Twenty-five years ago, Michael Ramos quit New York and headed west. He landed in Tacoma as a Jesuit volunteer at a drop-in center for those on the streets. "It was more of a ministry of presence than anything else," Ramos says, "where we accepted people where they were and tried to listen in the midst of the brokenness of their lives. We tried to afford them a measure of peace at least for that day."
That experience still feels fresh to Ramos, whose altruistic work has continued steadily since that time. Ramos is now the Director of Social Justice Ministries at the Church Council of Greater Seattle. He unites 17 denominations and 719 churches in King County to work toward compassionate immigration policies, ending homelessness, living wage jobs, and peace in the Middle East. He and the Church Council have been instrumental in creating low-income housing downtown. He even staged a hunger strike outside the Mayor's office a few years ago which resulted in a $3.2 million increase in the human services budget. He has recently been nominated to be the Executive Director of the Church Council.
Through all of this, Ramos's faith drives him. He keeps in mind the lessons of the profit Micah: "God requires of us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God."