Visit to Postville

On December 2, 2008 I was one of about 15 ministers and lay people from Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota who participated in a delegation to Postville, Iowa. Many of us had experienced delegations to Guatemala, Chiapas and to the US/Mexico border area to listen to people testify to the concrete experience of oppression. The delegation to Postville, Iowa, allowed us to listen to people speak directly about their experience of the ICE raid of May 12, 2008.


That raid was focused on the workers at AgriProcessors, a large Kosher slaughter and meatpacking facility in Postville. It rounded up hundreds of workers. If you Google "postville raid" there is a lot of information about the specific numbers and details of the raid. ( The Washington Post story ) What was even more interesting to our faith based group was to do a sort of "pastoral visit" where by our willingness to come to those affected, hear their stories and to pray with them we were assuring them that they are not forgotten, and that they are loved by God. We were doing the same sorts of things that we do when we visit one of the members of our respective parishes when they are in the hospital or have suffered some sort of family tragedy. In this case it was a tragedy inflicted by employees of our government.





We met with Fr. Paul Ouderkirk and Paul Rael at St. Bridgets Church in Postville. We were also able to meet with a group of Guatemalan persons who were studying for their GED in the parish hall. With the aid of skilled, bilingual members of our delegation we were able to hear the accounts of these women and to express our concern. (Here is a message from Fr Paul: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whdEcBToMBs )



We had lunch with Rev. Gary Catterson, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Postville. Gary had a group of Guatemalan Evangelicals who met at his church on a regular basis on Sunday afternoons until the raid removed the leadership of the church. The Evangelical group had up to seventy-five participants and had gathered for the last several years.















In the afternoon we drove over to Decorah, Iowa, where we learned from Rev. Matthew Perkins of Community United Church of Christ of Decorah about how the Decorah Area Faith Coalition have stepped up to aid individuals and churches in Postville who have suffered the consequences of the raid. The most poignant interviews of the day were with men who were first imprisoned, and then have been released with ankle bracelets with global positioning transmitters which they must wear.

This last photo is of our delegation, taken at Community UCC in Decorah.