PMC Sunday school class seeks to extend radical hospitality

...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me ..." 
Matthew 25:35 NRSV

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Want to 
learn more?

Feel free to contact Grace Westbrook for more information ([email protected]). 

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During the Fall semester at PMC, 20-30 adults gathered each week for Sunday School to hear the Biblical stories of immigrants and how God instructs us to care for the "stranger" among us.  

Following Mennonite Church USA's Radical Hospitality curriculum, we learned about the many ways the immigration system is broken -- from significant costs to taxpayers that don't improve national security, to the ways children and families are consistently separated ​for weeks, months, even years.

Together we recognized the privileges we have as U.S. citizens and discerned what role we could play in contributing to immigration reform.  We explored how we could respond to all we had learned as individuals and as a class, as well as options for responding as a congregation.  

We have formed a group to organize ongoing efforts to support immigrants, specifically immigrants who have been victims of crimes.  We'll also provide support to immigrants being held in detention centers (both locally and in Tacoma, WA).

​In the coming weeks ​, we'll be sharing more​ about how you can be part of extending radical hospitality and working for immigration reform.  

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Did you know ...

• more immigrants have been deported during President Obama's presidency than any other U.S. president?  (2 million and counting)
  
• the focus on deporting immigrants with a "criminal record" includes people who simply misfiled their paperwork or those who were misled by fraudulent immigration lawyers?
  
• that some of the largest detention centers are for-profit businesses, regularly lobbying Congress for harsher immigration laws that directly benefit their profits?