One of the day-long workshops that participants can choose at the Sacramento, CA and High Point, NC consultations will be a program that starts with a vision of Quaker leadership for the future - described in detail in our previous E-newsletter -  and concludes by engaging Friends with the 2012 Kabarak Call for Peace and Ecojustice.

At the High Point, NC Friends Meeting event (April 11-13), workshop participants will start with a review of the Kabarak Call and then learn about the efforts of the Friends Emergency Material Assistance Program (FEMAP) and how it helps in emergencies and issues relating to long term deprivation.   Friends will have the opportunity to assemble hygiene, infant care and school supply kits.  They will explore how to join with NC Friends Disaster Service or how to replicate FEMAP at home.

The Kabarak Call for Peace and Ecojustice reminds us: We must become careful stewards of all life...a light in the darkness of greed and destruction...we are called to see what Love can do - for the earth and all peoples. When the Living Waters flow through us, Friends are called to serve God's purposes as expressed in our testimonies.

Read more and register now for the Sacramento and High Point consultations.

 

For the first time in EFM's 35-year history our missionaries came together in one place along with their coaches, the executive committee of EFM, and EFM staff. Also present were the superintendents of five yearly meetings/regions in North America and some of the missionaries who serve under those regions. Altogether there were 78 people representing 14 countries: Mexico, the United States, Ireland, Hungary, Russia, Rwanda, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

 

These fellow servants in Christ came together for fellowship, teaching, worship, and discussion of EFM's mission statement. Try to picture missionaries serving in different countries, many of different nationalities as well, eating together, singing together, and even playing together. It was so much fun to watch this diverse group mingle with one another. Who would have ever imagined the conversations that took place during this gathering? The open worship, teaching, and preaching laid the foundation for discussing EFM's mission statement during the last two days of the gathering. The EFM Board has been working for the last couple of years on defining more clearly who we are, our core convictions, and what the Lord is calling us to do.

 

One of the theme songs for the gathering was a children's chorus that originated in South America. The lyrics go like this, "There are storms, there are storms, there are storms everywhere I look (repeat). God is strong, I am weak; I grab His hand and hold on tight (repeat)." As we parted we knew that many of us where headed back to face storms of various kinds: persecution, political instability, hard soil, economic need. Little did we realize that Typhoon Haiyan was gathering strength even at that very moment to strike the central part of the Philippines two days later. But we returned to our places of ministry, much like Mary Fisher, trusting in God to carry us through the storms that await us.

 

To receive further updates, visit the EFM website.

 

You can read a more personal view on the conference from Nancy Thomas of Northwest YM of Friends, and former missionary to Bolivia, in her blog.