Updates from Jubilee to You in This Special Season
By the time Matthew and Luke wrote their versions of Jesus’ birth, he had been gone for over 50 years. But what they saw happening in the groups who gathered across the empire to follow in the Way of Jesus was eye-popping. Transforming. In these groups, people overcame the virulent racism between Jews and Gentiles; they moved beyond the misogyny and patriarchal domination everywhere in the empire; and saw no difference between slaves and slaveholders.
The birth of Jesus brought an entirely new creation to all who moved out of devotion to empire and temple into this new way of thinking and acting. In Jubilee all of our ministries express or tilt toward living in this new creation. And your donations show your desire to live God’s new creation in the middle of perils.
You are doing it! You are helping live and shape the new creation in all of the following ways.
- You are helping support a new food system in the U.S. amid agribusiness’ declining future—Jubilee connected Ben White’s high quality compost making with Byron Nkhoma’s small regenerative farm. The farm provides fresh, high nutrition food through a cooperative that serves lower income people. JEM is part of a food system bringing quality, fresh, nutritious produce to many people that the food system organized around chain supermarkets and industrial agribusiness does not serve.
- You are helping young people to counter the appeal of gangs —JEM newsletters have been following the youth ministry in San Mateo that, in cooperation with Hope Coffee, is giving economic opportunity to youth who otherwise cannot find employment in a local economy offering them few jobs. The vacuum makes the money gained illicitly by gang members really attractive. This Jubilee youth ministry is stepping into that vacuum with both spiritual nurture and a job.
- You are helping to lift up women amidst patriarchy’s oppressions—Patriarchy’s war on women goes on strong here at home and in Mexico. Throughout Jubilee Circles, women’s ideas are strongly embraced, means of self-income are facilitated, and they train one another in skills of communal and church leadership.
- You are helping to heal where a health system is failing the impoverished—The San Mateo Circle physician Angelica sometimes makes home visits. And when people come into the office with illness, she provides holistic care—medicines, health and spiritual counsel, and prayer. A standout story happened when Angelica visited in the home of a woman unconscious and who had been told by two hospitals, “We’ve done all we can.” Angelica prayed with the family. The woman regained consciousness and improved.
- You are helping an alternative currency bring financial power where pesos and banks fall short—Alternative currencies have a long history of helping local economies that do not sufficiently serve local people. Jubilee Circle in Chiapas administers the Tumín that functions alongside the peso. It greatly increases the power of people in the local economy.
- You are helping meet water scarcity worsened by corporations’ water grabs—30 of Mexico’s 32 states are experiencing water shortages. Climate breakdown caused by systems refusing to cooperate with Mother Earth is being exposed. The San Mateo Circle and town are hard hit, but still a cement factory and Coca-Cola use huge amounts of water from the aquifer on which the town depends. With special donations of $2600, the Circle plans to install a rainwater cistern in 2025.
- You are helping spiritual ministry to migrants as nations fumble and cartels add chaos—The Guardian recently reported on the impacts of immigration around the city of Tapachula. JEM’s Circle there is in the thick of it all offering excellent spiritual and material ministry. They are desperately short on funds. Monthly redistributions from JEM are only $350. You can help double that amount and serve the people caught in the violence among nations who care more about ideologies than people.
In all of these situations, we put our faith in that story of the Gospels. As in the 1st century, we believe living that story can reverse the perils of our planet.
Please give a big boost to the new creation in this season. We accept checks, stock donations, charitable remainder trust donations, and online donations at our website, https://oneearthjubilee.com/
The Mighty Presence of the Spirit be with you,
John Michno
Lee Van Ham
P.S. FREE to everyone donating $50 or more, a copy of The Liberating Birth of Jesus: A Birth Story Able to Reverse Our Planet’s Perils. A former faculty member at Tulane University calls this a “ground-breaking book.” Just ask for it; we’ll send it with joy.
