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.  

QUESTIONS?
Contact a member of the RADICAL HOSPITALITY TEAM: Grace Westbrook, Christa Obold Eshleman, Rod Stafford, Ruth Nisly, Nelly Ascencio, Brenda Zook Friesen, and Glenn Laubaugh

The most engaging speaker during the delegate sessions was Dr. Daniel Carroll. He spoke for two hours and those two hours flew by. He spoke on immigration in the Old Testament. Dr. Carroll reminded us how immigration permeates through the Old Testament. Abraham and Sarah crossed a border for food in Genesis 12.  Joseph is taken and sold in Egypt. Joseph integrates into Egyptian society, is bilingual, and marries an Egyptian (Genesis 41). Over and over God’s people are told to remember when they were slaves in Egypt, to remember how they were strangers in a foreign land. They are not to treat others like the Egyptians treated them. You shall love the stranger, for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt (Deut. 10:19)

~ Rachel Ringenberg Miller