Building Stability, One Step at a Time

Melissa is showing her children what it means to face challenges with resilience and peace.

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Searching for Stability

When newly single mother of four Melissa Studer first heard about Birch Community Services, she wasn’t sure whether the program applied to her. “It’s not like we don’t have money. It’s just that money is really tight.” Becoming the family’s sole provider brought a lot of anxiety, and Melissa had begun looking for ways to create more stability.

At a women’s event where Suzanne Birch, Founder and Executive Director of BCS, was the keynote speaker, Melissa realized Birch could offer the kind of support her family needed. “I just started crying,” she recalls.

As she re-entered the workforce, Melissa decided to pursue a career in massage therapy because it offered both the security and flexibility her family needed. She saved enough to pay the $1,000 school deposit but wasn’t sure how she would cover the rest of the tuition. 

More Than Groceries

At first glance, Birch looks like a food program. Shelves of pantry staples and fresh produce line the warehouse floor. For Melissa, those groceries are only part of the story. “Birch isn’t just giving me food,” she explains. “It’s giving me stability and hope. The money I save on groceries goes straight into paying tuition and building an emergency fund.”

Melissa wasted no time in taking advantage of the financial literacy classes BCS offers, attending them together with her teenage son. They began learning practical steps to manage money as a family and to plan for his college future.

Building a Family Vision

“I knew God would provide, but I didn’t know how. And suddenly it clicked—this was the provision.”

— Melissa Studer

Melissa’s Family Vision centers around independence, resilience, and legacy—values she lives out daily and that contribute to her family’s growing stability. Her goals include building financial independence, saving for a reliable vehicle, and holding steady while raising her four children.

“I want my kids to understand that life can throw you things you didn’t plan for,” she says. “But you always have choices in how you move forward. You can grow through the hard things.” 

With everything she’s learned at Birch, Melissa is well on her way to bringing her Family Vision to life. In keeping with Birch’s cultural value of celebration, Melissa and her family are saving for a special spring break trip for her son’s senior year, a reward for all their hard work along the way. Instead of taking on debt, Melissa is saving tips and spare dollars to fund their trip.

“I have a little savings jar picture posted on the fridge, and I’m coloring it in with highlighters,” she says with a laugh. Her kids are saving their own spending money too. These visual reminders teach them the importance of saving, celebrating, and living within your means.

The Legacy She’s Creating

Each decision Melissa makes teaches her kids about responsibility and creates a foundation that will outlast her time in the program. By modeling resilience, being mindful about money, and pursuing education at this point in her life, Melissa is showing her children what it looks like to shape a future with intention. For her, legacy is not only about financial independence but also about passing on the values of perseverance and peace.

Today she has nearly three months of emergency savings set aside and is on track to graduate debt-free from massage therapy school.

What Birch Supporters Make Possible

Melissa is clear about the role Birch’s in-kind and financial donors play in her growth. “It’s so much more than food. Every donation, every partnership is a way of saying, ‘You are valuable. Your future matters.’ That message keeps me going.”

For Melissa, those moments of provision and finding just what her family needs when she least expects it are a reminder that Birch is more than a place to shop. It’s a community where hope feels tangible and where Melissa continues building the stability she once only hoped was possible.

A Steady Hand in the Warehouse

How a retired aviation professional found purpose, friendship, and a new rhythm.

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Since walking away from a life-changing accident over a decade ago, Keith Marshall kept asking himself a question we all wonder at times: “Why am I still here?” His search for meaning led him to serve others throughout his community.

After retiring from 40 years in aviation and federal service, he had more time to give back. His daughter, a medical professional who often points her patients to Birch as a resource, encouraged him to give volunteering a try.

From the moment he walked in, he knew he had found his place. “Being at Birch feels like part of the answer.” 

Walking the aisles, Keith sees families working hard to get ahead, and for him, it echoes his own story. “When my wife and I first got married, we were making twelve dollars an hour combined. We had debt and a baby right away. I know what it feels like to struggle, and I know what it feels like to work your way out.”

Since February, Keith has logged more than 100 hours in the warehouse, often volunteering two or three days a week. Though he’s helped in every part of the warehouse, lately he can be found in the sort aisle, where donations are unpacked, organized, and prepared for families. “It’s busy, it can be chaotic, but it’s a good kind of busy,” he says. “I don’t need the gym on days I’m here.”

What has surprised him most is the community at Birch. “Everybody is kind. You don’t leave without hearing ‘thank you’ several times,” he says. “The staff, the participants, even other volunteers—there’s appreciation everywhere.”  He’s especially struck by what he sees among participants. “There are families who graduate and still come back to volunteer. That says a lot. People want to give back even when they don’t have to.”

The friendships, the culture of gratitude, and the steady rhythm of giving his time have become part of his everyday life. “I leave tired,” he says, “but it’s the best kind of tired. My heart feels full, and that’s what keeps me coming back.”

In Memory of Barry Birch (4/11/43 - 3/31/15)

Barry Birch, the co-founder of Birch Community Services, passed away on March 31st, 2015.

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Barry served as the Executive Director of BCS for its first thirteen years and stayed on as a key volunteer after his “retirement” in 2005.  Barry loved to see a spark of generosity result in blessing families in need.  He loved to drive BCS trucks to pick up product donations around the Northwest and, most particularly, loved the people he met in the process.  He richly loved people with a compassionate and gentle spirit as he himself had been loved.  Barry was a faithful steward of the BCS donation hotline for over two decades and could often be found in the warehouse, praying for someone.

At the age of 40, Barry lost nearly everything as a result of selfish choices and addictive behavior.  God placed special people in his life for that dark time and held him accountable and responsible to surrender his life to God and make better choices.  Little did he know that this accountability and responsibility would become a business model for him and Suzanne eight years later when they received a bag of squished bread on their front porch and passed it on to three families who were deciding between feeding their children or paying their electric bill.  God uniquely matched their abilities with their responsibilities. You can learn more about the history of BCS here.

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Media about Barry’s life

The Oregonian
A life in two acts: Birch Community Services co-founder discovered redemption in a loaf of bread

The Gresham Outlook
Birch Community Services Co-Founder, Barry Birch

The House of David

In November 1995, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Suzanne Birch, wrote the following letter with her husband, Barry Birch, as a reflection on the origins of what is now Birch Community Services.

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The Story behind our home is bittersweet and unforgettable.  We share this with you to encourage you in your struggles, during those dark moments when God seems to be so far away.

When Barry and I were married nine years ago, we made a commitment to God and each other to be debt-free. This resulted from the struggles we had been through, each of us carrying lots of baggage into our relationship from past bad choices. This included a substantial debt that I had remaining from extensive problems during my divorce, and we proceeded to chip away at that debt. God graciously gave Bear a huge jump in his income, and within ten months $13,000 was paid in full.  As soon as that was paid, Bear’s business (he was self-employed) took another turn, and we were back at our previous income level.  We then began to save for a home, as our no-debt commitment included the purchase of a home. As we saved $500, houses went up $2000. It seemed like a hopeless endeavor, and at times we questioned the commitment made years before.

My brother David was living in Portland during this time, working as a nurse. He had bought a split-level home and moved my mom into it to give her security. He enjoyed being a home owner and was forever fixing and updating the house. He encouraged us to do the same, and as we explained this bizarre commitment we had made, he shook his head in disbelief. After all, no one tries to buy a house for cash; it’s a poor use of one’s money and impossible anyway. When we explained that our God, who had capably supplied the money to get us out of debt in those first ten months, was also capable of supplying whatever it took for a house, Dave was convinced we had stepped off the deep end. He had no personal relationship with Christ and had not experienced His mercy and love in his own life, as we had. Dave humored us but also respected our decision and our faith in this powerful God. He had married in 1989, and after several years, the marriage was deeply troubled and floundering, and Dave was struggling. He took a job working as an air nurse for Critical Air Nursing, based out of San Diego. He would fly south for two-week stretches, working different air transports for critically ill patients from one hospital to another. He loved it, but the two-week-on, two-week-off shifts didn’t help his crumbling marriage, and in early March 1993 Dave came over to talk. He had filed for divorce, a mutual agreement between him and his wife, and he was feeling pain and frustration. He believed he would head in a different direction, move to Seattle and get his Physician’s Assistant degree. He was hurting and we hurt for him. We told Dave about the comfort and support God had given us in our times of pain. Bear and I shared the hope of eternity in Christ and the faithfulness of Him. We encouraged Dave to seek Him out and Dave listened openly, asking questions and nodding in agreement. I gave him a book I had just finished, “A Poor Man’s Proof for the Existence of God”, and Dave, who always teased us before, willingly took it to read during his next two-week shift. When he left, tears in his eyes, the three of us hugged and reaffirmed our love for each other. It was a very special time. Several days later Dave called. He was leaving town the next day but wanted to let me know he had been reading the book and found it easy and enjoyable.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH… we had unintentionally started a gleaning program. A friend had told us of bread going to waste at different organizations. We knew of three or four families who could use it and began picking it up on an on-call basis from Union Gospel Mission. Soon UGM gave our name to the Blanchet House, who gave our name to NW Medical Teams, etc., and those three or four families gave our name to their sisters who were out of work and their neighbors who were struggling. We had buns on our sofas, bread in the entry way, boxes on our dining room table. We had no garage in our rental house and no place to put the donations we received. We were excited and perplexed and began to pray about the direction God had for us. What could we possibly do? On March 3, 1993 I was particularly confused and frustrated and asked God to make it perfectly clear to us what He wanted. When I got home from work, I shared that prayer with Bear, and he read to me Oswald Chamber’s devotional (My Utmost for His Highest) for that day:

Feed my Sheep. . . John 21:17

The message was clear and to the point, and as we read Chamber’s explanation of the verse, we knew we were right where God wanted us, no matter how unreasonable it seemed at the time.

Friday, March 12, was a beautiful spring morning, and my mom’s call didn’t fit the scenario. She was hysterical and panicky. . . the plane was lost. What plane? Critical Air’s flight from Bermuda Dunes, California had not returned to base the night before. They were sending search planes over the desert. Bear went to pick up my mom, and we spent the morning in prayer and fear. We sat in the kitchen and I opened my Bible, asking God for a word – – not necessarily whether Dave was dead or alive but a word of hope.

My reading finally led me to Deuteronomy 32:10-12:

In a desert land he found him,
 in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him:
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.
The Lord alone led him:
no foreign god was with him.

What did this mean? I could see in my mind the eagle, pushing her babes out of the nest and seeing them fall, only for her to swoop down and catch them before they hit ground. Did God swoop down and catch Dave out of the plane? Was he there with Dave?

At 2:00 we received the call:  the plane had been found. It was a non-survivable crash, and the pilot and two nurses aboard were killed. They had delivered their patient and were on the way back to base when the tail fell off the plane, causing an immediate desent, crashing and rolling into a ridge of mountains along the desert edge. We were devastated and began to deal with our grief. Our biggest agony was in not knowing Dave’s eternal status: did he call out for God in those last moments of his life? Had he read the book we gave him and made a commitment on his own? I prayed that God would give me peace in NOT knowing and the grace to be content knowing God was in control. It was difficult, and there seemed to be no answers. We made plans for the memorial service and began to see God’s hand. Dennis, Dave’s insurance agent and good friend, a Christian, called with his consolations. He had been sharing Christ with Dave, and he, too, was concerned. We found the book I had given to Dave, with no marker. Had he finished it? My oldest brother, Sheldon, called on Sunday. Had I spoken to Dennis? Did he say anything? Shel explained that Dennis hadn’t told us everything. A week before Dave was killed he had visited Dennis and changed the beneficiary on his life insurance to me. We were stunned and overwhelmed. We wanted Dave back. It almost made the hurt worse.

We made it through the memorial service and began tying up loose ends. The insurance company needed a death certificate, and we requested one. We began praying about God’s plan for Dave’s money. The responsibility was awesome. We believed that Dave’s insistence for us to buy a home was provided for in this gift. We knew that he would want his mom taken care of and the rest of his family to benefit also. As we prayed, God gave us direction, and we made plans.

When the death certificate arrived, Bear and I stood together and read it line by line. David A. Edner…date of death, March 11, 1993 … place of death, Chiriaco Summit, Eagle Mountain…

Did God swoop down and save David for eternity? We cannot be sure, but we believe He has given us that hope, and our blessed Hope is what sustains us. There are no coincidences with Him.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.        
Hebrews 11:1

You have seen the fruits of David’s gift to us. As we looked for a home to purchase, we asked God for a specific list of things,

if He approved:

• Four bedrooms (one for an office, one for a guest room)

• Two bathrooms

• A fireplace

• A garage for gleaning

• A purchase price of $80,240 (The balance we had left after we spent the rest of Dave’s money with God’s direction)

He gave us:

• Five bedrooms (an extra for Andy)

• Three bathrooms

• Two fireplaces

• An extra-wide insulated garage

• A family room for entertaining

• A purchase price of $80,500 (Okay, we went over a bit.)

You can see that God provides abundantly and beyond what we could hope for. That is why we do not worry about the warehouse situation. When He is ready, and if it is His plan, we will have it.

The sign above our front door gives credit to those who have made our home, and your gleaning environment, possible: to my brother David, who we love and miss, and to Jesus Christ, descended from the line, or house, of King David, our Provider and Everlasting  Hope. Praise Him!

And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Titus 2:11-14