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Happy New Year

Group from left to right: Aminata Dieye, Ramona Treviño, Michael Chapman, Miriam Cardenas, Arnold Baron, Emily Stednick, Thomas Adlard, Sheri Wiedenhoefer, Jennifer Doerrie, Mqondisi Moyo, Budi Hartono, Tewodros Moges, Doug Kulungu, Pauline Aguilar. Individuals on right from top to bottom: Mukarabe Makinto, Bob Buxman, Gloria James.·    
    

               Happy New Year from West Coast Mennonite Central Committee!

This year was full of exciting programs, life-giving partnerships, and positive transitions for West Coast MCC.
Highlights from 2009 include:
 
  • West Coast MCC Immigration Program, Quilt Room and Reedley Police Department Victim Service Unit now share office space upstairs in Reedley. This partnership provides greater community services to the Reedley area by strengthening mediation and neighborhood dispute resources, victim and offender services, conflict management training, and violence prevention education.
  • West Coast MCC Administrative Services relocated to Fresno Pacific University.
  • West Coast MCC partnered with Fresno Pacific University for the first GAP (Globalization, Anabaptism and Peacebuilding) Summer Institute held on the FPU campus in June, providing training for 45 regional student leaders.  Over 30 Summer Service Workers attend the Institute and then served in 8-week internships within their home churches and communities.
  • West Coast states welcomed seven IVEP (International Volunteer Exchange Program) participants: Malehlohonolo Motlalane (Lesotho) and Wuhamu Pan (China) serving in Washington; Sok Eng Khat (Cambodia) serving in Oregon; Bettina Goossen (Paraguay), Shoroq Hijazeen (Jordan), Mqondisi Moyo (Zimbabwe), and Tewodros Moges (Ethiopia) serving in California.
  • These West Coast young adults left for a one-year assignment abroad: Erika Bollman (ID) and Annie Mesaros (WA) serving in Indonesia; Alicia Temple (OR) serving in Vietnam; Brandon Couch (WA) serving in Burundi; Rowan Mundhenk (WA) serving in Egypt; Erin Murray (WA) serving in Guatemala; Rachel Warren (WA) serving in Tanzania; and Lindsey Whyte (WA) serving in Uganda.
  • Current West Coast Service Workers around the world are: Linda Rush (OR), Torin Schaafsma (WA), Jamie Hazelwood (CA), and Jordan Gutierrez (WA) in Colombia; Dennis and Virginia Roth (CA) and Michelle Shaver (WA) in China; Eliesio and Kirstin Soares and children (CA) in Mexico, Dale and Marika Christy (CA) in Uganda; Robin Seyfert (OR) in Bangladesh; Peter and Cheryl Smith and children (CA) in Zambia; Alan and Elizabeth Claassen-Thrush and child (CA) in Nicaragua; Derek and Soleakhena Hostetler and children (OR) in Vietnam; Megan Weemes (CA) in Ethiopia; Major and Karen Treadway (OR) in Indonesia; Jonathan Viducich (OR) in Mozambique; Joel Hoffman and Rachel Colbourne (OR) and Kurt Hildebrand (OR) in Haiti; Joan and Leroy Willems (CA) in Sudan; James Roth and children (WA) in Abbotsford, BC; and Stephanie Wiest (CA) in Ephrata, PA.
  • Thousands of volunteer hours donated from faithful and generous supporters: making quilts and comforters; putting together school, health, newborn and sewing kits; baking zwiebach and frying fritters for relief sales; and working in our regional thrift shops – just to name a few!
 
Mark your calendars!
 
We are looking forward to a great 2010 and hope to see you at the following West Coast MCC relief sales and regional events:
 
  • March 6: Congo Menno-Sante Dinner at North Fresno MB Church
  • April 9-10: West Coast Mennonite Sale and Auction (Fresno, CA)
  • May 8: Idaho Mennonite World Relief Sale (Nampa, ID)
  • May 14-15: Southern California Festival and Sale for World Hunger and Relief (Upland, CA)
  • October 2: Mennonite Country Auction (Ritzville, WA)
  • October 2: Oregon Mennonite Festival for World Relief (Albany, OR)
 
 
Your generosity is changing lives
 
Last year was marked by great need around the world, yet because of your generous donations, those needs are being met. Without donors like you the relief, development, and peace work of MCC would not be possible.
 
"Over and over I am asked to thank those who give," said Joanna Hiebert Bergen, in Bangladesh. "They are just so grateful someone cares enough—and that speaks to who we are called to be as disciples of Christ."
·         Donors responded generously to recovery efforts for natural disasters in Asia. In early November, the response exceeded $343,000. This is nearly 25 percent more than MCC requested. MCC was able to expand its work to help even more people affected by the disasters in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
 
·         Giving to Menno-Santé, a multi-year program to revitalize Mennonite-run hospitals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has exceeded expectations in 2009. Donor generosity helps provide the confidence needed to continue expansion. In October, two hospitals were added to the program.

·         Networks of peace clubs have been supported around the world. School based clubs sponsored in Zambia, in particular, enable students to share problems, resolve conflicts and help peers to build peace. Hundreds of children participated in trauma healing activities in 2009 in the Gaza strip, and 45,000 people benefited from conflict resolution trainings in Bangladesh.
 
Your contributions are helping to make these transformations possible.  Thank you for your partnership in fulfilling the mission of MCC. May God bless you and your family this New Year, and may He multiply those blessings to our brothers and sisters around the world. 
 
 
Thank You!