During the first week of October 2020, about a dozen Samburu pastors and leaders met together for five full days of classes on how to start and run a small business as a part of their Christian ministry. The class and trained teachers were sponsored by an organization called Global Disciples, along with Indiana Yearly Meeting. Each person who completed the class then had the opportunity to develop a business plan and apply for a no-interest loan (from a couple of generous FUM donors) to start their business. Personal loans and small business loans are very difficult to obtain in Kenya, especially without significant collateral—like the title deed on a piece of property. Even then, re-payment interest is around 20%. So a no-interest loan is a pretty big life-changing deal! All of the loan payments from this initial group of ministry entrepreneurs will go back into a development fund to become seed money for whoever next becomes eligible.
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In observance of Women’s History Month, the FUM Bookstore will feature books authored by or written about Quaker women. These featured books will be highlighted on the home page of the FUM Bookstore:
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Recently, Friends in the Narok region in southern Kenya (the center of Maasai-land) undertook a biosand water filtration project among Friends. This training and filter construction was meant to benefit both the local members of Friends churches and to additionally serve as an outreach opportunity into the broader Maasai community.
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Just as you, Father, live in me and I live in you, I am asking that they may live in us, that the world may believe that you did send me. I have given them the honour that you gave me, that they may be one, as we are one—I in them and you in me, that they may grow complete into one, so that the world may realise that you sent me and have loved them as you loved me.
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After several decades of not attending church services, a good friend of mine has decided she wants to return to “church.” She grew up attending a mainline church in a small Midwest town, and she now lives in a major city in the Midwest. Literally, she has hundreds, perhaps a few thousand, choices of churches to attend.
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Having been a photojournalist for most of my life, I usually make pictures to tell a story to others. But over the last couple of years, I’ve realized that some pictures aren’t necessarily meant to tell a story at all—I make them as a spiritual or emotional response to the world around me. The pictures might tell a story to another person, or they may never make it out of my camera. I make them because, before my eyes, something in me recognized and responded to God’s presence.
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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.
