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Friends United
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Pennies for Peace
By Jamie Lyon
I want to share with you the exciting ministry that is coming out of Russiaville (Western Yearly Meeting) Monthly Meeting's youth group, known as Junior Christians or JCs. Our 8-12 JCs have started a fundraising campaign called, "Pennies for Peace." Each young person is decorating a 2-liter pop bottle and taking it home to fill with pennies that will be donated to FUM's Kenya Emergency Relief. We have discussed conflict-resolution skills and what it takes to cope with difficult situations. A couple weeks ago our young people wrote letters of encouragement to John Muhanji and the Friends Churches of Africa. John wrote back and all became excited about getting involved. One of our 14-year-olds even took it upon himself to e-mail John and get acquainted with him. He called to tell us about his experience and later that evening shared with us a printed copy of his correspondence with John. Most young people want to do something to help, but are sometimes limited as to what they can contribute. Pennies are an item that most of our young people have access to, so it is our desire as a small youth group to challenge all the other small groups to join us in this "Pennies for Peace" fundraising effort. Sometimes we think that, since we are a small meeting, there is not much we can do to make a difference. This fundraising campaign proves that is not the case. Our youth group is small, but they are really excited about the chance to help our African F/friends. Youth group members involved in this project include: Courtney, Hannah, Olivia, Kacey, Kaitlyn, Nathan, Steven, Chandler, Ashley and Lauren, along with a couple occasional visitors. The group is led by Phil and Nancy Carter and Jamie and Carol Lyon.