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Friends United Meeting |
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June 2001
News from Friends United Meeting
Missions Alive! New Appointees
By John Myers
FUM World Missions joyfully announces the appointment of Daniel Aukerman as medical doctor at Lugulu Friends Hospital, Webuye, Kenya, and Pat Shrock as short-term Assistant at Friends Theological College, Kaimosi, Kenya.
Daniel Aukerman is projecting a start date in early to mid-June, 2001, to allow time for intensive language study and also overlap with out-going doctors, Jan Armstrong and Ray Downing. Daniel is a Board Certified Family Physician who has had overseas medical experience in Ecuador, Mexico, El Salvador and Kenya. His hobbies include talking with family and friends, reading, jogging and music.
Daniel says, "In November, 1999, I worked at Lugulu for a six-week rotation. On the basis of what I saw and how I was able to contribute through my work there, I feel called to return."
Pat Shrock's goal for departure to Kenya is August 2001. She will be a volunteer Assistant in the classroom at FTC, leading elective classes that fit her gifts. She will also supervise the library during Sandy Davis' absences. Pat is retiring after more than 30 years at Delphi Delco Electronics Systems in Kokomo, Indiana. She is a member of Sycamore Friends Church, Indiana Yearly Meeting.
Pat says, "Jesus gives me purpose and fills my inner needs. He gives me hope for tomorrow and joy for today. Intimacy with Christ opens me up to seeing Him in others and serving Him by service to others." She enjoys her home, her flower beds, reading and needlework.
Please pray for the effective ministry of these new appointees. If you would like to contribute financially toward their ministry expenses, please designate your gift and send it to Friends United Meeting, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond IN 47374-1980.
2002 Triennial--"So Now Finish the Work..."
Women and Children in Kenya Today
By Marian Baker
If you attend any meeting in Kenya, you are likely to hear women leading choruses and hymns such as: Niongoze Bwana Mungi, Moto umeweka leo, Asante Yesu, Lidiku linene and Mungu u mwena (Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, The Fire of the Lord Is Burning Today, Thank you, Jesus, O Happy Day!, God Is Good to Me.) Those who go to Kenya for the 2002 FUM Triennial are likely to be showered with a warm welcome and hospitality. Traditionally, women organize most of the hospitality.
Forming local women's groups called "merry-go-rounds" is one way to support one another. Women financially contribute a certain amount of money each month to be given to one woman in the group. The next month they give to another, until every woman in the group has received. The money can be used to furnish the home, buy clothes for children or pay school fees. The receiving woman also hosts the Bible discussion group that month.
Although the life of a Kenyan woman is harder than for women in the United States, they have discovered that "the joy of the Lord is my strength" (Nehemiah 8:10) and that "those who keep their minds stayed on the Lord have perfect peace." (Isaiah 26:3) They accept their toil as obeying the words of Jesus that "those who want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven must be servants of all." (Matthew 20:27)
Cuba Work Team
By Margaret Hawthorn
"No hay un saludo mas lindo que el saludo del Cristiano. There is no greeting more beautiful than a Christian greeting."
When our plane touched down at Frank Pais airport in Holgu’n, sunshine and gentle breezes assured us we were far from the snowy world we had left in Toronto three hours before. From the customs booth I caught the welcoming smile of Maria Armenia Yi, Clerk of Cuba Yearly Meeting. With her to greet us were a few members of the yearly meeting who have become friends with previous work teams. The land in Cuba is hauntingly beautiful, but it is the people who draw me back every year.
The distance is not great, but the trip takes about three hours to reach Banes. In the rush of joyous greetings, I needed a moment to absorb the changes already taken place. Oz-like, the entire roof of the church had been removed and set atop a frame constructed on the flat roof of the pastors' home adjacent to the church. Set amid palm fronds like a tree house, this new tabernaculo offers sanctuary from the bustle of the construction going on below and will serve as a place for Banes Friends to worship during the year of planned building. When reconstruction is completed, services will move back into the church, and the newly created space on the pastors' roof will be used for Sunday school classes.
We set to work the day after we arrived. This year our efforts went into demolition, not construction. A crew climbed a scaffold and began chipping at the problematic east wall; when we broke for lunch very little of it remained. Those not directly involved in tearing down walls worked to salvage as many bricks as possible by scraping off the old mortar.
We learned not to torture ourselves by studying the mounting pile of bricks and estimating how long it would take to clean them all. Rather, we chatted, laughed, and sang with the Cuban workers and fellow group members as we chiseled through the pile, brick by brick. We even danced together when some of our hosts offered us dance lessons, Cuban style.
Because each person brought a gift that filled a special niche, it would be hard to imagine any individual not having been part of the team. Donna's gift for spoken prayer and her repertoire of campfire songs, Lisa's warmth and humor, Erwin's profound yet uncomplicated faith and his Cuban-American heritage, the three young people's enthusiasm and adventuresome spirits, Harold's quiet, steady presence on the work site--these are just some of the personal offerings that blended into a diverse and congenial group.
In Toronto the night before we left for Cuba, group leader John Myers asked us to consider, "What are your hopes and fears for this trip?" Each time I participate in a work team, my hopes are to be useful, to nurture relationships with old friends, and to meet new friends. I also hope to be deepened spiritually, to be touched and moved in unpredictable ways, and to be open to receiving the lessons in faith that this experience will offer. My fears are of physical illness, and of "the crash."
Usually, some stomach bug strikes the group, no matter how careful we are. Some years it is mild, other years it lays waste to members of the work team for days at a time. The physicians I've met in Cuba (there are at least a few among the membership of each of the Friends Churches) are compassionate and well trained, but the outdated equipment and lack of medical supplies is unsettling. Even though they are having success with some alternative therapies such as acupuncture when there is no anesthesia, and green medicine (herbal remedies), I am fearful of falling seriously ill while on the trip.
In addressing this fear of physical vulnerability, I'm inspired by the witness of Cuban Friends, who consistently pray with and for their sisters and brothers who become sick or injured. As a contemplative Quaker, I have been blessed to learn from them about active, vocal prayer. "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." (James 5:14-15)
We carry antibiotics and a battery of over-the-counter remedies with us. This makes sense; our hosts don't need a sick work team on their hands. However, this access to bottled cures can instill in me a false sense of independence. Living side by side with people who don't have this luxury, I am humbled by their faith. I am tenderly encouraged, through their loving example, to mind my manners, to remember that healing and forgiveness are of a piece, and to regularly ask for both.
My greater fear is of the crash. That is the point when everything--the economic injustices, the poverty, the frustration over seeing so many gifted, creative people using their talents just to survive--becomes too much. It may be triggered by a friend's delight in receiving a cheap ball point pen, by a story I hear, or by watching someone make do with a patched-together item that I have three of in my junk drawer. Lisa, whose generally ebullient spirit delighted Cubans and work team members alike, personified the crash one day as she sat at the table looking dazed. "Who do you help?" she asked. "I mean, who do you help?"
It hits again when I get home. The first trip to a supermarket is painful, being confronted by a plethora of cereal choices, or a full aisle dedicated to pet products. Part of the crash is realizing that I have the choice to come home. For two weeks, we live in the homes of Cuban Friends. We wash up in a bucket, and we experience some of the hardships of our friends' lives. For the most part, however, they shield us from the toughest aspects. We are pampered and well fed, even to our discomfort, because of our hosts' generosity. Then we bid emotional farewells and return to the creature comforts of our own homes, while our friends are left to cope with ongoing shortages. As much as I dread the crash, I would be troubled if I didn't experience it, for wouldn't that mean complacency had set in?
Alma Ajo, pastor of Velasco Friends Church, once remarked, "Hospitality is a Christian quality." Christian love flows abundantly in the hospitality of Cuban Friends. That I, who have surplus in my life, should receive even more from people who have so little is a bewildering form of grace. Like Peter, I feel I should be the one washing feet.
Relief comes in our shared worship, both on the work site and in gathered services in the church. The economics of the trip can seem silly; far more materials and labor could be funded if most of us donated the trip cost and stayed home. But the bricks that got scraped, the demolition debris that was shoveled and, most important, the fellowship that took place through pantomime and valiant attempts to speak one another's languages--those are manifestations of worship on the work site.
Worship in the Cuban Friends Churches is vibrant. I love the vocal ministry of programmed Friends; it provides a rich complement to the quiet, reflective worship of my unprogrammed meeting. Cuban Friends know by heart the words and tunes to many hymns, which they sing with passion. Through their actions and spoken testimony, they share a witness of God's faithful, caring presence in their lives. Their love for Jesus is contagious. As we worship together, wrapped in the warm night air, it is easy to be swept up in the Spirit, which is so palpable in this community.
An afternoon journal entry tells of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a quieter moment. "Donna is making yarn dolls in the tabernacle. Camila, with long, curly hair pinned back in fancy pink barrettes, and a smile that reveals a space where a new tooth should soon appear, tip-toes up the stairs. She quietly watches Donna work, then asks if Donna will make a doll for her. When it's finished, she stands at the lectern. She and the doll address an imaginary congregation. Then she walks among the benches with two baskets, taking up the offering. When I go downstairs, she is back at the lectern again with the doll, singing, "No hay un saludo mas lindo que el saludo del Cristiano. There is no greeting more beautiful than a Christian greeting."
Copyright (c) 2001 Friends United Meeting
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