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Friends United Meeting |
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September 1998
News from Friends United Meeting
Michael and Kathryn Cain Appointed to Belize
The Poor (a poem by Bernard Smith, 15, Belize Friends Boys School)
Global Reconciliation: Theme of Youth Seminar
Reflections on Serving in Ramallah
Michael and Kathryn Cain Appointed to Belize
Michael and Kathryn Cain have been living in Belize three years; much of that time they have been volunteering with the Friends Boys School and helping with a Sunday School program. Now, Friends United Meeting has confirmed their ministry by appointing Michael as FUM's country representative in Belize and as administrator for the Belize work.
Mike and Kay are members of the Portland Friends Church in Indiana Yearly Meeting. Before moving to Belize City, they had visited there several times and participated in three work missions-twice to Jamaica, where they worked with the Swift Purscell Boys Home and the Lyndale Home for Girls, and another workteam to Belize in 1988.
At the Quaker Men International conference this summer, Mike laid out his vision for an expanded school with a full academic course, a line of trade classes including mechanics, construction, electronics and agriculture with an enrollment of at least 90 students. The vision includes development of the farmland owned by Friends United Meeting that lies outside of Belize City as both a source of food and income for the school, as well as the site of a campus with dormitories, classrooms and a chapel.
The call on the Cains to ministry in Belize has been consistent for many years. Six years ago, they wrote about their vision, concluding, "There will need to be a lot of prayer and planning to accomplish something of this size...."
The Cains are parents of six grown children.
The Poor
They live on the street,
Asking for something to eat.
At night watch them in the park
In all corners of the dark.
In early morning watch them roam
To the Mercy Kitchen,
knocking at the door.
Some spend a night at Raymond Park
Some find any place
to sleep in the dark.
They are here, there, and everywhere
Coming back as the dawn steals near.
Don't hate these people, but pity them
For it could be me or you
that have lost our way.
If they should come knocking
at your door,
Offer them something
before telling them to go.
Remember-it could be you or me,
Or someone else you know.
Bernard Smith, 15
Belize
Global Reconciliation: Theme of Youth Seminar
Registrations are due September 10 for the Ambassadors for Christ Youth Seminar (formerly known as the UN Seminar). The theme is Global Reconciliation: Focusing on Conflict Resolution. The seminar will be held November 21-25, 1998, in New York City and is open to high school sophomores through college sophomores. The group will visit the United Nations, with seminars at the Methodist Church Center. Young Friends will act out the roles of mediator, peacemaker, and servant to those in the midst of conflict in our world and in our neighborhoods.
This is the year to focus on the United Nations. The next two seminars will look at the same general theme but will be held in Washington, D.C., in 1999 and in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2001.
The $53 registration is due September 10, 1998, with the remaining $134 lodging fee due October 15, 1998. It should be sent to Youth Seminars, Meeting Ministries, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN 47374-1980. For information contact Mary Glenn Hadley at (765) 962-7573 or e-mail Resources@xc.org.
On Becoming a Friend
Friends United Meeting's new membership curriculum is now available. This six lesson study introduces Friends and what becoming a member of a Friends meeting includes.
The focus is on the individual's relationship with Jesus Christ. The study provides concise background information about Quakers, their testimonies and Faith and Practice. It emphasizes the ministry of all believers through a study of spiritual gifts. Some basic ways to further one's spiritual nurturing such as Bible study, prayer and following God's will are included.
Contact the Quaker Hill Bookstore (800) 537-8838. (Price pending.)
Activities Book
Preparing Hearts and Minds is completed and off the press! There are activities in this loose-leaf book for every age from two year olds through adults: Bible lessons, children's messages, icebreakers, mission stories, games, Quaker stories and activities and much more. The worksheets are reproducible. From Quaker Hill Bookstore (800) 537-8838 for $17.50 or without the three ring binder, for $15.00.
Reflections on Serving in Ramallah
by Marilyn and Laurie Hadden
A "farewell" message from Marilyn and Laurie Hadden. Over the last year Laurie has served as director of the Friends School in Ramallah.
A new arrival has appeared on the streets of Ramallah. A very large, handsome rooster struts his stuff in front of a store on the main street. He never wanders. In the store window are flats of eggs piled high. I am wondering if he is advertising happy hens or fresh eggs. He is probably one of the many roosters in town, too, who greet the dawn noisily and frequently. Perhaps they just like to compete with the muzzein in the call to worship which emanates from the minaret of the mosques at ungodly hours.
Israel celebrated her 50th birthday last month. Flags flew from cars, and every lamp post. Fireworks from the nearby settlements brightened the sky, and many special events took place. The Palestinians were not celebrating. Like them, we were experiencing life under occupation. Unlike them, we were able to travel freely. For our friends and neighbors occupation means:
- distinctive car license plates which allow travel only in the West Bank
- identity card carried at all times, checked anytimeif one doesn't have the proper card a visit to Jerusalem isn't possible, even if one was born there
- applications made for permission to visit friends or relatives in another part of the country usually turned down-no reason given
- demolition of homes with little time given to remove possessions
- permission to dig wells refused, water to Palestinian areas restricted
- waiting for permission to go to Jerusalem for medical reason-several weeks or more
- ambulance personnel pleading with soldiers at checkpoints to allow them through to pick up a patient
- segregation and humiliation at airport customsbody searches etc.
- during closure, barricading of road preventing Palestinians getting to work easily.
- loss of income for Palestinians, with each closure
- "children" venting frustration on Israeli soldiers by throwing stones-being hit in return by rubber-coated bullets
- students being called upon by leaders to march, e.g., mourning or remembrance or protest. One of our students was hit in the eye by a rubber bullet during a march, and despite two operations has lost the sight in the eye. Another student who took part has been held in administrative detention since. He missed his final exams.
- students slipping over the Green Line via back paths into Israel and risking imprisonment or fine to find work to earn money for school
- etc. etc. etc....
I recently attended a lecture at Bir Zeit University. The speaker was young, handsome, articulate-and blind. During childhood he suffered from glaucoma and one eye was especially fragile. With proper care, the condition was kept under control. Since 1988, he has been blind. In that year, Israel Defense Force soldiers "imprisoned" students for a full day inside Hebron University and injected the building with a new chemical form of tear gas. From the university they were taken directly to prison without any consideration for the injuries caused by the prolonged exposure to the gas. Subsequent "unavailability" of proper medical attention resulted in his blindness, and excruciating pain for months. He went on to initiate and become a major participant in forming the General Union of Palestinian Disabled, the first and only union to advocate disability issues. So something good came out of the whole mess.
It is difficult to maintain one's perspective on "The Palestinian Problem." However I often read a small bookmark on which is printed a few words based on a prayer of a Palestinian Christian:
Pray not for Arab or Jew, for Palestinian or Israeli/But pray rather for ourselves/That we might not divide them in our prayers./But keep them together in our hearts.
It will be difficult to leave this country and our friends, but we have many memories to take with us.
Blessings and peace to you,
Laurie and Marilyn Hadden
Copyright (c) 1998 Friends United Meeting
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