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Friends United
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July/August 2007
Sacred Moments by Sylvia Graves, FUM General Secretary
Changes at Friends Theological College
Discerning a Call
Ramallah Friends School 8th Graders Adopt Turkana and Amari
Recent Events at Ramallah Friends Schools
FTC Hosts Workshop
2008 FUM Triennial
2007 VBS Project Reminder
Shop Online and Save!
Friendships Among Quaker Men
Sacred
Moments
By Sylvia Graves, General Secretary
“What a tragedy! I am so sorry for your loss,” people said as they expressed genuine sympathy in response to the news that my nephew, Kyle Mills and his fiancée, Jenny Sengpiel, lost their lives in a plane crash on May 12. Kyle and Jenny were both accomplished musicians. She played the oboe and he the French horn for the orchestra in Great Falls, Montana. They planned to be married on August 3. Then for the next two years, they would be apart as Jenny worked toward her doctorate and taught oboe at the University of Illinois while Kyle played in the Calgary orchestra. They were nearly packed up to leave Montana, but decided to experience the thrill of skydiving. The plane taking them up for the very first time barely made it into the air, turned to go back to the runway and crashed, killing all five people aboard.
A memorial service for Kyle will be arranged for later in the summer. A service for Jenny was in May at a Lutheran Church north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was a fitting tribute to her beauty, her character and her talent. The music played by members of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony as people gathered was restful and comforting. During the service, the music was exquisite. Jenny’s former university instructors played the oboe with clarity and reverence. Jenny’s uncle, her high school band director and her sister told stories about her life. The pastor delivered words of comfort and encouragement, some scriptural and some from his heart. Then communion was offered. We were invited to line up and come down both aisles to receive a wafer and dip it in wine.
It was not particularly a dilemma for me as I sat with three other Quakers who chose not to go forward. Whereas I respect the practice of those who find the outward sacraments meaningful, at that moment walking forward to receive a wafer dipped in wine seemed like a distraction from the communion I was cherishing. You see, from the oboes came the melody of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”—flawlessly and with more passion than I have ever heard it played before. The words welled up from within me.
Jesu, joy of man’s desiring
Holy Wisdom, Love most bright.
Drawn by Thee our souls aspiring
Soar to uncreated light
Word of God, our flesh that fashioned
With the fire of life impassioned
Striving still to truths unknown
Soaring, dying round Thy Throne
Through the way where hope is guiding
Hark, what peaceful music rings!
Where the flock in Thee confiding
Drink of joy from deathless springs
Theirs is beauty’s fairest pleasure
Theirs is wisdom’s holiest treasure.
Thou dost ever lead Thine own
In the love of joys unknown.
It was the holiest of moments as the peaceful music rang and I pictured
Jenny and Kyle drinking joy from deathless springs. Thank you, Jesu.
Changes
at Friends Theological College
By Sylvia Graves, General Secretary
Sometimes things change whether we want them to or not. When we are making good progress, we feel there’s a constant that can be trusted or when something is going well, we don’t want it to end. We may grieve over it, even, when it does end. And then, to our surprise, the change that takes place turns out to be ok, or even better than ok. This letter is to tell you about such a time.
Even though they felt it was a lifetime commitment when they left for Kenya four and a half years ago, Patrick Nugent and Mary Kay Rehard will be ending their service at Friends Theological College in mid-August. For many of you that is sad news.
But the great news is that God has provided a couple already loved and trusted by FUM who will step in to maintain the integrity and progress at FTC that Patrick and Mary Kay have kept on track. We are excited that Ben and Jody Richmond have agreed to go to Kenya for an interim year. You know Ben Richmond. He served on the FUM office staff for nearly two decades. Now he will be serving as FTC principal and will be able to continue on the path designed by the FTC board toward full government accreditation. Jody may take on some teaching duties and/or find some counseling opportunities with the college or Kaimosi Hospital. In the meantime, we will be searching for a principal who can commit to a longer term.
There is no doubt that Patrick and Mary Kay have developed a strong support base. Friends have learned to trust Patrick, appreciate the excellent job he is doing and have demonstrated confidence in his leadership. For the sake of the 67 students enrolled at FTC currently—and future students as well—who are counting on us to keep it going, we hope you will redirect your confidence toward Ben and Jody. If you have been sending money to support Patrick and Mary Kay, we hope you will continue to do so through August. You can then direct your gifts to Ben and Jody.
More urgently however, Ben and Jody need to raise funds now for this commitment. They will need help with the costs of travel as well as to fund a ministry account that pays their basic salary and living expenses. To keep such endeavors grounded in reality, FUM requires at least one-third of their budget be raised before they leave for Kaimosi.
Ben and Jody are excited about this opportunity. We are excited, too. We hope that you also will join the Ben and Jody team and support their ministry at Friends Theological College.
Judy Davis of Iowa Yearly Meeting spent three months during the summer of 2006 volunteering in Nairobi, Kenya. She worked in a health clinic in Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa, with a goal of using her newly acquired nursing skills to make a difference in the lives of others.
She wanted to shake up her world view in order to shape her passion in her new nursing career. Judy’s nursing work at Tabitha Clinic in Kibera changed her world view.
“I realized that I was a very wealthy person and that I had lived a privileged life compared with the people I served and my peers. The cultural differences were vast. Some of these differences were admirable and others, at best, frustrating. By the end of last summer I was just beginning to understand how to work within their culture with my values. I also knew that I would find a way to return. Returning is about my faith journey of engaging and expanding my nursing skills where they are needed, to lovingly express care and concern for people of other cultures and to live a life of service for others.”
This summer Judy has returned to Kenya, this time to Kaimosi Hospital. Judy will be working on administrative tasks as well as providing nursing services wherever needed. Please keep Judy Davis in your prayers as she discerns her call to ministry in Kenya.
RFS
8th Graders Adopt Turkana and Amari
By Trish Edwards-Konic
For the first time in many years, two specific Quaker classes have been added to the Ethics track in the Ramallah Friends School curriculum. Starting in the past school year, juniors took “Quaker Faith and Practice” and 8th graders took “Quaker History.”
The Quaker History course was rescheduled until the final term so I could help with the early history. I developed three PowerPoint presentations for the first three lessons. We (Joyce Ajlouny and I) started off with the work of FUM, focusing on Quaker schools worldwide. It was moving to watch the students see the conditions of students in Turkana as they tried to study. They all wanted to adopt it as a service project and raise funds for desks.
At their Open Day, they collected donations and sold mechanical pencils to raise money for the students in Turkana. They had prepared several nice posters explaining the schools in Turkana and how they hoped to help.
Then Joyce took over full time and taught the history of Ramallah Friends School and the influence of Quakers in the Middle East. The students decided to add another project—this time the Friends Play Center at the Amari Refugee Camp.
On a Sunday morning, students arrived at Amari to interact with the preschoolers and to hand out gifts they had purchased from the donations. At first they remained in two groups. The preschoolers sang some songs and showed off they knew the alphabet and could count to ten.
Then paper and colors were handed out and the 8th graders joined the preschoolers as they drew. Face painting started and there was much laughter and joy in the room.
Each preschooler received a wrapped gift—coloring books for the girls and a car game for the boys.
One 8th grade boy said to me as we were waiting for rides, “They need us to come.” Several girls said, “Let’s make this a yearly class project.” Overall, the feeling was positive and very supportive. There is much hope for these young people with compassionate hearts.
Note: The PowerPoint presentations will be available to download from the Friends United Press Shopping Center in time for fall classes.
Recent
Events at Ramallah Friends Schools
The annual Music Day performances by Ramallah Friends Girls School (grades 1-6) were held this year at the state-of-the-art Ramallah Cultural Arts Center to a packed house of parents, relatives and friends who thoroughly enjoyed the song and dance students had put hours of hard work in to perfecting.
This year’s annual English Day at Ramallah Friends Girls School rolled over in to two days of skits and readings and were of the same high quality you would find in any good school in the US, exceptional considering English is the second language for these students!
Open Day (combination Field Day/Science Fair) at the Friends Boys School began with tennis tournaments, basketball and gymnastics. Art exhibits focusing on Palestinian art and Science projects were on display. The day ended with Debka (traditional Palestinian folk) dancing.
Hope for the future was evident as 81 students graduated from Ramallah Friends Schools in Palestine on May 27, 2007. The ceremony was in Arabic except for one speech by one of the valedictorians, but you knew all along, this was graduation! The smiles were big, the parents and teachers were proud, the joy was mixed with tears as the chapter of their Friends school education concluded and the future opened up before them. Congratulations!
Friends Theological College hosted a workshop on “Reproductive Health for Women and Men” on May 5. The speaker, Dr Ruby Sokwala from Kisumu, linked health issues with Christian living. The topics for the workshop were: HIV/AIDS, other sexually-transmitted infections and prevention, fertility awareness/ family planning and cancer awareness/prevention.
The next triennial sessions of Friends United Meeting will be July 9 to 13, 2008. North Carolina Yearly Meeting will host the gathering in Archdale/High Point. From Jeremiah 29:11, the triennial theme will be “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
The greatest needs at the Swift-Purscell Boys Home and Lyndale Home for Girls are for a remedial teacher to help with homework, remedial curriculum, textbooks every year for each student at the government schools and a computer to use for remedial teaching. Friends United Meeting’s 2007 Vacation Bible School project hopes to raise $8,000 to purchase textbooks and a computer for the children at Swift-Purscell and Lyndale. Let’s help give these children the chance to learn.
VBS curriculum is available and includes information about the Friends mission work in Jamaica, as well as recipes, snack ideas, crafts and games. Contact Terri Johns for more information—(765) 962-7573.
Friends United Press books now available at the Shopping Center. Use a coupon code to get 20% off your purchase! Hurry, offer ends September 1, 2007! See ad on page 29 for more information.
The Quaker Men of Western Yearly Meeting have formed a special bond with the Quaker Men of Gibara Meeting. This friendship started in January of 2004 when men from our work team were asked to meet with the Gibara men and learned that they were doing much the same thing in their community that we have been doing in ours. The men of that year’s work team “passed the hat” and were able to leave a donation to assist the Gibara Quaker Men.
In 2005 no one from Western Yearly Meeting was able to travel on the work team to Cuba, but a donation was sent from our group, which consists of six Monthly Meetings from Howard County that meet for breakfast once a month and usually has an attendance of 20-25 men. A picture and a carved alligator were sent from the Quaker Men of Gibara in appreciation.
In 2006, with the FUM work team, our group again sent a financial gift. Two members of our group also purchased a Craftsman eight tool, battery powered kit and extra saw blades, bits and an assortment of nails, screws and small hand tools. None of these items are readily available in Cuba. These were presented to Rev. Ramon Gonzalez-Longoria, Clerk of Cuba Yearly Meeting. Ramon controls the use of the tools by the work teams that visit as well as the work of the Quaker Men groups around Cuba.
In February 2007 the annual “Ground Hog” meeting of the Western and Indiana Quaker Men was held at Quaker Haven. These Quaker Men understand the importance of the Missionary work and support many missions with their contributions of money and tools. They further support the missions by giving of their personal time—traveling on these work teams sponsored by FUM to mission fields around the world. The work of the Quaker Men of Cuba was reported at the meeting and a very generous donation collected. Two men from our Quaker Men were able to travel with the FUM work team again this year and personally delivered the gift. This gift was converted into Euro—as American dollars are no longer a legal currency in Cuba—and presented to Richard Rojo, President of Quaker Men of Cuba. He reported that some of the money would be used to purchase food when they have their annual meeting as they did not have sufficient funds this year and had to join the Yearly Meeting for meals. The balance of the gift will be distributed to the Monthly Meetings, depending on the project in their respective meetings and community. A carved crab was sent from the Quaker Men of Cuba to the Quaker Men of Western and Indiana Yearly Meeting and presented to Connie Robertson, President of Western Quaker Men, as a way of appreciation. A letter was also sent from Julio Rubio Sales, President of Quaker Men of Gibara, in gratitude that speaks of the special bond and friendship that they feel towards us. It is our prayer that the Quaker Men of Cuba and especially Gibara continue to flourish as they do the work of our Savior and that this special fellowship among f/Friends continues.
Ron Talbert and Brian Cossell are active members of Western Quaker Men and Kokomo Friends Meeting in Western Yearly Meeting.