How do you strike up a conversation with someone wearing a dog collar?
An Interview with 74 year old street pastor Gail Wells by Pam Hogeweide
Gail Wells is the Executive Director of City Gates Ministry, an organization that serves the homeless and poor in Olympia, Washington. You can contact her at citygates at reachone.com (replace at with @ to get her e-mail address).
Pam Hogeweide is a writer who lives and drinks coffee in Portland, Oregon. She and her family are a part of The Bridge, a church community that seems more like a tavern than a church.
I was running late €¦as usual. My dad, a crusty old man who was raised in the south, once told me, “Girl, you €˜gon be late for your own funeral.” His scolding drawl haunts my head every time I’m late for an appointment, like today.
“Gail, right?” I confirmed as I walked through the door of Fresh Pot, one of Portland, Oregon’s funky coffee joints. I had met her briefly before, but did not trust my memory.
“Yes, hi Pam,” she said, smiling with the same warmth her daughter, Deborah Loyd, also possesses. Deborah, and her husband Ken, co-founded a church here in my beloved Portland called The Bridge. It’s the church my family and I are a part of and it is through Deborah that I first met her mom.
Gail Wells, from Olympia, Washington, enrolled in North Portland Bible College when she was in her late 60 €˜s. “I told my daughter,’ I’ll be 75 by the time I graduate,’” said Gail. Many daughters might have agreed, but Deborah advised her, “Mom, you’re gonna be 75 someday anyway.” And it was this simple wisdom that hooked Gail’s heart to make the commute that for her took four years to earn a two-year associate degree in Christian ministry.
During that time people would ask Gail what she was going to do with her degree. “I don’t know,” she would tell them, “I just know God led me here.” She finally got her marching orders in the very last quarter of Bible school when she heard God say to her: You’re time of ministering in the church is over.
Gail, who had logged many years of ministry inside of the church, and had even had a gig has an associate pastor for a while, soon found herself on the frontlines of reaching out to the homeless. “The first night I went out I was a little intimidated. So I stayed in my car until Phil showed up,” confessed Gail as her bright eyes twinkled from the memory. Phil would be Phil Prietto, the founder of City Gate Ministries (CGM), a faith-based organization that helps people on the street with practical needs. With a commitment to reaching out in love and friendship to the poorest in Olympia, CGM helps people with immediate needs like food, clothing and housing, as well as supporting those who are ready to walk the road of recovery from drug and alcohol abuse. (To read about one couple’s story click here)
CGM regularly goes downtown and makes contact with people who live outside. “We preach in the rain, sun, snow €¦we are like the postman,” jokes Gail who now, nearly two years later, sounds like a seasoned outreach worker. And she is, having recently been brought on staff with CGM as it’s executive director and first-ever paid employee. “God gave me a passion for this.” says Gail. “I was so used to working inside the church and not sure how I was going to do with street people. I found out they are not scary people, but they are human, too.”
I asked Gail if she had ever worked among poor people before. “The closest I came was watching my daughter Deborah and her husband Ken.” The Loyd’s have been connecting to “friends who live outside” for nearly a decade in Portland, and just last fall, in a bold and unorthodox move, Ken walked away from The Bridge to pursue his dream of planting a church started by homeless youth and for homeless youth. He now pastors a church outside that meets weekly under a bridge €¦instead of at The Bridge.
Gail continued, “I’d ask them, €˜How do you strike up a conversation with someone wearing a dog collar?’” Answering with the dead-on wisdom that Deborah is famous for she told her, “Mom, just say, €˜Hi.’”
Gail speaks comfortably about the routine she now moves in with CGM when they go downtown. She describes how the team gathers themselves and whoever else is interested into a circle and the love of God is preached. Sometimes Gail does the speaking. “We call ourselves a church without walls,” she tells me. After that they open up the vans to distribute food and clothing. “We don’t turn anyone away,” she says.
People don’t have to be present to hear the message to get the goods, I ask? Nope, no strings attached. “We are there. We are consistent. The same place every time. They can depend on us.”
I asked Gail about church and salvation and the focus of her work with CGM. Do they have a goal to see converts? “We do want to see people saved, but not just to get them into church for conversion. We want them there for relationships,” she said. Gail described how bringing interested friends from downtown to a church community helped to move that person away from street culture.
Her cell phone rings. I look out the big window facing the street. A gray sky drapes the neighborhood. Another normal Portland day with the ever-present threat of liquid sunshine drizzling down all afternoon. “I can’t help you today, Steffi,” I overhear Gail say and I wonder if it’s a homeless person who’s tracked her down from Olympia. Instead, it turns out to be someone from the Union Gospel mission trying to unload some pizzas. With all the finesse of an experienced food broker she finishes up the call and returns her attention to our conversation.
“Everything in my life has prepared me for this, because God orders my steps,” she says. “I think it’s an awesome thing I am doing, but anybody can do it.”
As our interview winded down I asked Gail how hanging out with down-towners, as she called them, has affected her. The question hung in the air between us as her eyes began to tear up and I felt that familiar Presence who shows up at the most interesting of times. “I’m finding Jesus,” she said. And then, this great-grandmother who graduated from Bible college at 71 and will be turning 74 this year slays me with a quote from U2’s Bono: God is with the poor, and when we are with the poor, God is with us.
I have found a new hero, and when I grow up, I want to be just like Gail.
May 6th, 2007 · 15 Comments
Categories: OA Stories
Pastor David Williams Byangu said
am May 7 2007 @ 1:14 am
I have enjoyed yr article so very much.Am a Pastor from Uganda.Right now here in Porland,OR.We are also involved with Street ministry back home as a Church.
I wouldn’t mind us keeping in touch and sharing more about street ministry.I know that the cultures may be different, but challenges might be the same, therefore there is something we can learn or glean from one another.I leave Portland on 11-05-07 in the morning.We could fix time to meet before then if ok.
Jim said
am May 7 2007 @ 10:05 am
Pastor David
You can email Gail at
citygates @ reachone.com
April Terry said
am May 7 2007 @ 2:55 pm
Pam, Thanks for this interview. It was great. I could really relate to a lot of the things that Gail talks about.
I wish people in general were more engaged in helping those who are less fortunate. it’s a great reminder about stepping forward and living out the great commission.
Pam Hogeweide said
am May 8 2007 @ 12:01 am
yeah, me too, april.
i am especially inspired that she did not lot her age be a barrier to loving on people who “live outside.” and the thing is, gail is very humble about all of it. she was a delight to interview and write about.
Jim said
am May 8 2007 @ 7:13 am
Pam
Tell Gail to read this and leave some response here.
deborah said
am May 8 2007 @ 11:51 am
Gail, who is my mother, is a rare individual. (I am not biased or anything.) She has a learners heart which has allowed her to keep her experience fresh. I have been to Olympia and let me tell you, the poor and homeless adore her because she sees them as equals which gives them dignity. Something that is hard to come by when you are down and out.
Excellent article Pam, thank you for showing us that the world doesn’t always belong to the young, it belongs to the young at heart.
Jim said
am May 8 2007 @ 9:11 pm
Now that will preach
Just Me said
am May 13 2007 @ 10:07 pm
Hi. I was reading the article on Yahoo and it brought me here and I read this blog and it is very interesting. I am always interested in hearing about different spirituality beliefs. I am a Science based Pagan Agnostic. It’s like one who wishes to adhere to Paganism, but allows influence from the beliefs in the world and feels nothing compares to scientific evidence.
’ So, having said that, I work with the public in Vancouver Washington and really enjoy most every minute of it, and learn from all of it. I like to hear the views of people and really enjoy hearing about people giving to other people without preaching to them. I am impressed with people who set aside their interests in converting others and put humanity at the forefront. Let’s face it, being friendly to each other, being a good shoulder to lean on and a listening ear is a dying venue of social conduct. At today’s million mile an hour pace, just waving hello to someone is out of sync with current “don’t look don’t tell” ethics. It is nice to know that Christians and others are still pressing forth to bridge the gaps and cement human relationships with some basic principles of love and respect and charity. Thank you. 
deborah said
am May 14 2007 @ 8:28 am
Hey Just Me…
Good thoughts. As Christians God calls us to be “first lovers.” As in “We love God because he loved us first.” Love involves emulation. If we love God we will become like him/her. We will love people before they have the chance to love us… we will be “First Lovers.” That’s what I like so much about what Gail and people like you do. It makes the world a more beautiful place in which to thrive for those who have missed the benefit of a supporting community.Like my friend Barb Henderson tells me God is most pleased when he/she catches us loving people.
Gail Wells said
am May 14 2007 @ 11:51 am
Wow, thanks for all your kind words, Pam. I am extremely humbled to be numbered among all you awesome people. A lot of God-inspired input went into my own life before I showed up on the street and I have to give credit to Jim and his OTM team for new (to me) ideas about evangelism and their OA’s at same, and to Deborah and Ken for their never tiring and always valued support and encouragement to me personally, and to Phil for sharing with me his beautiful heart of love and compassion for the poor and for teaching me practical, effective, and loving ways to do this ministry.
Besides the dog collar comment, Deborah also counseled me at the outset of this adventure to ask God to take me so far out (of my comfort zone) that I couldn’t find my way back. I did and He did and there is now no thought of looking back. Every person I meet and every situation I have the privilege of addressing is filled with God moments and God interventions. What a life! What a blessing! What a God!
Gail Wells said
am May 14 2007 @ 12:00 pm
Pastor Byangu:
“Something we could learn or glean from each other…”
I would be very interested in meeting and sharing street ministry experiences. Please contact me at 1richlady@comcast.net so we can set up a meeting.
Gail
Gail Wells said
am May 14 2007 @ 12:24 pm
Deborah to Just Me re “first lovers”.
Ditto that. And Ken’s thought that people deserved to be loved just because God created them helps me see the person behind all the stuff. That’s the person God wants us to reach through to. “Whatsoever you do for the least of these, you do for Me,” said Jesus. I’m empowered by the profunidty of that statement. It is an extra-worldly perspective.
kathleen said
am June 10 2007 @ 10:46 pm
Hey Gail,
I know I am way late in this conversation…but do you distribute clothes in a church parking lot on Sunday afternoons?
Gail Wells said
am August 14 2007 @ 5:43 pm
Hi Kathleen.
I know I am way late in answering this. Haven’t been back to this site for a while. (????)
No we don’t do that kind of outreach on Sunday afternoon, but we do this sort of thing on Thursday nights in the park and ride lot behind the Olympia Bus Transit Station. You can’t miss us, we have anywhere up to 125 people hanging around us. Some just want the clothes and food for ???? reasons but we do get to meet them and interact. Hopefully, we find favor with them and they like us and will come back.
Thanks for reading this article.
God bless in all things,
Gail
Justice and Compassion said
am January 28 2008 @ 1:49 am
[...] In May 2007, Off the Map interviewer extraordinaire Pam Hogeweide introduced us to 74 year old great-grandmother and street pastor Gail Wells. Gail is the Executive Director of City Gates Ministries (CGM) in Olympia, Washington, a faith-based organization that helps people on the street with practical needs. You can read the full interview here: How do you strike up a conversation with someone wearing a dog collar? [...]