Read the latest news from Ecuador here.

Also view a new 10 minute video about the Ecuadorian Mennonite Church here. 

Bring Pastor Max home
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Actions: 

• Sign this petition today to urge Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson to bring Max Villatoro home to his family.
• Make a call this week to Secretary Johnson's office at (202) 282-8203 (talking points below).  

​Background: Nearly one year ago, Iowa City pastor, beloved father, husband, and community leader Max Villatoro was deported to Honduras. Although we have mourned Pastor Max’s absence from his family, friends, and church, we have not given up our struggle to reunite the Villatoro family and bring Pastor Max home. We also continue to urge Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of DHS, to follow their own guidelines and not deport immigrants, such as Pastor Max, who clearly pose no public safety concern and have close family and community ties in the United States.

Faith reflection: Please continue to pray that Max will be able to return to his family. Also pray for his wife, Gloria, and his children Anthony, Edna, Angela, and Aileen. Pray also for Max’s church community, his lawyer and others working to help him. Pray for government officials that their hearts will be opened.

Actions: 

• Sign this petition today to urge Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson to bring Max Villatoro home to his family.
• Make a call this week to Secretary Johnson's office at (202) 282-8203 (talking points below).

Sample talking points:

• Pastor Max’s family, church, and community continue to feel the great loss after he was deported to Honduras nearly a year ago. His deportation was a grave injustice that should be remedied by your office.
• Please urge ICE to follow their own guidelines. Pastor Max, and many others like him, never should have been deported. Max’s 20 years in the U.S., his young children, his service as a pastor and strong ties to the community should have been weighed against a 15-year old DUI conviction.
• Your office says that ICE is only deporting those who pose a threat to public safety, but this is not the case. Pastor Max is clearly not a threat to anyone but was an asset to his community.
• I ask you to correct this mistake immediately by returning pastor Max to his family in Iowa City.
• This is not just about Pastor Max, it’s about all the families across the country who are being needlessly separated. And it’s about the common sense, humane immigration enforcement President Obama has promised.

Additional resources: Worst of the worst report | Friends of Pastor Max | MCC immigration resources

http://mcc.org/get-involved/advocacy/alert/bring-pastor-max-home-0​ 

​One of our spiritual disciplines in Central Plains Mennonite Conference is to "accept and offer hospitality, believing it creates the context for God’s kingdom to appear in our midst, particularly as we minister to the poor, the hungry, the prisoner and the stranger."

Today, 39 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict or natural disaster. Ten million are refugees and 29 million are internally displaced persons (meaning they have not crossed an international border). (American Refugee Committee International)

Find ways for your congregation to become involved in refugee resettlement on our Support for Refugees page.