1)  What do ICE CREAM and Farmworkers Have in Common?

As a way to continue to honor farmworkers, you're invited to CALL MONDAY to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream offices to urge them to continue to follow through on their promise made in 2015 to join the "Milk with Dignity" program.  Milk with Dignity supports the rights of immigrant dairy workers, and is another effort that Disciples are connected with through our partnerships with the National Farm Worker Ministry.

Call anytime to: 802/846-1500 on MONDAY, April 3, between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern, and let them know that your faith leads you to support farm workers.  Tell them, "Thank you for agreeing years ago to work with farmworkers to support the Milk with Dignity program.  Farmworkers asked for you to take the lead in joining the Milk with Dignity program, because it can provide a code of human rights standards, provide farmworker education, offer a 3rd party monitoring body, and strengthen fair wages.  Now, more than ever, it is important for immigrant workers and us all to see you implement the Milk with Dignity program without further delay!"

 

(Photo from a 2016 Action Against Detention with CLUE L.A.)

Monday, April 3rd, 4:00-5:30 p.m. EDT/ 1:00-2:30 p.m. PD

Sponsored by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition

Please RSVP by pasting in the link shown HERE to register: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9kGAIJ_eBfOmHNlSbt9IZIfwVlwP5qGmFx_Z7a-ihEKTpg/viewform?c=0&w=1

      You're invited to our next Interfaith Immigration Coalition webinar on developing skills to plan

nonviolent direct actions that can add to the prophetic witness of the faith community. We will also hear about the importance of an effective advocacy strategy to push back 

against budget proposals to further increase mandatory detention and border militarization.

*Note this will be a special 90 minute webinar.   Speakers will include:

       *Advocacy on Appropriations, Jen Smyers, Church World Service

       *Intro to nonviolent direct action - Sr Marie Lucey, Franciscan Action Network

       *Planning a prophetic action - Rev. Francisco Garcia, LA Sanctuary Coalition

       *Public demonstrations & immigrant Rights - Par omita Shah, Nat'l Immigration Project

Please  RSVP using the above link.

 The link for the visual portion of the webinar with powerpoint will be http://join.me/faith4immigration.

  Call: (202) 602-1295, and use Acc ess code: 354-977-836# on the day of the webinar for audio. 

And...Let us CONSTANTLY PRAY for IMMIGRANTS and REFUGEES!!

           

   This week, we have learned of immigrants in our Disciples family separated from their families and detained.  We are hearing constantly from communities around the country of growing fears.  We grieve this news.

And, we know that--although a federal court in Hawaii ruled this week to convert a temporary order into a preliminary injunction that allows for refugees to continue to arrive--the lives of refugees remain uncertain.   

In the midst of such vulnerabilities, and in this season of Lent, may we continue to pray constantly for our immigrant pastors and churches, and their congregations.  May we likewise pray for those still seeking welcome--and may we pray that our hearts will be ready to welcome them, as well.

May you enjoy this prayer below as a guide, and I invite you to send the prayers of your own heart to Rev. Sharon Stanley-Rea, Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministires at: sstanley@dhm.disciples.org

 for sharing among our Disciples family.

You are  the God who bears the brunt of the question, "Why didn't you stay where you  belong?" 

You feel the red-faced embarrassment when we hear, "Keep your distance, you 

foreigner, with your different-colored skin and your strange-sounding speech, with your 

culture, food, religion, and clothing that are inferior to my own." 

You are the God who sits along side of us who work in sweatshops, with our bloodshot  eyes and aching fingers squinting under the soul-less glare of a florescent light.

You are the God who rises early in the morning with us as we go to harvest fresh  vegetables and fruits picked with fingers stained by the pesticides and fungicides that  penetrate our skin.

You are the God who stands with us in the chill of the morning in the parking lot at Home Depot, with anxious stomachs hoping that we too would be picked to work just for that  one day.

Loving God, as we stand before you today, help us to remember that when we speak of immigrants and refugees, we speak of Christ.

Hear our prayers for necessary, just, and comprehensive immigration reform. Make us  strong in the work for immigrant justice and remind us that our work is no easier than  the everyday work of our immigrant sisters and brothers.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(adapted from Justiceforimmigrants.org website by Fr. Jon Pedigo)