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Friends United Meeting |
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December 2005
General Board Meets in Richmond
Turkana Friends Mission Receives Visit
Quaker Hill Bookstore Adds Ten Thousand Villages Crafts
Visitors to Belize Friends School
General Board Meets in Richmond
The first meeting of the Triennium for Friends United Meeting’s General Board/Richmond met October 7-8 in Richmond, Indiana. The General Board/Africa will meet in Kenya in January 2006.
The Program Coordinating and Priorities Committee has developed an orientation handbook for members of the General Board. This book is dedicated to the memory of Marian McDonald of Iowa Yearly Meeting; Marian’s commitment to this project brought it to reality. The handbook will also be distributed to the Africa board members in January.
Approval was given to accept the invitation of the FUM General Board/Africa to hold a combined meeting of the entire board in Africa in February 2007. North American yearly meetings are encouraged to budget finances to send their General Board appointments to this meeting.
The priorities of FUM—evangelism, leadership training, global partnership and communication—have set direction for the Triennium. God is leading FUM through uncharted waters. The staff and General Board are committed to moving forward with prayerful care. Incorporating additions, such as opening the regional office in Kenya, require increased financial income.
In order to adjust cash flow in this transitional time and to meet financial
goals for FUM, significant decisions were made:
a. All board members are expected to make a financial contribution to
the general fund of FUM.
b. Full-time staff will go to a four-day workweek for a temporary period
of six months. This is a 20% salary reduction to adjust to cash flow needs.
c. The positions of Editor of Friends United Press and Editor of Quaker
Life were folded into one position.
d. The administrative fee on designated contributions was raised from
5% to 15%.
e. Filling of vacancies in the following staff positions were put on hold:
Administrative Assistant to the General Secretary, North American Ministries
Representative and Director of Communications
f. Focus of fundraising for FUM will be the general fund.
g. The Executive Committee will serve as the search committee for the
General Secretary.
Appreciation is expressed to FUM staff who are most affected by these decisions. As you, FUM’s constituency, respond to the Annual Fund appeal by giving generously, we will move forward in God’s call to evangelism, leadership training, global partnership and communication.
Turkana Friends Mission Receives Visit
By John Muhanji, FUM Africa Ministries Representative
Traveling to Turkana Friends Mission in the Northwest of Kenya bordering Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia was one of the most exciting and exhausting trips we took this year as the Africa Ministries Office. The trip was from September 16- 19 and those travelling included: John Muhanji, FUM Africa Ministries Representative; Eden Grace, FUM Africa Ministries field staff; Patricia Shrock, FTC Volunteer Teacher; Herman Jaika Otioko, FUM Mission Consultant and his wife, Ruth.
The first American missionaries, Ersal and Dorothy Kindel, opened this extraordinary mission in the hottest part of Kenya. The call that sent them to Turkana was a call no person can resist when it strikes. When this mission was established in the early 1970s, there was no proper road from Kitale to Lodwar, so they went through Uganda, then back to Kenya in Turkana. One of the early Kenyan missionaries in the area, Herman Jaika Otioko, traveled to Turkana with us and said the weather was fair during those days. He remembers that at Kalokol, where the first mission centre was established, Lake Turkana was 100 metres from the centre. But now the lake is more than 4km away from the centre. What used to be occupied by the lake is now a very dry land with thorny trees and sand.
As we visited different mission centres in Turkana, I saw only women and children with very few old men. Many of the men have gone far in search of pasture for their animals, but the children remain to take care of the goats and sheep. Seeing the children and their mothers reminded me of how I was brought up. My father was a traveling minister who traveled and planted churches in Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda and most parts of Kenya from the mid-1960s until his death in 1983. When he was gone in ministry, I saw him less often but my mother was there for us all. She had problems looking for food for us. I saw the same condition in the Turkanan children. They saw their father less often as I did. The women are traveling long distances in search of water and food.
The trip caused me to ask myself: “Who am I to live a good life while the people in Turkana are suffering? Were we not created in the same image of God?” These are the questions I cannot answer. But I feel more humbled before God and I remembered Psalm 121:1-2: “I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” It is true when Turkanans look up to the hills, there is totally no hope. The hills are very dry and rocky. Therefore, hope is only in the Lord.
All the churches are far from each other and the Turkana Friends Mission is doing a great job in coordinating them. I have great respect for John Moru and all the pastors who are doing a tremendous work of spreading the gospel to the people who are spiritually and physically poor. I commend the mission team for proper management of any little funds they get from FUM. They have demonstrated the capability and have been rated by myself as the best church managed team in the Quaker church in Africa.
The Turkana situation reminds me that God encourages us in all our tribulations by teaching us from his word that it is He who permits trials to come. He encourages us further by reminding us that He is in control of trials in 2 Corinthians 1:8: “we were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” Paul was weighed down like a beast of burden with a load too heavy to bear. But God knew just how much Paul could take and kept the situation in control. I believe God will do likewise for the Turkana Friends Mission pastors in their ministry.
In Turkana, the pastors are suffering, the people are suffering, the animals are suffering and everything living is suffering. This mission needs your prayers and mine to stand with them in every kind of support.
Quaker Hill Bookstore Adds Ten Thousand Villages Crafts
Quaker Hill Bookstore (QHB) launches the year-round addition of handcrafted items from Ten Thousand Villages prior to Christmas. These exquisite, handcrafted items are made by artisans from 30 countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. Sales of Ten Thousand Villages crafts helps support the economic welfare of craftspeople and the promotion of human dignity.
The addition of selected items from Ten Thousand Villages, along with crafts from Kenyan and Ramallah Friends, is Quaker Hill Bookstore’s contribution to FUM’s commitment to global partnerships. If you’re within reasonable driving distance, come by Thursdays through Saturdays and step into our new “world.”
Christmas, of course, is a wonderful time for giving books as gifts. If you live too far to come to Quaker Hill—write, phone or order online!
Quaker Hill Bookstore
101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond IN 47374
call toll-free 800-537-8838
email Quaker
Hill Bookstore
www.quakerhillbooks.org
Visitors to Belize Friends School
By Mike and Kay Cain
Tenna and Mike Pershing from Westfield Friends Meeting, Indiana came by on October 12. They were in Belize on vacation and wanted to see the work at the Belize Friends Boys School.
They spent the morning helping the teachers in the classrooms. Tenna spent her time helping Keon with his math and reading, while Mike helped out in the other classroom.