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March 2004
News from Friends United Meeting
Gravestone Laid
On November 3, 2003 a gravestone was laid for Edith Ratcliff. Present were Dorothy Selebna (representing Kenya USFW), Meshack Mutamba (representing Edith's family) and Marian Baker (representing FUM missionaries who had worked with Edith in years past).
Belize Boys Win City Championship
The Belize Friends Boys School (FBS) basketball team is the 2004 City Primary School Champions! The team met the boys from Queen Square Anglican for the city championship on January 27, with the final score of FBS 36, Queen Square 20. They now advance to the Belize District Championship.
FBS is the only school that takes all the students to the games. Basketball is more than a team sport; it is a school sport and all students participate whether playing or cheering the team on.
2004 VBS Mission Project:
Lindi Friends School, Kenya
Friends United Meeting's 2004 VBS mission project is Lindi Friends School, Nairobi, Kenya. The 2004 VBS Mission Project Curriculum will be mailed to monthly meetings before the end of March.
Through FUM's 2004 VBS mission project curriculum, students and meetings will learn more about Africa Quaker Vision (AQUAVIS) and the children of Lindi Friends School and how they live. In addition, students will explore ways to help build a brighter future for the students and their school.
Set in the midst of Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum, the school serves 200 children. Members of AQUAVIS are committed to developing the school into a "life center" to meet the varied and critical needs of their students. The Kenyan government has promised to provide teachers (and pay their salaries) when the school has a more permanent building.
For more information, contact FUM, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN 47374 or phone 765-962-7573. Email inquires can be sent to Barbara Mays at barbaram@fum.org. Also see "Moments of Perfection" by Darcy Drayton on page 8 of this issue.
The Digital School
By Colin South
When I was a child, my father and mother would talk about how many months it would take to travel to the United States or to Southern Africa. The boat journeys were long and leisurely. Mail between continents was slow. Even ten years ago, working in an international agency, we talked about the enormous difficulty in communications between people overseas and our office.
Now, two minutes on the internet and you can be in conversation with a person on the other side of the world and with proper timetable coordination, you can travel to most places within 36 hours unless, of course, you are Palestinian and political obstacles make that impossible.
Technology has sometimes become the master and occasionally the servant of our international communications and of management systems in general. Politicians and other lay people in the community are easily convinced that the way to modernity is through information technology and improved information services. It is almost a fashion accessory for modern government and other organizations, commercial and non-profit, to wear their latest technology and flaunt it to an admiring public.
Without any initial analysis of the needs of the community of people who work in these organizations, without any proper planning about how changes may be incorporated in present systems and without any training for those persons who will enter, share and use data, any new expenditure in information technology and services just becomes so much jewelry that quickly loses its value.
Friends School has a vision one day to be a digital school. A digital school is a school invested in technology and associated software systems which, as a consequence, operates more efficiently in its administration, provides opportunities for learning more effectively and communicates appropriately and well within its internal and external communities. Friends School is still at the entry point into this vision. We have clearly identified some of our needs; we have put in place some appropriate teacher training but we are coming a little late to structural change to take advantage of our considerable investment. However, the change necessary to incorporate our amazing capabilities as a digital school is emerging.
We are entering the 21st century with enthusiasm, and we are wired and ready to go.
Mission Notes
Friends School, Ramallah/El-Bireh
The second semester has commenced at Friends School with the year completed on June 1. Staff morale is better than it was at the beginning of the year and our students seem to be more settled. Thanks to international support from Friends and alumni, particularly from the United States, we are managing to balance budgets, but please keep helping our scholarship/bursary program and general funding through this difficult political period. We have a school which has an awesome investment in its land, buildings and infrastructure and has many fine qualities, not least of which is its concern to offer values, skills and hope that promise to carry people through into a democratic and justice-driven Palestine. Sadly, the Wall and other attempts to physically and intellectually isolate the West Bank are creating a dangerous environment of deep-seated anger and frustration that may spill over into yet another period of more extreme violence. Despite our political circumstances, by the positive miracle of Life, the school is a beacon of peace and tranquility and continues to need your support.
John and Marjorie Scott retired from service as Friends-in-Residence the end of January and we were sorry to see them go. They have been an inspiration to the Meeting and School, particularly for the young children who developed easy friendships with their adopted international grandparents.
Jacob Kuntz continues to serve effectively. As the avalanche of work and stress as a new teacher in this difficult environment subsides and Jacob becomes more familiar with the territory, more attention can be given to a strategic approach to Christian leadership. This is an exciting period of thinking and planning. We look forward to John Hishmeh arriving at Easter to bolster FUM's ministry here.
Colin and Kathy South are busy with various aspects of ministry. We await God's guidance for a replacement and know God is watching over us. We ask for the blessing of continuing patience and trust.
Jamaica Andy & Lisa Stout
Well into the second term at Happy Grove, Andy continues to develop the chaplain position and has started a staff Bible study. Lisa is teaching English classes until a replacement can be found for a teacher who did not return after Christmas. Thank you for your continued prayers for our ministry here in Jamaica!
Copyright (c) 2004 Friends United Meeting
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