This past holiday season PMC shared many gifts with each other! Every year we do an Advent Tree to gather gifts for local organizations doing good work in Portland. This year we brought gifts for Street Roots, which is an organization in Portland that publishes a weekly social justice newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness and poverty to earn an income. Over the years, PMC has connected with Street Roots in various ways, and each Sunday, vendors Nathan and Kristina join us to sell papers. For our Advent Tree, we gathered gifts of things that Street Roots asked us to donate, supplies for the vendors they work with who are experiencing homelessness. This included things like: gloves, socks, hand warmers, hats, ponchos, cough drops, and sleeping bags. PMC was quite generous! Take a look at the photos of the tree before and after. I just dropped off all these things at the Street Roots office in downtown Portland, so check out a picture of our gifts given.

PMC also did a special offering on Christmas Eve with money going toward the relief, development and peacemaking work of Mennonite Central Committee amidst the war in Gaza. MCC is providing, to the extent possible, emergency relief with existing partners in Gaza, distributing locally purchased food packages, hygiene items and bedding as well as cash transfers to families in need. MCC is also working to help children cope with the trauma. And, Kathy and Frans Van der Horst performed a program of holiday stories and songs. They took an offering at the show, and that money was added to the total sent to the MCC Gaza crisis response.

​Additionally, many people donated their time to advocate for ceasefire and peace in Israel-Palestine. Esther Nelson, Lisa Hughes, and Paul Reid worked with the Mennonite Action group to plan a trip and letters to Oregon senators and representatives. Over 30 PMCers from across the Portland Metro area held a peace service protest at Rep. Suzanne Bonamici’s office in Beaverton City Hall on December 19. They sang hymns, and shared their personal stories of deep grief and mourning for the Palestinians and Israelis killed in this war. The group urged Rep. Bonamici to sign on to a “Ceasefire Resolution.” 

Finally, a gift to all from PMC carolers! We gathered for a Holiday “living room” Hymn sing on Dec. 16, and enjoyed lots of holiday treats and cookies. We shared community together with a casual gathering and had lots of fun singing together. We sang our favorite Christmas songs and recorded them to send to others as “video carols.” Hope you enjoy!

In response to the countless souls in our world who are living under the duress of war and fleeing their homes, PMC focused our Advent giving on assisting refugees here in Portland as well as abroad.  In this time of national fear of strangers, we reflect on the fact that Mary and Joseph were refugees in Egypt.
 
PMC partnered with Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees (SOAR) here in Portland to welcome 4 recently arrived refugee families by providing them with household goods and clothing.  PMCers were invited to pick donation tags off our Advent giving tree and by December 27th, the Old Chapel was overflowing with items!  On New Year’s Eve, LeRoy and Shirley Chupp helped take the items to the SOAR office, where they were delivered to the families by case workers.  At our Christmas Eve service,  a generous offering of over $26,000 was given to Mennonite Central Committee’s efforts to provide support, shelter and supplies to families in Syria, Iraq and other war-torn countries.  

Thank you to everyone who donated items this year!  May God bless our efforts to welcome the stranger and seek peace in our world.