Portland, OR
August 25-27, 2005

Our fellowship gathering began about noon on Thursday, August 25, 2005.  We met at Alton Collins Retreat Center, Portland, OR for a time of fellowship, sharing, lunch and worship.

The following 13 ministries were represented by 20 people.

• Autumn Years Ministries                                 Chuck Mosher
• Christian Concourse                                         Jerry & Dar Johnson
• Elder Source                                                      Stan Means
• God Cares Ministry                                          Bill Goodrich
• Home Free Ministries                                       Jerry Fagerland
• Love Your Neighbor                                          Dave & Terri Compton
                                                                             Armond Kalesse
• Nursing Home Ministries, Inc                         Grant McAllister
                                                                             Don and Bev Deboer.
• Outreach for Christ to the Nursing Home        Doug Lee
• Phoenix First Special People Ministry              Sharon Henning
                                                                             Cherie Brown
• PARCHE                                                           Buddy Reeve
• SonShine Society                                              Sharon Haakenson
• Titus II Ministries                                            Tom West
• We Care Ministries                                         Gary & Carol Barnes

After dinner on Thursday evening, we went for a walk through the beautiful wooded area of the Collins retreat center. After several minutes of walking… we discovered that Deep Creek wasn’t very ‘deep’, but we had a wonderful walk. Upon returning to our meeting room, we watched the DVD, Compassion I Suppose, now available on loan. After the video we enjoyed a time of fellowship and open discussion until about 9:00 PM.

After breakfast on Friday morning, Bill and Tom shared a devotional and led us in a time of praise to our Lord.

The rest of the morning and the first part of the afternoon was devoted to open discussion regarding our role in evangelism.

Later that afternoon, we broke off into two groups.  One group focused on the topic of “Care Team recruiting and development”. The other group focused on “Chaplaincy recruiting and developing.” Around 5:00 PM, we were blessed to have special guests from the Portland Kitchen Band. They were excellent entertainers, seasoned with a good presentation of their nursing home ministry. After dinner we gathered to share concluding points from our focus groups. Then a bit of discussion on our website, our intake process, and our next gathering. Though this discussion was continued Saturday morning, the concluding points were as follows:

• The website is near completion. God Cares Ministry will maintain the domain, while the website committee will manage it.  Bill asked that each ministry be willing to donate $10 a year to cover website expenses. Checks would need to be made out to God Cares Ministry, and memo should say “CFCCM Website”.
• The intake process that the advisory team developed was very well received by the entire group.  We will begin this method immediately.
• It was decided to have our next gathering (if possible) in Minneapolis MN.  Jerry Fagerland is currently looking into retreat centers.
• It was further decided that we would consistently keep the 3^rd or 4^th week of August as our retreat time.
• We will gather a day earlier, specifically for fellowship.
•  The advisory team, until our next gathering, will be Dar Johnson, Chuck Mosher, Dave Compton, Paul Falkowski, & Jerry Fagerland

We closed our gathering Saturday morning with a wonderful time of communion, led by Dave Compton.

In conclusion, I’d like to mention that we were all very blessed to have Buddy Reeve from England join us. God is really using her and PARCHE Ministries to reach out to the care-center residents in her region. Also, Tom West from Titus II Ministries, is currently in the re-development stages of ministry to care-center residents to the state of Washington.

I have received several very encouraging responses to this gathering.  As we go along, I find that every meeting is different and we learn a little bit more about each other and how to best meet our specific needs.  Though we still have some adjustment to make, we are certainly experiencing a great blessing from God.  I truly know that the residents of North America’s care centers will somehow feast on the fruit of this fellowship.

Purpose Statement:

As a Christ centered fellowship, we are committed to gather to provide encouragement for leaders of care center ministries.  We do this through spiritual renewal, networking, fellowship, and sharing resources.

Respectfully submitted

Bill Goodrich, CFCCM Facilitator