Steamboat Springs wedding information – Deep in the northwest region of Colorado lies the magical mountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This western infused resort community plays host to countless weddings in both the winter and summer. Imagine saying your “I Do’s” with a cobalt blue sky overhead and the serenity of natural mountain music. Now imagine that wedding celebration turning into a reception of excellent food and dance. Steamboat Springs offers an excellent choice for those brides and grooms looking for a unique Colorado wedding. Read more about weddings in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Often times the best plan for organizing a Steamboat Springs wedding is to book the group lodging first. If you wait until the last minute, you very well might not get the best available location for your Steamboat Springs lodging. Worst case scenario, Steamboat Springs might be entirely booked up. So to avoid this, make sure you begin your search for accommodations at least a year in advance. Some lodging providers will provide a request for proposal (RFP) which will contain your possible wedding dates, special requirements, group size and any other pertinent information. Submitting an RFP to various lodging providers will put you in direct contact with many different hotels, condos, private accommodations, bed and breakfasts and even working dude ranches.

Steamboat Springs hotels offer full service amenities and are an excellent way for all wedding guests to be reserved in the same location. Some of the hotels and resorts in Steamboat offer restaurant and dining options which makes for easy access for your wedding party. It all just depends on the style of wedding you and your spouse are looking for.

Once you have the wedding lodging sorted out, it is now time to find the perfect venue for your big day. Some venues in Steamboat Springs accommodate indoor and outdoor ceremonies which, in case of bad weather, is a great thing. Steamboat Springs receives 300+ days of sunshine, but inclement weather can roll through the mountains at anytime. In case of this, your indoor outdoor wedding venue will be a wedding saver!

Here are some options for wedding venues Steamboat Springs. These locations provide you with many opportunities to express your sense of style and personality.

Anchor Way Baptist Church

40650 Anchor Way

Steamboat II

(970) 879-7062

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

1755 Fairway Tr.

(970) 638-4430/(970) 879-0220

Concordia Lutheran Church

Maple St. & Amethyst Dr.

(970) 879-0175

Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses

29805 Acre Lane,

West Acres Industrial Park

(970) 879-4075

First Baptist Church

1/4 Mi. N. on Elk River Rd.

(970) 879-1446

Holy Name Catholic Church

504 Oak St., PO Box 774198

Steamboat Springs, CO 80477

(970) 879-0671

Seventh-day Adventist Church

P.O. Box 771035

347 12th Street

(970) 871-4927

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

9th & Oak Street

(970) 879-0925

Steamboat Church of Christ

39820 W. US Hwy. 40

(970) 879-6670879-6226

United Methodist

8th & Oak Street

(970) 879-1290

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Immigration raid in Iowa

Peter Menkin

06/22/08

It’s the largest immigration raid in United States history, occurring May 12, 2008, whose repercussions continue Postville as the Iowa religious community continues its reaction. It’s also a raid on the largest employer in Northeast Iowa, and the largest kosher meat packing plant in America. One church leader calls it a “human-caused disaster.”

According to The Washington Post, the meatpacking firm founded by Aaron Rubashkin is “the largest” producer of glatt kosher beef, made to strict kosher standards. The plant produces under brands such as Iowa Best Beef, Aaron’s Best and Rubashkin’s.

The New York-based Orthodox Union, which certifies kosher facilities, says the plant supplies 50 percent of the nation’s highest-kosher chickens, and a third of its meat products.

The raid, conducted in the town of 2600 in Postville, Iowa, despite its diversity, is primarily Lutheran. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Bishop, The Reverend Doctor Steven L. Ullestad, says in an email to Religious Intelligence:

“Service providers are working day and night to provide care for children with no food, babies in need of diapers and families in need of homes.  Non-immigrant children are grieving the loss of friends and fearful that ICE will come and take their parents as well.  The school and businesses have been gutted.  One lifelong citizen of Postville asked, ‘Why did the government decide to destroy our town?’

“We must work so that the United States government never again does this to entire community.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has declared the ICE intervention in Postville a human-caused disaster.  This commits our church to the long term recovery of the community.”

According to the Des Moines Register, The U.S. attorney’s office said there were criminal warrants for 697 people in the case. There were 389 arrests, including 306 on criminal charges. That meant more than 300 warrants remained outstanding. Charges include use of false identification documents and false use of Social Security numbers.

Some economic statistics on illegal immigration:

(1) eliminating the estimated 8.1 million undocumented workers in the United States would cause $1.757 trillion in annual lost spending,

(2) and $651.5 billion in lost output.

(3) Iowa’s economy would lose $4.4 billion in annual spending if all undocumented workers were exported from the state.

(4) There are approximately 25,000 illegal workers in Iowa.

Many of those arrested were Guatemalan, and the Catholic Church provided respite, and solace to them. “It is my privilege to serve the needs of these people,” says Sister Mary McCauley, who is St. Bridget’s Catholic Church pastoral administrator. “[but] I don’t know why they have left it to the faith community alone,” Time magazine reports. The Catholic Church was most prominent in their direct help of all the denominations. One illegal immigrant named Veronica was quoted as saying, “We can’t work. We can’t provide for our kids. God bless the church,”

“Leaders in the Roman Catholic community, as well as many other religious leaders, have called for comprehensive immigration reform…” says Archbishop Jerome Hanus of

Dubuque, Iowa.

Through its Jewish Telegraph Agency, a news service, the Jewish community, response included the statement, “As Jews, it is our obligation to advocate for fair treatment of the 390 detainees in Postville and the millions of other undocumented workers nationally, who are “strangers in a strange land. As a nation, it is time for us to return to the core values forged by the teachings of our great religions and fundamentally reject our current illegal immigration system.”

The Episcopal Church Diocese of Iowa on its website made the statement, “…the Christian communities especially in the north east, including our own Episcopal community in Waverly are active in providing for the families in Postville.”

The Episcopal Church in Iowa says it is a sanctuary Diocese, “…granting places of safety for those who have traveled here as immigrants… We are seeing how important such a place has been for the Hispanic community in Postville who were able to gravitate to the Catholic Church in Postville for sanctuary.”

Lutheran Church sums up the church position with, “Immigrants being detained in public jails is a sign of a broken system, which is why we as a church must strengthen our voices to call on our country for a just immigration policy.”

Conventional political wisdom has it, according to newspaper reports, the present administration is following a policy of raids so that businesses and Congress will support the immigration changes sought by President Bush, including a temporary-worker program and earned legalization.

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True love. Most of us search high and low for true love in that one ideal relationship. We struggle over it and with it, yearn for it, craft books, music, and poems about it–all without a clear understanding of what we seek or why we want it so desperately.

We’re not even sure what love is. How do we define it? The definition of love is as unique and as varied as every individual who experiences it. That’s a big part of the problem. Love feels different for each person. So how do we tell if the one we love actually returns the favor? After all, our loved one may offer us love that does not quite feel like what we know as love.

To clear up at least some of the confusion, let us establish a basic definition for true love. The truest, purest love is unconditional. Such love is also the simplest form of love because it has no hooks, no standards, no expectations, no conditions attached to it whatsoever. No complications, no hidden clauses or agendas, no restraints or exceptions.

Unconditional love is true love, and unconditional love is healing and uplifting–the ultimate source of all life. True/unconditional love sustains and nurtures life, joy, peace, and freedom. That is why we look so hard for true love. Deep in our souls, we long to be free, loved, and secure.

The very simplicity of unconditional/true love is also the source of its power. Lacking all limitations, unconditional love is limitless and endless. Unconditional love is simply another way of saying God, the infinite, the divine, the source, known by many names. Every major religion, in fact, asserts that God is love.

Unconditional love–God in other words–is so simple that most of us find it very suspicious if not downright impossible to understand or accept. We’re certain there has to be a catch somewhere, just as we’re convinced that some people, somehow and in some way, have done something so horrible or unforgiveable that they no longer merit God’s or anyone else’s love.

Do we damn child abusers? What about terrorists who cause death on a mass scale? Do we condemn corporate polluters? Illegal drug users? Homosexuals? Christian fundamentalists? Those of differing faiths or races?

Our personal litany of the unlovable/unforgiveable says far more about the limitations of our love than about anyone else. It also shows us that the love we give and receive is constricted and diminished by judgments, standards, or expectations. Once we impose even one tiny judgment, standard, or expectation on love, it devolves away from being true/unconditional.

Trapped in the painful web of conditional love, we devote our time and energy to looking for love in all the wrong places. We keep hoping to find true love somewhere–out there–outside of ourselves, in someone else’ eyes.

But that is not the place to find true love. Only when we look within will we find what we truly seek–love that heals and sustains us and can even help heal our world.