The House of Representatives is voting this week on two pieces of legislation that will increase restrictions on legal immigration to the United States and take away trafficking protections for children. Act now – Tell your Representative to vote against the Securing America’s Future Act (H.R. 4760) and Speaker Ryan's Border Security and Immigration Reform Act.

These bills would radically change our immigration system in dangerous ways.

This fall I have been inspired by a book, The Leading Causes of Life, by Gary Gunderson and Larry Pray. It begins with what’s obvious, but difficult to do: focus your energy and attention on what affirms life rather than what threatens or destroys it.

One of the five causes for life is

I hear the word faith quite often, especially here at church in regards to our religion; but what does faith really mean? According to my dictionary; Faith is something that is believed especially with strong conviction. What a vague definition! I needed to know more, so, like any good researcher I began asking questions; What does faith look like? What do others believe in? What does strong conviction look like? I looked at home, I looked at school, I even looked at gym practice. But I ended up right back where I started; here at Bethel.

So I asked other people what they believed in. Most people said they believed in God, or maybe their church. Some weren’t sure what they believed in.

I asked myself these questions too. What do I believe in?

As many of you know, we are Monique and Nikki Manley-Smith. We have been members here at Bethel UCC for close to a year and a half now (give or take). Which seems odd to think about because we feel like Bethel is so ingrained in our lives now that it’s hard to believe that there was a time (and it wasn’t that long ago) when it wasn’t. Today we are going to share with you the blessings of community that we have witnessed at Bethel. But before we go putting the horse before the cart how about we give you a bit of our history. 
 
I, unlike Mo, did not grow up in the church. I actually found Christ while smack dab in the middle

When David asked me to share with you some of the reasons I’m so devoted to this church, I had my doubts. How to abbreviate almost 80 years into a few minutes was going to be tough, but I decided to tap into the passionate side (as David puts it) of my persona and share a few incidences that make this church, this Bethel, my faith community home and, indeed, an emerging pillar of Beaverton society. Let me give you a wee bit of my family history.

My mother, at 11 months in age and having lost her own mother to the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1917, was raised by the Designers who were next door neighbors and two of the original members of this church. They were also parents to 3 boys and 1 girls of their own. The family then was

I read this book, a birthday present from my son Michael, while flying to Cleveland for the Common Global Ministries Fall 2017 meetings. Why not get closer to God while a citizen of the City in the Sky, part of the one million people in flight at any given moment in time? Walter Brueggemann is one of my favorite theologians, an elder statesman of the United Church of Christ. In under 100 pages, he insightfully lays out the case for Sabbath observance as a revolutionary act, an act of resistance against the 24/7/365, BUY NOW culture of ceaseless activity and endless greed in which we live in 21st century America. 

Brueggemann is a noted Hebrew Scriptures scholar. His analysis of the socio-economic realities surrounding the commandment to cease work on the seventh day reveals the depth and breadth of his knowledge of the ancient Hebrew texts. He makes a compelling case that