How Gung Ho Ministires got started!
In January of 2010 Linda Eaton and Tanya Hawkins began to act on their vision of feeding the homeless on the streets of Portland Oregon. They teamed up with the Union Gospel Mission 2 times a month and served the homeless with coffee, sandwiches, and hygiene kits. By the end of 2010 Tanya and Linda had people from their church (Portland Christian Center) showing interest in serving the homeless. By the beginning of 2011 they had a team of 4-6 volunteers ready to help for each street visit.
In may of 2011 Linda and Tanya made the homeless outreach official by starting Gung Ho Ministries. Linda’s focus would be to transitional housing for homeless vets and Tanya’s focus would be the coordination of the street ministries.
By the middle of 2011 there was a need for sandwich supplies, socks, and hygeine products. Tanya Hawkins received donations for a large garage sale from her home to help the homeless.A family from her church were moving to a smaller home and were down sizing, and they donated 2 U-Haul truckloads of household items to the cause. Tanya and her Husband held the biggest garage sale of the neighborhood. Even the neighbors began to get excited about the vision Gung Ho Ministries had. During the garage sale neighbors began bring more donations. There were still items left over at the end of the sale. Tanya held 3 more garage sale from her home and now had funds for feeding the homeless. The only problem was there were still piles of womens clothes left over. The mens clothes were more suitable for the streets. Tanya and Linda began to look around for a possible location for a clothing store. They prayed about it and left it the the Lord. With-in a month of the last garage sale they were talking with the owner of a space for lease. By mid-October they were opening the doors of the GHM Boutique. The funds raised will help Gung Ho Ministries reach their goals for the transitional housing.