It took around two years for our committee to form and get on the same page. It felt like a small eternity. We yearned to follow scripture’s teachings, wrestling with our hesitations. Could we truly welcome the foreigner? What would it take specifically to help refugees resettle in our home city? I remember watching news stories during that lag. So many people who needed aid. They were desperate. The image of the drowned toddler, washed up on the beach. Still, we were organizing. And then, like that, we were clear. We were ready.
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As we look towards the future of Friends United Meeting, one thing remains clear — the core of our Christ-centered mission and ministry priorities will not change. Our steadfast commitment to connect, energize, and equip Friends continues to anchor and inspire our work. Yet, the landscape in which we operate is shifting and it is becoming clearer that the manner in which we fulfill our calling may change as we respond to the growing and diverse needs of our community.
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In Gibara in the early 1900s there lived a young woman named Maria Luisa Cuesta. When she heard that there were Americans who had arrived in Cuba and wanted to begin a mission, she was curious and attended their first meeting for worship. When she shared those memories much later, she recalled that the group that first met was small. Eventually she married and had a daughter, Margarita Soler Cuesta, and raised her in the Friends Church in Gibara. That daughter also got married and had a daughter, Maria Margarita Aguilar Soler, and that daughter did the same, though she had three children: Mariluz Zaldivar Aguilar, Daniel Saldivar Aguilar, and Elio David Zaldivar Aguila. The last, David, is a Cuban Quaker who now lives in Richmond, Indiana.
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It was late Friday morning in Kenya, and we were building our fifth mud home with Friends Bringing Hope. By this time, we were familiar with the daily routine. Our work team of six from the U.S. would share a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, sweet bananas, and tea masala with Milly, our live-in Kenyan f/Friend who took care of our bellies and our dirty laundry. She taught us to cook chapati, answered our cultural questions, and brightened our days with her beautiful smile. She also ran off in the evenings to attend to the family of a friend whose adult son died during the early days of our trip, but Milly was always back for breakfast.
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