Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church (SOTH) recently participated in Grace Lutheran Church’s “Grace in the City,” a heat respite project at the Phoenix church.

SOTH volunteers served lunch to 85 guests, providing 36 pizzas, fresh fruit cups and bottled water. The volunteers assembled 100 post-lunch snack sacks with juice, fresh fruit cup, popcorn, Cheerios and 100 sandwiches for guests to enjoy later in the date. They also provided 17 cases of water.

The Heat Respite program at Grace Lutheran is held from June through the end of August. In addition to providing a cool setting in Hope Hall at Grace, the church also helps with clothes, hygiene kits and offer help finding jobs and medical care.

“Our mission during the summer months is to provide a space for heat relief while building community through the sharing of community resources, meals, water and ourselves in a place of being and becoming,” said Sarah Stadler, Grace Lutheran pastor. “Our heat respite program aspires to reach out not only to the physical needs of all those who come through the doors, but to their fullness as human beings.”

“Cloud Covered Streets,” a non-profit organization, brings a mobile unit to the Grace campus to provide guests with showers, laundry facilities and haircuts. The mobile unit comes each Monday.

“Our mission is to shower the streets with love,” said Cloud Covered Streets Executive Director Robert Thornton.