Plain Anabaptist Missions, Ministries, and Church Planting

[Ernie]

This is a thread to discuss...

Plain Anabaptist Missions, Ministries, and Church Planting Endeavors.

This is a thread to build awareness of how Plain Anabaptists are attempting to meet humanitarian needs and introduce people to the Gospel.

Non-Plain Anabaptists are welcome to comment in this thread if they can be kind, congenial, and conciliatory.
Please no lobbing of general accusations and critiques, if the criticism only applies to a particular demographic or subset of Plain Anabaptists.

[Ernie]

Plain Anabaptists have helped migrants and immigrants for centuries but in the last decade, interest in this sort of ministry has grown significantly.

Streetlight Christian Ministries started in 2012 in Sacramento. This ministry serves many refugees, with many being Afghans.
Anabaptist Refugee Committee started in 2021. Initially it helped Afghans on a military base at Fort McCoy, but now it is helping refugees in Minneapolis, and helping to settle Ukranian refugees. It also provides humanitarian aid and resources for migrants in San Juan, TX.
LifeQuest Community started in 2021 in State College, PA. It's focus is with international college students and researchers but also ministers to refugees and asylum seekers.
Anabaptist Border Ministries started in 2023 in San Juan, Texas.
Oklahoma Anabaptist Refugee Ministry started in 2023 in Oklahoma City, OK.

All of these ministries are looking for volunteers.

[Ernie]

It would be helpful if there were a list of plain/CA organisations and then an accompanying list of their acceptable affiliations. Eg i58 will take almost anyone (cmc etc), whereas the Wengers disaste relief is only open to their young men.

Our own VS units are actually open to any CO but I haven’t heard of any outsiders applying to join one.

Most CA organizations will accept anyone, if the volunteers are willing to meet the expectations of the organizations. But birds of a feather do tend to flock together, and consequently most organizations take on a particular flavor. But I have known of organizations that have had a "reset", which ended up changing the volunteers/churches represented.

However, I think your idea is good, in describing who presently serves the organization. But making a list of these orgs and affiliations could be counter productive in that the organization may want to shift the demographic a bit, but they have been "labeled" as drawing from certain constituencies.

[Josh]

It would be helpful if there were a list of plain/CA organisations and then an accompanying list of their acceptable affiliations. Eg i58 will take almost anyone (cmc etc), whereas the Wengers disaste relief is only open to their young men.

Our own VS units are actually open to any CO but I haven’t heard of any outsiders applying to join one.

Most CA organizations will accept anyone, if the volunteers are willing to meet the expectations of the organizations. But birds of a feather do tend to flock together, and consequently most organizations take on a particular flavor. But I have known of organizations that have had a "reset", which ended up changing the volunteers/churches represented.

Or perhaps a better piece of information would be what affiliations are on the board and senior leadership.