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Nestled on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, Suttle Lake Camp is a special place where the vivid green of Western Oregon mingles with the sunny beauty of the east side. For more than one hundred years the camp has been sacred space for many as they have taken time to renew their spirits and nurture their faith under the towering Ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees.  Grounded in Christian hospitality and learning, the camp provides year-round Christian programs for all ages as well ...

Submitted by Debbie Mallis Each year at the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference Session, in among the budgets, appointments, reports, and celebrations are conference legislation items. Many of these actions and standing resolutions are intended to live out the values of The United Methodist Church as it exists in the Oregon-Idaho context. This article is one in a series to highlight legislative items related to social justice and values.   Last year, members of our Annual Conference voted to pass ...

  The Greater Northwest Area Abundant Health ministries is hosting a presentation on community gardens on Tuesday, Jan. 24 from 6 to 7 p.m. PST (5 p.m. Alaska, 7 p.m. MST). The featured speaker will be Tom Kroen from Tualatin United Methodist Church in Oregon. Tom serves as a team leader for the Community Garden located at Tualatin United Methodist Church which contains both plots for individual families and a large garden that provides fresh produce to the local food pantry. Tom will share ...

Youth workers - staff and volunteer - in the Oregon-Idaho annual conference will be gathering on Zoom (link below) on Wednesday, January 18 to make connections and discuss hopes for the future. The group will explore and share the needs and opportunities of youth and youth workers across the connection.   During the 2022 Annual Conference where $12,000 was budget to go towards youth ministries and the ever-emerging world allows for greater opportunities for youth ministries to collaboratively ...

For years, Kuna United Methodist Church in Kuna, Idaho, has worked with local stylists to offer free back-to-school haircuts for kids. These usually happened on a weekday. This year, the haircut event was combined with a church BBQ and game night on the Sunday evening just before the first day of school.  Despite temperatures approaching 100 degrees, three stylists from Dapper Dan’s, a local salon/barbershop in Kuna, set up outdoors under shade canopies with fans. Whole families enjoyed dinner ...

The Oregon-Idaho Conference Board of Ordained Ministry has approved a new Spiritual Direction grant that will allow persons to apply for a $500 grant from the Ministerial Education Fund (MEF) toward that goal. At the Board of Ordained Ministry’s last meeting, members approved providing the grant for spiritual direction to persons serving in local church ministries. This includes certified lay persons, licensed local pastors, commissioned clergy, deacons and elders. Receiving a grant will not ...

 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 ...

  Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy. Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your animals, or the immigrant who is living with you. Because the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days, but rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. – Exodus ...

By Rebecca Warren “I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel” – Rachel Carson, author of “The Sense of Wonder” Exploring nature soothes our spirits, stimulates our minds, and even heals our bodies. Nature is not confined to national parks or vast landscapes but thrives outside our doorways. Face the wind, feel the warmth of the sun, bend to smell a flower, finger the soil, pluck and taste a homegrown ...