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Section of the Americas
August  28, 2013
In This Issue
Need for interpreters and translators growing
QYP plans shaping up
What will you learn at next year's consultations?
Share Voices of Friends
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Greetings!
"A person may have a leading to go or to offer to go to some situation of need...If the first step that is laid upon him is not undertaken, the later ones are not disclosed."

Douglas Steere, Where Words Come From, 1954

 

Ruben Maydana, a member of the National Evangelical Friends Church of Bolivia, first had a leading to travel in the ministry several years ago. He began by visiting all the local churches and youth groups in his yearly meeting over a couple of years. He spoke to me about that experience and his leading to visit other yearly meetings when I was visiting La Paz in 2011. This spring he applied to the FWCC Travel in the Ministry Fund for a grant and to the U.S. Consulate for a visa, and both were approved. This summer he has visited several monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings along the East Coast of the United States. You can hear his reflections on his travel in the ministry in this YouTube video (in Spanish).  

 

Philadelphia YM Young Adult Friends wrote in their epistle, "We were inspired by the Leadings of our Bolivian and Peruvian Friends who shared joy and enthusiasm for connecting their diverse cultures with the global YAF community. They tested with us bringing the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage into their community, widening the diversity and scope of the journey." The Baltimore Yearly Meeting epistle quoted his reminder to faithfully tend the fire that God has kindled in our hearts. I saw for myself how his words moved Friends at Philadelphia and Baltimore YM annual sessions, and I've heard reports from Friends in other locations that say the same.

 

As I said in my Living Water workshops in Central America, we are all called to something, but not all of us have to travel far away. You don't even have to leave your own house to be of service. How is God calling you? What do you need from Friends to help you serve God's purposes?

 

In friendship,   

Robin Mohr                                       RM6WC
Robin Mohr
Executive Secretary 

 

 
Our growing need for interpreters and translators

One of our priorities is to ensure that work done on behalf of the Section of the Americas is being led by Friends from across the Section. More and more of our committees now have members that speak a variety of languages. Our committee meetings are increasingly carried out bilingually, between English and Spanish. FWCC has for years welcomed the skills of bilingual Friends for translation and interpretation work. Our need for capable interpreters and translators is now greater than ever.

 

Friends who volunteer their time and skills for interpreting for FWCC find it very rewarding. Claudia Meza, from southern California and part of Evangelical Friends Church Southwest, was connected to this opportunity to interpret for our Finance Committee via our Facebook page.  

 

"I feel very honored to be an interpreter for the FWCC committee because it makes me feel a little closer to the Friends Community. I definitely feel like I am helping Friends work together.  It's amazing that I get to speak to Friends in two different countries and I love that I am playing a part in uniting us all."   

 

 

Ana_G_C
Ana Gabriela Castaņeda interpreting, March 2013 

Ana Gabriela Castaņeda of Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, has worked with the Section Meeting Planning committee since last year. Her interpretation and translation support made it possible for a Peruvian Friend to be an active part of this committee's work.  She writes:

 

"I have to say I was very nervous at the beginning because even though I had some experience in translating documents and serving as an informal interpreter, I had never had the experience of being a formal interpreter, much less serving as
interpreter in a conference call, hearing only the participants' voices, no faces, no expressions, so this was quite frightening for me.

 

Ultimately, Ana knows that her work serves a larger purpose:

 

But I thought "If God wants me to do this then he will help me do it and do it right" so I accepted, and it turned out to be a wonderful and rewarding experience in many ways: I found myself capable of doing it, it made me conscious of the hard work not only for interpreters but also all the work and preparation there needs to be done, all the people involved, and of course the time it takes to do all this in order to have everything ready beforehand so nobody feels left out specially because of the language. So I feel blessed for this opportunity."

 

If you or anyone you know could help us by bilingually supporting one of our committees, whether by interpreting in meetings or by translating documents ahead of time, please contact us.

 

The official languages of the Section of the Americas are English and Spanish. A growing number of other languages - Aymara, Quechua, French, Creole, among others - are spoken by Quakers in the Americas. Business meetings of FWCC have been conducted bilingually for many years. An important resource for this work is the Spanish-English Quaker Glossary, which can be found on our website.  

Bolivian and Peruvian Friends prepare to welcome Quaker youth
The 2014 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage "Cradles of Andean Quakerism" is well under way in its planning. QYP co-clerk Bill Schoder-Ehri writes:
 
Applications are now online and there is tremendous response in Europe and the Middle East and the Americas. Ruben Maydana Torres (Bolivian QYP Program Group member) traveled extensively this summer on the Eastern US coast and helped to excite many about the upcoming pilgrimage. We are blessed to have so many committed Friends giving their time and love to this Andean incarnation of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage. We humbly ask that Friends also consider additional donations to help with this groundbreaking effort. Please earmark for QYP 2014.

Ruben_M_PHL
Ruben Maydana Torres 
Ruben Maydana Torres reflected on what he has learned about Friends in the Northeastern US during his visit:

I take with me from here an understanding of the way in which many things are decided. There are many committees that support Friends, and they allow one to understand the spiritual nature of things in particular. I also take with me ways to familiarize young Friends in Bolivia and Peru about the things I have learned here, like business process and what silent worship is like, so that they can understand that even though it is different for them, the focus is always on finding God's presence.

You can see the video of Ruben talking about the QYP in Spanish on our website.

Make a contribution to support the 2014 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage online now here. 

Apply now to be a leader or a pilgrim. 
Learning to speak each other's language: Workshop for next year's consultations

How often do you encounter people in your daily life who possess a wide variety of beliefs, cultures, social and economic differences? For many of us, these "borders" are crossed daily. For others, it is a rare and treasured experience. But being able to communicate with and understand others is more and more necessary in our modern society.

 

Quakers in the Americas are no different. Whether we are meeting together as Friends, or involved in outreach in our local communities or international evangelism, most Friends agree on the value of effective communication, a skill which requires cultural competency in order to understand and be understood.  

 

Friends who learn to cross these bridges through the Friends World Committee find that practice to understand each other across language or theological differences can shorten the distances between people across all kinds of barriers. For this reason one of the workshops that will be held at all four Section Consultations next year will be on developing intercultural communication skills for intra-Quaker dialogue and our daily lives.

 

Nancy Thomas, in her essay "Learning to Learn: the Journey of a Cross-Cultural Public Friend," from Walk Worthy of your Calling (Margery Post Abbott and Peggy Senger Parsons, eds., 2004), tells of her early service through Friends missions among the Aymara in Bolivia: "Our growth in cross-cultural ministry was gradual. We came prepared to teach, not realizing how much we had to learn."  In the process, she felt new connections with John Woolman's experience, "A concern arose to spend some time with the Indians, that I might understand their life and the spirit they live in, if haply I might receive some instruction from them, or they be in any degree helped forward by my following the leadings of Truth amongst them."

 

If you would like to read this pamphlet published by the Wider Quaker Fellowship at home or with local Friends, you can download and print copies from our Voices of Friends website.  

 

If you would like to practice these skills among Friends in order to be more effective in your home community, join us at one of the four FWCC consultations in 2014. More details here.

Voices of Friends logo
Have you told anyone about "Voices of Friends" yet?

Voices of Friends was set up by Friends World Committee for Consultation Section of the Americas a couple of years ago as a online portal in to the fullest scope of contemporary Quaker expression. It offers seekers who search the internet a practical entry point to finding out who the Religious Society of Friends is. It links directly to other resources provided by Friends' yearly meetings and organizations. Have you shared it with anyone yet?

 

An easy way to do that is by finding us on Facebook and liking, then sharing, the page.

 

Don't forget that this collection of Quaker writing houses many of the popular, ageless Wider Quaker Fellowship pamphlets. They still offer messages worth consideration and discussion in Friends' adult classes, or for use in preparing pastoral messages. Search our online library of pamphlets.