A few years before we moved out here, congregation members invested more than a million dollars, finishing a portion of the basement under the sanctuary into a day shelter for unhoused youth. Northwest Youth Services manages the shelter's day-to-day operations. This has proven to be a meaningful relationship. Members of the church help support the shelter by contributing food and clothing, and each summer, there is a neighborhood barbecue in the parking lot for youth and members of the neighborhood. Yesterday, the acting director of Northwest Youth Services gave a brief moment of mission during our worship service. He spoke informally and passionately about the work that his agency is doing. Last year, they served an average of 40 youths daily, offering laundry services, showers, lockers, safe spaces for naps, study, and art. They also provide social services when youth are ready to seek jobs, housing, and other services.

In his brief presentation, the director reported on a recent meeting with our representative for the second district of Washington in the United States House of Representatives. While our representatives and senators are used to hearing requests for funding, and Northwest Youth Services does lean on the state and federal government for financial assistance, he did not make a direct appeal. Instead of noting the stressful tensions in Washington, D.C., he asked the representative, “How are you doing?” The answer was, “Not well.”

Our public servants are hurting. Those in elected positions are subject to intense pressures caused by enormous amounts of money invested in manipulating elections. To retain their seats, they are forced to raise money to counter the almost limitless investments of ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations who have no limits on their spending. Those working in government, providing service to citizens, have faced mass layoffs, often unpredictable and uncertain. Some have been offered buyouts of retirement only to find out that the actual terms are not as represented. Others have been fired without explanation.

I was moved by the story of simple human connection from an honest question, “How are you doing?” We have been asking many of our friends this question these days. Some involved in immigrant rights have been facing discouraging results in the past few months. Some who have worked for years to protect the environment, including clean water and air, have been discouraged by what seems to be a wholesale gutting of US environmental policy and action. Some of our friends are members of cross-border families with immediate family members who live on the other side of the border. A waitress who served us when we went out for lunch recently has a boyfriend who lives across the border. She spoke of the increased border crossing difficulty since the US presidential inauguration. Some of our friends and neighbors work in import/export businesses and have had to work overtime for weeks trying to figure out regulations that seem to change daily. Tariff rates and rules are frequently the topics of governmental rhetoric and social media postings, and the status of tariffs seems to change daily.

Yesterday, a member of our church had her laptop with her. She works for US Customs and Border Protection, and she was on call over the weekend to be able to respond to any confusion or incidents at the border crossing near our home. When asked, “How are you?” the answer revealed a lot of stress. While her job demands discretion to protect the rights of individuals she encounters, she could share that her work has required her to put in extra hours and has placed her in situations where the rules do not align with her values. We can imagine many of those settings by reading the newspaper without her having to share details with us. We can see that her job is a lot more complicated these days than it once was.

These difficult times allow us to check in with each other and offer our support and care amid stress and challenges. Some people in our communities are forced to make difficult decisions.

The President has been making a lot of social media posts about the necessity of tariffs to force Canada to increase border security. He cites illegal importation of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs and a border problem. I don’t know if he has any understanding of how border crossings work, but the job of screening at the border for illegal substances falls to the country that people are entering. Canadian border guards check for illicit substances passing from the US to Canada, but it falls to US border guards to check for items entering the US. The way border crossings work, there is little that Canada can do to stem illegal importation into the US. That is the job of US Customs and Border Protection.

New regulations have made the jobs of US Customs and Border Protection employees much more difficult. Tariffs are only one of the new rules they have to enforce. People crossing the border for work must provide paperwork regarding their employment, and people crossing the border for volunteer service must provide proof of liability insurance. Not long ago, a group of Canadians made plans to travel to Florida to help with hurricane and severe winter storm recovery. They were turned back at the border because of the new rules. While border guards are careful to enforce the laws fairly and respond to new directives from the government, they didn’t imagine that it would fall to them to prevent people who are coming to the US to help the victims of disaster from entering our country.

Many are feeling divided by the escalating US-Canada trade war. We can help unite people by asking a simple question: “How are you?” We need to ask all of our contacts this question. As I often say, “We are all in this together.” We need each other and support. When people face pain, asking how they are doing can remind them that they are loved.