 |
|
|
|
Approximately 8% of each dollar placed into the regular Sunday offerings of Winchester Friends Church goes to cover our Indiana Yearly Meeting "missions assessment" in support of the various missions activities of IYM and Friends United Meeting, including Associated Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Whites Residential & Family Services, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and FUM missions in Belize, Cuba, Jamaica, Kenya, and Palestine. Winchester Friends Missions giving does not end at 8%! Additional Missions Offerings Many Friends also often give extra offerings marked "missions." The Missions & Social Concerns Committee forwards those directly to the intended recipient, if one is specified. If not, the Committee distributed such gifts quarterly to various organizations and missions such as Friends Disaster Service, the local Food Pantry, the local Gas Help Fund, and Christian Peacemaker Teams, and other outreach concerns that arise through the year. The third Sunday of each month is designated "Food Pantry Sunday" and Friends are asked to bring an item for the local Food Pantry. This supplements regular gifts given at various times through the missions committee and the USFW. Special Offerings
Each fall, the Missions & Social
Concerns Committee tries to help Friends learn about and support one
Friends United Meeting missions location (Ramallah Friends School in
the fall of 2007). Each spring, the Committee shifts the focus to a social
concern or a non-FUM missions entity.
Missions Focus for Fall 2008
- Cuba Yearly Meeting
During the first half of each year, the Missions & Social
Concerns Committee asks Friends to focus on ways to address a
contemporary social concern
(for
January-June '08 it was the problem of hunger).
In the latter half of each year, we call Friends'
attention to one Friends United Meeting international missions
location. For 2008, that focus will be upon Quaker presence
and ministry on the Caribbean island of Cuba since 1900.
While returning to the US aboard a Boston
Fruit Co. ship after an 1897 visit to Friends mission work in
Jamaica, Iowa Yearly Meeting general superintendent Zenas Martin
was challenged by the ship's captain Lorenzo Baker to start
similar evangelistic, education, and development work among the
laborers and families on new fruit plantations his company was
opening in eastern Cuba. The Spanish-American War (Cuba's war
of independence) had raged since 1895, and the eastern end of
the island had been badly damaged physically and economically.
The Spanish held much of the population in harsh detention camps
to suppress the rebellion, causing widespread starvation and
disease. Infrastructure barely existed, poverty abounded,
livestock numbers had been decimated, and people were hungry
despite the rich agricultural potential of the area.
In early 1898, the US battleship Maine
was sunk in Havana harbor, prompting the US to declare war on
Spain. After only three months of fighting, the Spanish gave up
their hold on Cuba. They withdrew in January 1899, and American
troops moved in to occupy Cuba.
Zenas Martin returned to Iowa in 1897 and
over the next two years persuaded Friends there to organize for
new outreach in Cuba. Without coordination, Captain Baker
simultaneously raised interest and support for Cuba missions
among New York and New England Friends, and Friends missionaries
in Mexico also became concerned for Cubans' plight via cultural
contacts with Cuban Christians. When they all learned of their
common goal through connection with the budding American Friends
Board of Missions (a forerunner of FUM), they saw the Spirit's
clear leading and moved ahead with plans to send workers
supported by five Yearly Meetings (including Indiana and
Western).
Zenas Martin traveled to Havana in April
1900, then one month later sailed 500 miles east to the Holguin
region where United Fruit had opened its plantations. He was
joined in November 1900 by Friends volunteers from Kansas, Iowa,
Texas, Indiana, and Mexico. In the small triangular area
between Banes, Holguin, and Puerto Padre, these Quakers began
holding worship gatherings and started schools for "the
preaching of biblical Christianity and its practical expression
through Friends' testimonies." Quaker work in Cuba was
underway.
(source - Friends in Cuba, Hiram H.
Hilty, 1977)
United Society of Friends Women The USFW raises around $700 per year with their spring-cleaning rummage sale, and about $2500 per year selling apple dumplings at the Mardi Gras festival in Winchester. With those funds, they support a number of FUM missions concerns, local needs, and special projects (school kits, health kits, baby layettes, etc.). The evening USFW meets the second Tuesday night of each month and the Afternoon group meets the second Wednesday afternoon of each month. Friends Youth The youth are preparing for the 6th Annual Compassion Garden between the Friends and Presbyterian parking lots. The tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers grown there are offered to churchgoers for a donation, with all proceeds used towards the $350 annual expense of a Compassion, Int'l child in Africa. The FY's Annual Lasagna Dinner this year raised over $450 for Christmas Angel Tree gifts. The Junior church children have given their offerings the past few years to Heifer International to buy livestock for poor families in developing countries. Best Special Projects Starting in 2001, Winchester Friends has sought further to invest in God's Kingdom by giving between $10,000 - $15,000 of its financial reserves each year to outreach/ missions concerns, including FCNL, ESR, Friends Fellowship Community, community youth to Quaker Haven Camp, Hospice, the Matthew 25:40 Fund for local benevolence, InterVarsity, Muncie Mission, Circle You, Pregnancy Care Center, and several of the missions already mentioned above. In an effort to create some hands on involvement with the Best Trust, the Missions committee uses $1000 of Best Trust money to offer either $10 or $20 to willing participants (junior high age or older) who pledge to use it in Shareholders for Shalom projects or Pennies From Heaven. Pennies from Heaven encourages a participating Friend to accept $10 or $20 and agrees to ask the Lord to lead him/her to give the money sometime in the next few months to another person who is struggling in a situation of genuine human need (for food, medicine, or other essentials). The beneficiary preferably will be an individual, not an organization, and will not be a relative or best friend. The idea is to allow God to lead you to a "new connection" of some kind by giving the gift person-to-person. Care should be exercised, especially if the money is given to someone not well known, that the money is not used for harmful or unproductive purchases. The following coupon is to be given along with the money:
After the gift is given, the participating Friend agrees to report to the church in writing as to how God led them to the situation of need (taking care to keep the recipients anonymous, unless they give permission to be named), how the money was actually used, and any spiritual lessons they learned by taking part in the project. Verbal reports given during a meeting for worship will also be welcomed. THANK YOU FOR BEING A MISSIONS SUPPORTING CHURCH!! |
||
|
Missions Emphasis on Hunger Jan-June 2008
MCC Meat Canning Trip Jan. 22, 2008
Peace and Christian Social Concerns Queries
|
