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Friends United Meeting |
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June 1997
News From Friends United Meeting
Missionaries Appointed To Serve in Africa
Richard and Sandra Davis of Wabash, Indiana, have been appointed to be Friends United Meeting Representative in Africa. Richard Davis will begin as principal of Friends Theological College in Kaimosi in October 1997. Richard is currently Director of White's Residential and Family Services, where they have lived and worked for the past 24 years. Richard and Sandy will represent FUM in all of the Africa Yearly Meetings, serving as consultants and encouragers.
Rich and Sandy Davis attended the African Pastors' Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, April 11-16. Friends pastors and leaders attended from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zaire, Burundi as well as Pemba Island. The conference was a cooperative effort between Evangelical Friends International and Friends United Meeting.
Helpful teaching, and powerful experiences of praise to God and reconciliation marked the conference. Stories of persecution and murder of family members of Central African Friends were sobering. Yet these Friends continue to work toward nonviolent conflict resolution within their communities. A meeting of FUM African Quaker leadership followed the Pastors Conference. Resolutions were adopted to resolve differences that have created divisions among African Friends.
A full report on these conferences will appear in the next Quaker Life.
Email FUM's World Ministries: Missions@xc.org.
Friends have responded eagerly to the "Becoming a House of Prayer" seminar. So far, Meetings from five yearly meetings have held or scheduled these seminars:
--Vermilion Grove, Western, March 1996
--New Burlington, Wilmington, March 1996
--Jonesboro, Indiana, June 1996
--Indianapolis First, Western, Nov. 1996
--Lynn, Indiana, January 1997
--Marion First, Indiana, January 1997
--Elwood, Western, March 1997
--Farmington, New York, March 1997
--Fairfield, Western, April 1997
--Liberty, Indiana, April 1997
--Knightstown, Indiana, May 1997
--Pleasant Grove, Western, April 1997
--West Richmo, Indiana, April 1997
--Holly Spring, North Carolina, Sept. 1997
--Powell House, New York, Nov. 1997
One participant wrote, "We do sincerely thank you for sharing your heart with us. You provided us with practical prayer tools as well as heartfelt encouragement to strive to make [our Meeting] a real House of Prayer. We especially enjoyed the afternoon challenges you gave us. As I tried to picture [our Meeting] as a House of Prayer, I felt I saw a glimpse of Heaven."
Leadership for the seminars is coordinated by FUM's Meeting Ministries. To schedule a "Becoming a House of Prayer" seminar, or to join the FUM Intercessors list, call Mary Glenn Hadley at FUM, (765) 962-7573; email: Resources@xc.org
Thanks to the generosity of American donors, medical ultrasound technology is now available at Friends Lugulu Hospital. The ultrasound machine was purchased with funds donated by family and friends in memory of Dr. Robert Bryan Michener, who died in 1992. Dr. Michener, who was a founding member of Iowaity Friends Meeting and was later active in Boulder Meeting, worked at Friends Hospital, Kaimosi from 1930-38, and again in 1967.
The idea for the project originated in 1994, when Dr. Michener's daughter Alice Schaefer heard the Gates's speak at New England Yearly Meeting, and approached them with the idea of a memorial gift to further the medical work in Kenya. After agreeing that the ultrasound machine would be a fitting memorial, Alice spent the next several months fundraising, while Tom Gates located a suitable used machine, and arranged for it to be reconditioned, converted to Kenyan voltage, and eventually shipped to Kenya in the spring of 1996--inadvertently without the instruction manual. By the time the manual arrived, Drs. Armstrong and Downing had returned to the U.S. for their furlough.
When Dr. Gates arrived in January of this year, he found the machine idle and apparently not functioning, as no one had been able to get even an image on the screen. Finally, with the help of the manual, several faxes to a repairman in California, and a temporary hook-up to a borrowed television and VCR, he was able to find and repair the responsible faulty connection, and begin using the machine.
Despite that inauspicious start, the ultrasound is expected to see frequent use in Lugulu, where it will be especially useful in the care of obstetrical patients.--by Tom and Elizabeth Gates
Email FUM's World Ministries: Missions@xc.org.
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