At the IRC Welcome Center, our First Church team volunteers each Saturday, welcoming asylum-seekers on their journey through Phoenix from the border to their sponsors throughout the country. In 2023, 48,960 asylum-seekers arrived at the Welcome Center, coming from 102 different countries, and speaking 68 different primary languages. Each week, our volunteers are ready to serve these newest immigrants, by providing a meal, assisting in the donation and Ropa rooms, managing the shower area, and helping with travel arrangements.

There are five churches in the Valley that also accept asylum-seekers and we have members who volunteer on weekends at one of those shelters, located in a church near downtown.

We are grateful to the congregation for its support of these efforts, with donations of clothing and shoes (filling the red bin at the front of the sanctuary each week!), and with donations to our Immigration Fund, first established in 2008.