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Immigration reform hits home for Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference

Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference welcomed members of Mennonite Church USA’s Executive Board and the Mennonite Mission Network Board of Directors to an evening worship service held in conjunction with PSMC’s conference in Los Angeles in February. Pictured, from left, are PSMC members Drew Asante and pastor Femi Fatunmbi of Royal Dominion Family Chapel in Los Angeles with Mission Network board member and Bethel College Mennonite Church pastor Heidi Regier Kreider of North Newton, Kan.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Irene Mendoza knows what it’s like to live in the United States without proper documentation. It’s a situation that helps the now-legal citizen relate to fellow Mennonites in Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference.

Her mother left Mexicali when she was young, and Irene eventually gained amnesty and citizenship. Now she’s not just a key leader in her congregation, says conference minister for Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference Jeff Wright; Irene is an important asset for her area conference and Mennonite Church USA as well.

As one of Mennonite Church USA’s 21 area conferences, Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference (PSMC) made a plea when it met with the denomination’s Executive Board in February for help working against pending legislation, H.R. 4437, that would potentially criminalize church workers offering assistance to undocumented immigrants.

“There’s a fair amount of apprehension about the future,” Wright says. “People recognize that change is coming and that in this climate it’s probably not going to be change that liberalizes immigration policies. People are concerned.”

So why is this southern California, Nevada and Arizona-based conference so concerned? Of the area conference’s 3,293 members, 55 percent were born outside the United States. Wright also uses the general assumption and “conservative estimate that at any given time up to one out of four new immigrants in southern California would be without status.”

Regardless of whether that’s an accurate representation of Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference’s membership, it still means there are a lot of people without status to minister to in the region, Wright says. It’s a significant reason for concern with H.R. 4437.

“It means that every time I lead a communion service, every time I help dish out a meal at a church soup kitchen I should be asking for people’s Green Cards, and I’m not going to do it,” Wright says. “It puts me in a position of having to choose between my allegiance to the kingdom of God and my allegiance to my country, and I don’t like to be put in those positions very much. It makes me angry.”

Advocating for fair immigration reform is nothing new for PSMC; conference leaders and members have been working at an interfaith community organizing effort called “One L.A.” They’ve also been working with the West Coast Mennonite Central Committee to help spread word to undocumented immigrants encouraging them to get their papers filed. PSMC congregations also are working on grassroots efforts to help immigrants in their communities.

“I know and love these people,” Wright says. “They need the kind of justice that I get because I was born far enough north of the Rio Grande River. We’re all immigrants from somewhere, some of us are just lucky enough to have the right passports.”

He says many Americans, including fellow Mennonites, forget their immigrant stories. There are also those who turn a blind eye to the immigrants in their communities. To combat racism and unjust policies, people need to make immigration reform a personal issue, Wright says.

The Mennonite Church USA Delegate Assembly in July 2003 passed a Statement on Immigration linking the denomination’s European immigrant roots to biblical passages calling on Christians to welcome strangers. It also refers to the contributions immigrants make to the American economy and the discrimination they face.

“We affirm individuals and churches that are already working against poverty and fear in immigrant communities,” the statement says. “We affirm those who are speaking to the government about our nation’s unjust immigration policies. … Because of our nation’s abundance; because God has called us to welcome the sojourner; and because of the richness immigrants bring to the Mennonite Church USA, we commit ourselves to action with and on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters.”

In response to the Statement on Immigration and PSMC’s request for assistance, Executive Leadership staff worked with Mennonite Central Committee staff to create resources encouraging congregations and area conferences to contact lawmakers regarding H.R. 4437 that were distributed in early March. In addition to contacting lawmakers and advocating for legislative change, Wright says there are other things – such as supporting interfaith efforts and getting to know immigrants – Mennonites can do to address immigration issues in their communities.

“I don’t want (people) going away feeling like the church in southern California just wants the border open and undefended,” Wright says. “That’s not it, the issue is our economy – no matter how ‘secure’ our border is – our economy, our way of life, rightly or wrongly, is built on immigration. So rather than penalize individuals and penalize churches that are trying to help individuals, let’s quit trying to blame the immigrant for the economic system they have no control over.”

Immigration Statement encourages actions

• Build relationships with newcomers in our communities. Facilitate the mutual sharing of immigrants’ stories and contributions in our churches and neighborhoods.
• Plan congregational learning tours in our communities, including immigrant neighborhoods, churches and workplaces, as well as government offices that serve immigrants.
• Partner with immigrant congregations to plan church services or community events.
• Offer church facilities and volunteers for documentation services, English classes, ethnic celebrations or other outreach programs.
• Engage in mutual aid to offer food, shelter, clothing and other resources to undocumented and documented immigrants.
• Learn about issues affecting immigrants by reading newspapers or magazines, joining national immigration rights organizations or contacting church agencies that work with immigration issues.
• Join study tours to the U.S./Mexico border, refugee camps or detention centers to learn more about U.S. immigration and refugee policies.
• Advocate for just and humane policies for immigrants and refugees by contacting local, state and national elected officials.

The Mennonite Church USA Statement on Immigration is available online.

Prayer shawls help knit lives of Gulf States women back together

Rebecca Sommers, board president for Mennonite Women USA, gives a prayer shawl to Dot Miller, president of Gulf States Mennonite Women, during MW USA’s annual resource gathering for leaders in Sarasota, Fla., Feb. 24 to 25. The shawl was knit with yarn and prayers to show solidarity for Hurricane Katrina victims. At this year’s annual meeting, called Preparing, Resourcing, Encouraging, Praising, 35 MW USA conference leaders met to garner resources for their work with women. On the table next to Sommers and Miller is a gift bag with 185 gift cards, in amounts of $10 and $20, for Miller to take back with her to share in Gulf States. These will be distributed by the leaders in Gulf States Conference and Mennonite Central Committee. – Laurie Oswald Robinson

MERIDIAN, Miss. (MW USA) – After months of unraveling from Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in August 2005, women in Gulf States Mennonite Conference experienced how prayers of God’s people are helping knit their lives back together.

Ninety women from the hurricane-ravaged areas in southern Louisiana and Mississippi met Feb. 25 at Pine Lake Fellowship Camp in Meridian for a retreat, “Wrapped in God’s Love.” They experienced healing and comfort as they worshipped, shared their grief and received 170 prayer shawls, knitted and prayed over by women across Mennonite Church USA who wanted to show solidarity in time of loss.

Elaine Good, past president of Mennonite Women USA (MW USA) and coordinator of the prayer shawl effort, brought the gifts on behalf of MW USA. It organized the project, “Wrapped in God’s Love,” as part of its Sister-Link program. Sister-Link projects connect women’s groups and individual women in relationships to meet needs and strengthen the church locally and globally.

“This shawl is the most beautiful reminder of how much God loves us, and how much God’s people love us,” says Donna Duplessis, who lost her home in the hurricane and is a member of the badly-flooded Lighthouse Fellowship in Buras, La.

“It always amazes me how the hearts of people so far away are tugged for the hurting and how much they care and want to provide comfort and support. “Every morning since the retreat, I take the shawl down from where it’s draped on my closet door and wrap it around me. When I wear it, it is easier to pray and to feel calm.”

During her worship leading at the retreat, Donna shared her own journey, which included the devastation of her childhood fishing community in the Plaquemines Parrish, a county in southern Louisiana outside of New Orleans. It was one of the most hurricane-ravaged areas and the region where Lighthouse, one of the hardest hit congregations in Gulf States Conference, is situated.

In a concluding worship service, Duplessis and other participants received their shawls from Good and Elaine Maust, retreat speaker and co-pastor of Jubilee Mennonite Church in Meridian. The two women wrapped the shawls around the recipients’ shoulders with hugs and blessings. Many of the women’s faces shone with tears as their pained eyes softened and their tense shoulders relaxed.

“It was such a privilege to be there, seeing how grateful these women were,” Good says. “I want to say thank you for every one of those prayers and every one of those stitches will give much courage and hope to the women who received them.”

Good traveled long and hard to bring the love gifts to the women. She and her husband Leon lugged 160 shawls – attached with personal notes and addresses from the knitters – in the trunk and back seat of their car. They drove hundreds of miles from their home in Litiz, Pa., to Mississippi. The MW USA groups from Lancaster Mennonite Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference provided the travel expenses for the Goods.

Women from 14 states sent shawls to Good, who received her request of 150 long before the Jan. 31 deadline, and she had to turn some away. The shawls came from 14 states, including Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Ten shawls from Texas also came directly to Maust.

Maust encouraged the women to grasp new hope both through the prayers of those who knit the shawls and through David’s prayers in the Psalms. She led two sessions, focusing on stories of how David – hunted by Saul – cried honestly before God. Her texts included Psalm 126, which speaks of those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy; and Psalm 56, which speaks of how God puts our tears in a bottle.

“If any of you are like me, the last six months you have been sowing in tears, cooking for work groups in tears, listening to people’s stories in tears,” said Maust, whose congregation became a Red Cross service center in the aftermath of the storm.

“Sowing is for patient people, and that is who we are. We are like those who dream. We are those who sow in tears but will reap in joy. ... I imagine David being in a prison in Gath, lying on a cot with tears pouring down his face. And yet he could sense God was kneeling down at his cot, catching his tears. Our tender, gentle God can do anything he pleases, and yet he is tender enough to catch our tears. They are on record.”

After speaking for part of each session, Maust invited the women to form into small groups for sharing and prayer. Mel, a 78-year-old shared how she lost everything twice – once to Hurricane Camille and once to Katrina. She now lives in Natchez, Miss., with her daughter, feeling lonely away from friends and church in Louisiana. She tries to keep peace in her family as different ones of her children offer a home she doesn’t really want.

Cassandra spoke of how her mobile home made it through the storm intact but because there were no services she couldn’t return. Using a lot of her money to live elsewhere, she got behind on her rent. Her landlord, whose own home was heavily damaged, moved into Cassandra’s trailer, leaving her and her 5-year-old son homeless. She said her son pats her on her arm when she cries and says, “It’s all right, Mommy.”

Because of the abundance of shawls, all the women at the retreat received their own shawl and took home extras to other family and friends – and even two small sons of some women received shawls. Donna took a shawl home to her mother, who spends her days in a hospital bed and couldn’t come to the retreat.

“My mom shed tears of joy when I brought the shawl to her, a very beautiful one with a blend of lilac and tan, very soft,” Duplessis says. “She wraps herself up in it and feels much better, because she knows the person who knit her shawl also prayed. And then she remembers she really is wrapped in God’s love.”

Laurie Oswald Robinson, editor for Mennonite Women USA and its publication, Timbrel; and Elaine Good, past president of Mennonite Women USA, wrote this story for Mennonite Church USA News Service.