Advocacy and Service Ministries
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church is a Christian faith community called to gather people from diverse backgrounds, working to create a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place enabling all to grow in faith and service in the name of Jesus Christ. We seek to grow our capacity to support and advocate for racial and LGBTQIA+ equity and justice in both Church and in society. In dialogue with one another, we commit ourselves to be a community that reflects openness and understanding, justice and healing for all people. As a community we watch for the surprising ways God shows up in the world, to learn where God is calling us to join in!
Peace and Justice Ministry
The BSLC Peace and Justice Ministry works to support peace and justice at home and in the world.
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Our work includes organizing public educational events, documentary screenings, participating in Interfaith Advocacy Day at our state capitol, showing up at local protests, writing letters to legislators, and engaging in other efforts that lift up human dignity, freedom, justice, and peace. We are especially attentive to issues impacting LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants and refugees, and neighbors experiencing homelessness.
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For more information, please call our church office at 360-254-9243. All are welcome!
Mexico Mission
To connect with the Mexico Mission team, contact the church office 360-254-9243 during regular business hours.
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BSLC has partnered for nearly three decades with Lutheran Border Concern (located in San Diego) to build houses in Tijuana, Mexico, spending a week there each summer. The congregation coordinating efforts in Tijuana is El Divino Salvador, and friendships have developed, spanning the years.
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The Mission
The goal is to build 2-3 simple houses over a week in the summer in Tijuana, according to a plan perfected by Lutheran Concerns. The work can be taxing, but the relationships developed and lives touched (mutually) make this a life transforming experience.
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Who may go?
Anyone in high school or older may participate (youth under 18 do require an accompanying adult), as long as they can withstand the heat and the work demand! This mission trip is not restricted to members of Beautiful Savior, and in fact some years there are more on the team who are not.
Groups and Partnerships
To connect with any small group, contact the church office 360-254-9243 during regular business hours.
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Anti-Racism Book Study/Discussion Group on Zoom. Meets every Sunday at 3:00pm.
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Participation in a Ecumenical Land Stewardship Cohort discernment with consideration of the land’s ancestral connections and neighbors both human and nonhuman members of creation.
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Supporting and affirming the LGBTQIA+ community year round, including having a public installation affirming the reality that all people are valued as whole and beloved to God
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Joining other ELCA congregations, BSLC participates in the annual Vancouver Pride in the Park event, in order to proclaim the belovedness of all in God’s eyes – that God’s “doors” are open to all, always! Active in July.
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Providing space, meals, and cleanup support for the WHO winter shelter program November - March (Winter Hospitality Overflow through the Council for the Homeless)
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Serving as a cooling center when summer heat is extreme, as requested
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Offering space for community meetings, including several 12 step groups, Adult Family Home provider training, a Latinex dance group to practice, an Autism Family Support and Play group, and other meetings and celebrations as requested
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Sharing space with a congregation in formation: Umoumochin Kot Wonip Church for their worship, study groups, and occasional celebrations
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Ongoing support for the houseless population with resourcing and referrals.
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Hosting quarterly Red Cross Blood Drives.
Community Garden
Annual sign-up day in the spring, or sign up during office hours, 9:30am-3:00pm (closed for lunch 12:30-1:00). To make sure you receive notice or for more information, call the office at 360-254-9243 to leave your contact information for the garden coordinator.
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Created in partnership with Keizer, Thrivent Financial, and others, Beautiful Savior hosts Community Garden plots. Not only gardeners enjoy access to growing space. People who live or work nearby enjoy strolling through the gardens as a calming break from the busyness of life.
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Garden plots are available for anyone in the community to “rent” for what is basically the cost of the water used in gardening. In recent years the rate for the season has been $40 for the larger in-ground plots and $30 for the smaller (including some raised) plots.
Gardeners often form relationships, trading gardening tips, watering for one another when vacations or illnesses arise, and sometimes even sharing plants. A shed holds a number of tools for the community and two wheelbarrows for communal use, and cubbies are available for gardeners to leave their own tools if they wish. When donations of mulch, compost, or even soil are received, they are shared.
The annual sign up happens on an evening in the spring, with those who wish to keep their same plots given that first claim to those plots and the rest released for others’ to claim. If the evening signup time does not work, you may stop by Beautiful Savior during office hours, 9:30am-3:00pm (closed for lunch 12:30-1:00). To make sure you receive notice or for more information, call the office at 360-254-9243 to leave your contact information for the garden coordinator.
Lutheran World Relief
Meets Thursdays 10:00am-2:00pm, in the church (quilting room).
A longstanding and committed group of women (men are welcome, too!) sew and tie quilts and create various kits to support refugees and others in need around the world through the ELCA’s national organization, Lutheran World Relief (LWR). This group also creates quilts for the Mexico Mission Team to take with them when they travel to Mexico.
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Don’t know (or want to know!) how to sew? Don’t worry, there are other important tasks to be done!
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Folks are welcome to drop in anytime on Thursdays from 10:00am-2:00pm.
All are welcome to come make a difference while building bonds of community!