Oasis Home Church in Burien, Washington, Ends Hosting of Sunnydale Village Encampment

The pastor of Oasis Home Church wrote a letter to the editor of The B-Town Blog about the church’s experience hosting the Sunnydale Village encampment in partnership with the Burien Community Support Coalition. The letter notes that many people had asked the church to share its account, and that the author could speak only for the church, not for the wider neighborhood or the camp’s residents and staff.

The church’s leadership team agreed to host a sanctioned encampment, a decision that came with many unknowns. The letter notes that such encampments have operated in Seattle for more than twenty years, but asks how the model would work in Burien, in the church’s neighborhood, with a new coalition. The church made its decision in November.

On a Sunday, the congregation read Matthew 14, the account of Jesus feeding more than 5,000 people who had come to hear Him teach. The letter says that as evening approached, the disciples noted that the area was remote, that food was not readily available nearby, and that nearby villages could not meet the crowd’s need. The disciples suggested sending the crowds away to buy food, but Jesus responded differently. The letter describes the disciples having only a small amount of food, and says the crowd was fed with what they had.

The pastor writes that the church felt it was being presented with a need among vulnerable people in the community who had nowhere to go. The church is not large and has limited resources, but it has a back parking lot with some outlets and a water spigot. The church welcomed residents and coalition staff onto its property and tried to share what it had. Showing hospitality to people in need, the church said, was its response to what it believed God was inviting it to do (Matthew 25:35).

The letter acknowledges that the church would change some things, and that it has received criticism from people who disagreed with the decision. The author states that, if given the choice again, the church would host the encampment again.

The church ended its arrangement, it says, because it had made a promise to the neighborhood that its 90-day agreement with the Burien Community Support Coalition would be honored, and it is choosing to keep that commitment. The letter says the decision to end the agreement was as difficult as the decision to host. It states that there is currently no place for the encampment to go, and that residents the church had come to know are back in a place of instability.

Source: Read the original report