Peace River Presbytery Gives Portion of Peacemaking Offering to CIW’s Community Center

May 2008 — For the Presbyterians in Peace River Presbytery, peacemaking is about living in a right relationship with your brothers and sisters.  What better way to work towards that end than to support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)?  The Mission and Justice Committee of Peace River Presbytery voted to disburse our peacemaking funds totaling $4,000 to our farmworker neighbors to help with the new CIW Community Center.  The radio station, which is housed in the Community Center, received a grant from Self Development of People (SDOP) in 2007 to help upgrade their equipment that enabled them to reach more people in the Immokalee area. 

Members of CIW stand outside their new community center. Photo by Noelle Damico.

The gift is a symbolic gesture of the Presbytery’s solidarity with migrant workers.  One member of the committee described CIW as the standard bearer for faith communities looking for true Christian partnerships.  Another committee member envisioned the day when our grandchildren will hear about this strange coalition of the poorest of the poor who gave voice to the voiceless and challenged Christians to live out their faith in their buying practices.  Learn more about the CIW’s Community Center.

Peace River Presbytery in Southwest Florida is proud of the PC(USA) partnership with the CIW for whom this has been a hard year. Burger King’s tactics have been disgraceful and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has sabotaged, for now, the arrangements made with Yum! Brands Inc. and McDonald's Corp. by threatening $100,000 fines for buyers who participate in the penny per pound premium wage program.  At the same time CIW has received international recognition for its anti-slavery work, increased its pressure on Burger King and welcomed congressional investigation and hearings in to unfair labor practices.  The CIW’s radio station has been a principal means for communicating with the farmworker community about the Burger King campaign, educating newly arrived workers about their rights in the workplace and sharing news from their home countries.

The radio station continues to mean a great deal to workers who have no other media of their own for communicating with each other.  Currently, the Rev. Miguel Estradam, our pastor in Immokalee who is working through Beth-El Farmworker Ministry to establish a reformed ministry in Immokalee under the umbrella of Mision Peniel, has a weekly radio program on the CIW’s station. Farmworkers have told him that they have learned about this ministry through his radio program.  The ministry currently provides mid- week Bible study and a hot meal when they return from the fields on Fridays.

Peace River Presbytery takes seriously the words from the Old Testament:  Let Justice roll down like waters and peace reign on earth!