Getry Agizah, Coordinator for Friends Church Peace Team, recently spoke in the Living Witness of Friends Fall Conversation Series organized by Wilmington (Ohio) Friends Meeting, and open to all Friends over Zoom. Getry shared testimonies of her work in FCPT—a ministry born out of Kenyan Quakers’ response to the 2007 Kenyan election violence. FCPT continues to work to reduce violence and conflict in Kenya, whatever the causes may be. FCPT volunteers and staff have trained thousands of Kenyans in Alternatives to Violence, Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities, trauma healing, nonviolent social change, transformative mediation, and more. The Peace Team’s efforts were central to the quelling of violence between the 2007 and 2013 elections. They enabled displaced persons to move back to their homes. They worked to rebuild connections between neighbors of rival communities. The ongoing work done through this ministry literally removes the causes of war.
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During the General Board Meeting, FUM members received an update from the Planning Committee about the upcoming Triennial. The Planning Committee reported that plans are underway to host the 2023 Triennial in Kenya. Given plans for the joint gathering in 2020 were disrupted, invitations were issued to the United Society of Friends Women International and Quaker Men International to partner with FUM in the gathering. Both agreed.
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During the first retreat of the FUM African Mission Committee or Friends Africa Board of Missions (FABOM), held at Noble Hotel in Eldoret in August, the Board explored what they need to do to make mission a part of the work of the African church. During the retreat in Eldoret, it was clear that the committee needed to develop a mission, vision, and strategy for African missions. The purpose of the Friends Africa Board of Missions (FABOM) is to fuel the engagement of African Friends in fulfillment of the Great Commission across the world. The mission statement developed at the retreat directs FABOM to energize, equip, and send African Friends to mission fields to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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John 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...
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“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...
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1 John 2:6 (NASB) “6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” Abiding in something is often translated as ‘remaining’. But in order to remain we must first have a beginning. This verse says that if we say we are remaining in Him (Christ) then we must continue after our awakening. I believe it was John Punshon who taught our spirit must be quickened by the Holy Spirit in order to become a believer and follower of Christ.
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Throughout 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.
