The Kenyan government recently directed that all schools partially re-open by 5 October 2020. The phased re-opening welcomed back students in Class Four, Class Eight, and Form Four. The Quaker Education Commission, led by the Education Secretary, Ben Nasikungu, surveyed six secondary and three primary schools within Bungoma County to assess challenges since re-opening.
Read MoreOver the past several months, a number of our news items have described work undertaken through partnership between three Friends organizations working in Kenya: Friends United Meeting’s Africa Ministries Office, the Africa section of Friends World Committee for Consultation, and Friends Church Kenya. Of these three organizations, Friends Church Kenya is least familiar to our non-Kenyan readers.
Read MoreFriends United Meeting is accepting applications for the position of Head of Ramallah Friends School (RFS), located in Ramallah, Palestine. This is a full-time long-term field staff position within the Global Ministries Department of Friends United Meeting. The Head of School is the senior member of the RFS staff, responsible for ensuring FUM’s faithful stewardship as owners of the school and shepherding its mission of providing a distinctively Friends education to Palestinian boys and girls since 1869. The Head of School reports to the General Secretary of Friends United Meeting and works in a mutually-accountable relationship with the Board of Trustees of the School.
Read MoreJohn 15:1-4 (NIV)15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. When I read about pruning it reminds me of a time when my grandfather would send us to his coffee farm to help him prune the coffee bushes. In preparation, would sharpen the pruning saw and the pruning shears and head to the farm...
Read More“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15: 7 ESV) My father depended on a small-scale farm he owned to provide for his family. As a child, I saw how he struggled to plough, plant, tend and harvest his maize crop amidst constantly changing weather patterns. Each year, he trusted in God to get just the right kind of harvest to feed and clothe his family, keep his five children in school and sustain his calling as a Quaker pastor. Every evening before we read scriptures and prayed, Dad impressed on us to trust in God and focus on our education in order to change our family’s fortune...
Read MoreThroughout our history, the people known as Friends (or Quakers) keep rediscovering an essential and enduring truth: There is one who speaks to our most basic needs and most significant hopes—Christ Jesus the Lord. Both individually and communally, we are learning to know and follow the Voice that guides us in the way we should go. Together, we seek to understand and obey that truth which sets us free. As a people, we share in the experience of that powerful life which makes all things new. Maybe you are searching for an authentic and transforming faith and community to call home—if so, come in and join us as we seek to know and follow Christ.
Friends United Meeting commits itself to energize and equip Friends through the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved, and obeyed as Teacher and Lord.