This letter to you is written mostly by people in Mexico who were invited to speak directly to you, our donors and people interested in Jubilee updates. Angelica Juarez Jimenez Swanson from the Jubilee Circle in San Mateo speaks first. Recently, she’s been deeply involved in one chronic issue hurting lives there. Similar in-depth ministry is happening on so many other issues across the Circles of Jubilee.
In 2000, as a new millennium began, so did Jubilee Economics Ministries (JEM). A Core Group met monthly in Chicago and planned a couple of trips to Chiapas, Mexico, in support of Indigenous people and Fair Trade growers. At that time, the Indigenous Zapatista Movement came to international attention as they protested NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and other strategies of globalization that oppressed them. One elder told us, “NAFTA and globalization are the latest forms of genocide.”
Your donations over the years have brought the growth that seemed impossible in 2000. We celebrate this and give thanks to God. Not surprisingly, a growing past requires a well-funded future to be fruitful. Please, join our prayers as growth of the Jubilee tree is ready to burst with abundant fruit.
We’re in a big anniversary year for Jubilee! Isai Robledo, a gifted artist in the San Cristobal Jubilee Circle, designed this wonderful graphic for JEM’s 25th year. It expresses the great root system your donations have fed and watered. And now look at the tree!
Every year Jubilee Circles have plans. Many happen. And many more things happen that weren’t planned at all. Well, that is, no humans planned them. All the Circles live our days open to the breezes of the Holy Spirit. The following are examples of what various Jubilee ministries have in mind for 2025.