastor Rob

Page 5 YEAR 121 - Issue 5

Blooms Day Blast!

Page 2 The GrapeVine

Donnie’s Story —continued

Our live outdoor band drew dozens of people from around the neighborhood and pastor Rob played nu-merous “Minute To Win It” games with the locals offer-ing prizes for their success. The games were simple but all were timed for 60 sec-

onds. Throw a playing card into a water melon half getting it to stick, stack 36 plastic cups in a pyramid, shoot six empty pop cans off of shelf using rubber bands and other fun games kept the crowd laughing and cheering for some time. As prizes we gave away back-packs, sleeping bags, flash-lights, water bottles, and many other useful items.

Bloomsday is one of the most beloved events hosted in Spokane. Unfor-tunately, for our church it’s always been a frus-trating Sunday. Thousands of out-of-towners con-verge on downtown to run and usually our parking lot is full by 7:00 am, leaving no room for people coming to worship.

Last year we tried of-fering valet parking with an incentive to get people inside the church after-ward while we held a spe-cial worship service.

This year we decided to take it one step further and brought the worship service outside while of-fering a community wide BBQ to the poor. We gave away 180 hamburgers and 90 hotdogs and still turned people away near the end of the day because we were out of food.

When they got him to the hospital, brain scans showed damage from being de-prived of oxygen. In his own words, “My brain looked like Swiss cheese with holes in it.” This damage caused him to have seizures. The seizures mean he cannot drive or work long hours. That’s where the dog, Delilah comes in. She is a specialty dog, trained to sense and warn him when he’s about to go into a seizure,. Another fall out of the brain damage is that Donnie cannot access his memories. He’s lost many years of his life story. He goes online using Face Book to find people who used to know him. He uses their stories and pictures to unlock and rebuild his memories.

Donnie was stunned one day when his doctor asked him if he remembered his daughter. Donnie didn’t ever remember being married. The doctor took the initia-tive to find the daughter and reintroduce him. Donnie told me he would love to talk to his ex-wife and see what happened in their lives since he does not remember any of it. But she isn’t willing. Since he is such a kind and gentle person, I asked him if he used to be a jerk. He isn’t sure, but says he knows he wasn’t a GREAT guy. He’s looking forward to simply becoming a better man from this point forward. He reminds me of all of us. As the Apostle

Donnie & 2 others built these decks

A Wine Rack He Built In Vegas

Union Gospel Mission & House of Charity Both donate food to us helping in our efforts

He designed & built this glass ceiling

Sandblasted glass he says it’s easy

Two views of a wood and glass railing he designed and built

An airbrushed & sandblasted piece

Airbrushed Glass Glass and iron Table

Page 3 The GrapeVine

see that one of the girls singing on the stage was the sister of one of the only friends Katy had made dur-ing her first two months of School in Spokane. We only have two high school kids in our church, and they both attend school more than 10 miles away. What are the odds that she would walk into a downtown urban church, having only two high school kids in the congrega-tion, in a state she’s barely lived in and find a friend who really lives more than 10 miles away. That was God watching out for her.

Katy stayed through the service, helped in the kitchen with our feeding program and then went home to stay with the Bry-ceson family. She is working out her life choices and has decided to try the camp job in Minnesota in an attempt to reconcile her family. Please keep her in your prayers.

Page 4 YEAR 121 - Issue 5

God Hunts Us Down To Give Second Chances person himself, wandered down to House of Charity before church on Sunday. He spotted Katy in the crowd and went up to her telling her “You don’t belong here— you need to get out of this place”. He invited her to come up to the church to find help.

Katy’s biological mother was a prostitute in San Francisco, the mom who dropped her off adopted her when she was eight. Two years ago her adopted father died suddenly. In a sudden and surprise move, mom relocated the family from California to Washing-ton right after that. Katie found herself thrust into a new school her junior year. She only made four or five friends in a month or two before conflicts with mom found her shipped off to a boarding reform school in Utah. She’s stayed there for almost two years. Graduat-ing high school and return-ing to Spokane a little over a month ago.

Now, scared, alone, broke and looking for hope. Katy came to church from Thom’s invite. Walking in to church she was stunned to

Katy walked into our church the last Sunday of May, dazed, confused and scared. On the Thursday night beforehand she had gotten into an argument with her mom because she didn’t want to take an eight week summer camp job her mom had lined up for her. The argument ended

with her mom informing her that she had 15 min-utes to pack her things and get out or she would call the cops and have her eighteen year old daughter thrown out. An hour later Katy found herself with a small school back pack and two plastic bags full of clothes checking in to Hope House, a shelter for homeless women, many of whom are hardcore meth or heroine addicts, prosti-tutes, or suffering severe mental disorders. Wel-come to the World!

Our volunteer sound-man, Thom who has spent some time as a homeless

People Accepted Lives Changed