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This time of year, Keren Rodriguez is likely to show up for all sorts of appointments with Christmas trees in the back of her car. She’s not trying to carry off that authentic Christmas-tree-smelling air freshener, she’s simply busy helping her congregation at Aloha United Methodist Church provide Christmas cheer to families in need. “I really value the way our faith community shows up,” Rodriguez said. This is Aloha UMC’s second year of giving away Christmas trees thanks to a congregant who ...

Rev. Jefferson Chao is exhausted – but the kind of exhausted that comes from pouring your heart into your community.   He spent the last two weeks working with volunteers to distribute 5,000 backpacks to kids attending more than 50 different schools in Beaverton, Oregon, and he’s helped with the distribution of more than 50,000 pounds of food, COVID-19 vaccine clinics and more. That doesn’t count the months of work that went into making it all happen, either.   “The community is my church,” said...

 The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has released a request for grant applications from community and faith-based organizations that are partnering – or are willing to partner with – marginalized communities within Oregon to help the OHA reach its strategic goal to eliminate health inequities by 2030. Specifically, OHA names the need for community-based and faith-based organizations who will work with: communities of color, tribal communities, disability communities, immigrant and refugee ...

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to God.” – Matthew 5: 14-16 Join us this Advent season as we journey to the manger by celebrating the laity in the Oregon-Idaho Conference who light up this world! Each day of Advent, beginning this ...

Photo provided by Dana & Kathy Bryson. .   In the last year, disaster response coordinators from the Greater Northwest Area have had to call on the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) for a wide range of support after devastating floods, then wildfires ravaged communities across conference boundaries – on top of a global pandemic.  “UMCOR has always been our strongest partners in response to natural disasters in the Greater Northwest Area,” said GNW Area Disaster Response ...

Volunteers work at Wilsonville UMC to prepare more than 300 turkey dinners for the community for Thanksgiving, instead of hosting an in-person dinner. (Photo by Hannah Toth) by Sally Blanchard Wilsonville United Methodist Church is well-known in the community for serving their annual Thanksgiving dinner to all-comers. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the church couldn’t do it. But the congregation knew there was still a need, and they reimagined a way forward. An idea came from members ...

By Sally Blanchard Volunteers pack food bags at The Dalles UMC in Oregon. The Dalles UMC is across the street from the high school and organized a successful food backpack program since 2012. They provided up to 165 bags per week of supplemental food for students on the school lunch program in partnership with the Oregon Food Bank food pantry and volunteers from other churches. When the churches had to close their doors in March and most of the volunteers had to stay at home, they came...

At a time when people in our communities need support, the Oregon-Idaho Conference of The United Methodist Church is excited to launch Grocery Gift Cards for Families initiative in partnership with the Oregon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Cascades Presbytery. With a $100,000 grant from the Oregon-Idaho Conference of The UMC, $100,000 from the Cascades Presbytery and $25,000 in contribution so far from ELCA churches in the Oregon Synod, the goal is to respond to ...

After a successful pilot program of approximately 300 grocery gift cards being distributed to low-income families in and around Portland, the Oregon-Idaho Conference Ministry Leadership Team is excited to offer a $100,000 grant to help churches get grocery gift cards into the hands of families across Oregon and Idaho. The launch of “Grocery Gift Cards for Families” is meant to inspire churches to identify and engage with people in their community to reach those most in need during the COVID-19 ...

Written by Louise Kienzle, Oregon-Idaho UMVIM coordinator  Early in March, a team of 15 traveled to Tucson. This team included friends and new friends from Oregon and Tennessee. We spent a very busy 5-days learning about the real issues at the border, both in Tucson and Nogales.   I’ve been home for almost two-weeks now, but visions of what our team saw and words that we heard still resonate.   One meeting early in the week was with Rocio, a woman from Bolivia who spent 2 years and 1-month in ...