Nothing is impossible

"I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed...nothing will be impossible for you."
- Jesus in Matthew 17:20

Washington D.C.
Monday, July 12

For 42 years, the Washington office of Mennonite Central Committee U.S. has been a presence on Capitol Hill providing and encouraging prophetic witness to the way of Christ on matters of U.S. public policy. The work of the office is guided by the Biblical vision of being restored to right relationship with God, each other and all of creation.

I spent today in D.C. getting acquainted with the work of this small but mighty staff. Its staff monitors legislation on global economic justice, militarism, Middle East, HIV/AIDS, economic justice, gun violence, immigration and from every region of the world.

With perpetual issues like Middle East policy and the military budget, said director Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, its sometimes difficult to see short-term results.

Rachelle told us stories from Uganda, Argentina and Mozambique in past decades to illustrate where the work of the Washington office with U.S. public policy has made a difference. Rachelle said there are times such as these, like with the mustard seed, where a seed has sprouted and grown.

In 1968, the Washington Office program was formed in response to Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement and other issues. From that small seed, many sprouts have grown on behalf of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches. As I listened to the staff in D.C. (pictured above) today, I am grateful for their faithful witness and for their belief in Jesus' words that, with faith, nothing is impossible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

They welcomed us

Image
One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. (John 9:25) She was addicted to drugs for 20 years. She was in prison and her family broke apart. Her child was in an orphanage and her husband died. Because of her substance abuse, she eventually lost her one arm below her elbow. She saw no way out. She had hit the very bottom. When she came to know God, Natalia says everything changed. She found she had a deep desire to help people like herself and she discovered that her life experiences helped her understand others. “I remember what God did in my life and I have hope that God can touch other peoples’ lives and give them new life, too,” Natalia tells me. In Nikopol, Ukraine, she and Olga and Valodya, both of whom have similar stories to tell of their own, began New Life Charitable Fund a half dozen years ago to help people in prison, or who have drug or alcohol addictions, are HIV positive, homeless or for some other reason need a helping hand. Ukraine has
Read more

God multiplies our efforts

Image
Sister Zita at the La Posada shelter with baby Emmanuel and members of our border learning tour. Photo courtesy of Janae Rempel The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail. – I Kings 17:14 Ana Hinojosa remembers growing up on the Texas-Mexico border near Brownsville in the late 80s. Her family’s house was a mile from the border wall and she remembers the extended family gatherings in her back yard. Ana, an MCC immigration staff person, says border patrol agents would rest in the shade of the trees near the front of her house and, in the same day, it would be possible for a family from Mexico to knock on her front door to ask for food or directions. Her family turned no one away. Life on the border can look quite different today. When we enter the Catholic Charities respite center in McAllen, Texas, it is startling to see the contrast from the serenity of the neighborhood outside to the chaos inside. Cesar Matta tells us that, today, the cente
Read more

A river of love

Image
For it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. – Matthew 25:40 “We are happy you are here to see this with your own eyes,” the leader of the Islamic Charities organization in Deir Attieh, Syria tells us, a group of MCC people visiting partner organizations in Syria. “We can’t express enough our heartfelt thanks to you.” Islamic Charities works with 3,000 at risk families affected by the war in the region and relies heavily on the work of volunteers. MCC provides food boxes to Islamic Charities as part of our humanitarian assistance in Syria. When I visit five families who received these food boxes, I recall the heartfelt thanks but feel mostly heart broken.    We visit two families living in a partially constructed apartment complex that stalled when the war began. The first family lives in a small two-room apartment, the mother and her five children and the woman’s father. Her husband is serving in the army. The second family includes seven
Read more