North America - Kenya - Ethiopia - Egypt - South America - Central America - Pacific

Mission Highlight of the Month

Mission Scholarships

Each year there are people from our congregation who desire to be a part of a short term missions team . Missions scholarships for up to half of their total cost are made available as needed to these folks who feel the Lord's call on their lives to be more involved in missions.

USA:

Visioning with the Missions Committee

Kickapoo Friends Center
Brad & Christine Wood
PO Box 570
McLoud , OK   74851-0570
www.acfiaquaker.org

The center maintains active children and youth programs including work programs for earning their way to camp and other activities.  There is a strong worshipping congregation which is developing its own leadership and has recently become a monthly meeting.   Practical classes are offered to the community (e.g. money management) and a clothes closet helps needy families.

Quaker Haven Camp
Brandon Dennis, Camp Manager
111 EMS   D16C Lane
Syracuse , IN   46567
www.quakerhaven.com / info@quakerhaven.com

Quaker Haven Camp is owned jointly by Indiana and Western Yearly Meetings.  The attractive camp on the shores of Dewart Lake accommodates a series of summer youth camps and has ever-improving facilities for year-round use by all ages.  The camp is one of the valuable tools for IYM’s ministries.  We are fortunate to have a quality campground for summer camps and year-round accommodations for meetings, church groups and families.

White’s Residential & Family Svcs.
Brad Wright, Pastor/Chaplain
5233 S  50 E
Wabash , IN   46992
www.whiteskids.org / dee.gibson@whitesrfs.org

White’s Residential & Family Services is a youth care facility ministering to young people who have been placed there by the court or child welfare system.  The goal of the staff is to lead each teen to Christ through a loving and caring atmosphere.

CSI Ministries
1714 W Royale Drive
Muncie , IN   47304-2240
csi@csiministries.org

CSI Ministries focuses on serving local churches in need of assistance to place members of their fellowships in " Samaria " ( U.S. locations) and to the "ends of the earth" (locations in Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America ).  These ministry outreaches are part of their "Acts 1:8" plans.  In addition to serving local churches, CSI Ministries welcomes high school and college groups in search of service opportunities in the States and in other countries. Help in setting up a ministry outreach or service project as well as putting in place the travel, lodging, meals, and project materials logistics necessary for a quality experience are ways in which CSI Ministries excels in serving.  In Haiti , CSI Ministries owns and operates a medical clinic and orphanage ( H.O.P.E. Center for Girls) in Croix-des-Bouquets. In Jamaica , CSI Ministries oversees a student support program as well as an ongoing house-building ministry since housing on that island is a great need. In North America, CSI Ministries is committed to ongoing restoration outreaches in New Orleans as well as expanding ministry through outreaches to First Nations groups in the Southwest.

See also CSI: Beliize

Joni & Friends Chicago Area
915 Harger Road, Suite 10
Oak Park , IL   60523
http://chicago.joniandfriends.org/

Joni and Friends was founded in 1979 as the disability outreach of Joni Eareckson Tada. The Chicago Field Ministry is the local expression of a global commitment to identify and meet the needs of those touched by disability. They seek to accomplish this by training the local church for effective outreach and ministry to the overlooked mission field of the disability community. Additional ministry programs include Family Retreats for families affected by disability and Wheels for the World – the collection and delivery of wheelchairs to those in need in developing countries.  Joni and Friends Chicago serves the North Central United States from their office located in Oak Brook , Illinois .  Many volunteers from Wabash Friends, including Peter Boone and his family, serve each summer at the camp.

Lakeland Child Evangelism Ministries
Steve Sechrist, Director
PO Box 612
Winona Lake , IN  46590
lcem@kconline.com

The focus of Lakeland Child Evangelism Ministries is to reach unchurched children for Christ within their communities. This is done through after school Bible clubs, backyard summer ministries, correspondence courses , a telephone ministry, and a world-wide film outreach.

Pray that children can be reached for Christ in this time of indifference and battle for the control of their minds by the media. Pray for workers to host and teach after school Bible Clubs, especially in Wabash County . Pray that the films and materials will reach unchurched people around the world with the gospel message of salvation.

L.I.F.E. Center
Jenny Friedersdorf, Director
88 N Wabash Street
Wabash , IN   46992

L.I.F.E. Center is a safe, loving place where a woman, single or married, can go to have a free pregnancy test and counseling by women who love the Lord. It is a place where she canb learn about alternatives to abortion. It is a place where Christian women help other women to develop a plan of action for themselves and their babies. L.I.F.E. Center is a county-organized and privately funded ministry serving all of Wabash County. It acknowledges the scientific truth that each individual is indeed a human person of absolute value from the moment of conception to death.

Helping Hands Soup Kitchen
20 East Canal Street
Wabash , IN   46992

Helping Hands of Wabash County, Inc. has a thrift store and food program at 20 E Canal Street . The thrift store is open Monday through Saturday . The soup kitchen is open two weeks each month serving supper Monday through Friday. Food is delivered to shut-ins during those same two weeks and is distributed to qualifying families during the month also. Free coats and free haircuts are available from Helping Hands when available.

Much of the money to fund the soup kitchen comes from sales in the thrift store but other sources are also needed. Volunteers from Wabash Friends work one night each month at the soup kitchen preparing the meal, serving it, and cleaning up afterwards. If you are interested in being part of this mission, contact Joy Curless or Brenda Landis.

Lighthouse Missions
806 North Cass Street
Wabash , IN   46992

Lighthouse Mission is a thrift store ministry providing low cost clothing, household items and furniture to bargain shoppers and free to those in need. The income provides operating expenses , wages and outreach. The largest and most well known outreach is the Holiday Food Basket project which provides nearly 2000 families with groceries for the holidays. Throughout the year funds are provided for emergency shelter , transportation, utilities, education and various other needs as the situations arise.

The Access
Liz Hicks, Director
PO Box 102
Wabash , IN   46992

Little Friends Day Care
3563 S St Rd 13
Wabash , IN   46992
littlefriends@wabashfriends.org

Little Friends Day Care is an outreach of Wabash Friends Church which provides a warm, safe and loving environment for children while their parents work in the community. In addition to the Day Care, the Summer Adventure Program for school age children provides a fun, Christian atmosphere for these children.

Character Building

Character Building in an inter-denominational program of classes that are designed to teach elementary children good moral behaviors and positive character traits based upon Biblical principles. The program was founded in Indiana over 60 years ago and has been offered to students in the Metropolitan School District of Wabash County since 1945.  Each week, a teacher presents a 30-minute lesson about a character trait (such as honesty or kindness) based upon a story or verses from the Bible. These voluntary classes are offered to students in grades 3-6 at Metro North and Sharp Creek Elementary Schools and grades 2-5 at Lafontaine and Southwood Elementary Schools. Each child must have a permission slip signed by a parent or guardian before being allowed to attend class. During the 2008-09 school year, over 650 students attended Character Building classes in the MSD of Wabash County.

Interested persons with questions about the Character Building program may contact the Wabash Friends Church at 563-8452, and the church will be glad to put you in contact with a person directly involved in the program. Thank you for your interest in this local Wabash County ministry.

Action Church
Bill & Sheryl White
akronactionchurch.org

It has been said “Many people like Jesus, but not the church.” People who feel that way probably mean that they don't like church as they have experienced it. We want to provide a different kind of church experience so people may encounter God in a familiar environment among people that they might already know. So we are starting a church in a place that people gather throughout the week, not just on Sunday, at Akron Lanes in Akron, Ohio. Our plan is to start on Jan. 31, 2010 at 10 am. Everyone will be welcome, whether you have never been to a church, you haven't been in years or you just want something different.

We want to go to wherever people are and we want to help people in the name of Jesus. We don't want to build a church building, this way we can use offerings to help more people. FAITH IN ACTION is our slogan, it is based on 1 John 3:18 Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (see servantevangelism.com).

OUR MISSION : Action Church exists to invite and equip everyone to become active, growing Christ-followers who then help others to do the same, locally & globally.

OUR CORE VALUES:

•  Deep, personal friendship with God (through worship, prayer, and integration of biblical truth)

•  Consistent, growing unity with the community of Christ-followers (authentically growing in integrity, love, compassion and service)

•  Proactive, intentional mission to the world: Acts 1:8 (equipping Christ-followers to equip Christ-followers, developing leaders who develop leaders, and launching into service)

If you have any questions call (330) 808-4043 or email me at bill@akronactionchurch.org .

 

INTERNATIONAL

InterServe USA –

Interserve USA is one of several National Councils around the world who cooperate in providing means for people to serve God by serving others. We are part of an international fellowship of Christians who want to be Servants for the hard places.

• We serve in countries across North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and among immigrant people in the U.S.
• We use our professional skills to minister to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people that we serve.
• We seek to spread the Gospel where it is least known helping people understand their options regarding faith, believing that many will choose to become disciples of Jesus Christ.

Explore our website - www.interserveusa.org for opportunities to go, pray, give and support the Kingdom of God with Interserve USA.

Global Disciples

Because over 75% of evangelical believers now live in the two-thirds world, Global Disciples works with clusters of churches around the world to assist them in the Great Commission tasks of multiplying disciples, mobilizing workers and developing leaders for the harvest, so that the world's 1.8 billion unreached persons will have the opportunity to know and believe in Jesus. Our involvement at Wabash Friends has been primarily focused on mobilizing workers through Creative Access, a track of Global Disciples that focuses on helping release church planters in restricted and unreached regions of the 10-40 Window through business. Our missionary is involved in leading teams onsite that help provide business ideas and assistance for church planting teams on the ground. The ultimate goal is to see the start up of small businesses that serve as a bridge for church planting and mission. Most areas of work are among people groups where there are no reproducing indigenous fellowships.

KENYA: (back to top)

Greetings from Kenya

Lugulu Friends Hospital
PO Box 43
Lugulu via Webuye  50218  Kenya , East Africa

Lugulu Hospital is a mission hospital in rural western Kenya, East Africa , serving a community that consists primarily of subsistence farmers, people on the lowest end of the economic scale. For nearly 100 years the hospital has always emphasized basic medical care that is affordable to the community, however, due to the inflation, it has become increasingly difficult for many of the patients to afford even the very basic medical.

Turkana Friends Mission
John & Grace Moru
PO Box 308
Lodwar, 30500  Kenya , East Africa
johmoru@yahoo.com

The Turkana Friends Mission is located in the harsh sub-Sahara region of northwestern Kenya .  Pastor s there continue ministering to the very large and poor area of nomadic people west of Lake Turkana .  They  continue to plant new churches and nurture those which are growing as they meet under scrub trees or under thatch shelters.   Education and evangelism help in the transition of the Turkana lifestyle from nomadic herdsmen to a more settled lifestyle.  We are thankful for the new churches this mission is starting among the various clans of the Turkana people.  These clans locate near dry river beds and the mission pastors go into their communities to offer schooling for the children and to begin reaching out to the adults with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Samburu Friends Mission
PO Box 1791
Kitale, 30200 Kenya , East Africa
(or) PO Box 396
Maralal  20600  Kenya , East Africa
isaiahbikokwa@yahoo.com

The Samburu Friends Mission is directed by Pastor Isaiah Bikokwa who came to the Samburu District to plant churches among a tribe of unreached people.  Since 1995 Isaiah has reached most of the nine areas and there are two mission stations each with a school, dispensary, and church.  Kenyan missionaries continue to live among this tribe and minister to their spiritual and physical needs with God’s help.

Friends Theological College
PO Box 9
Tiriki,  50309   Kenya , East Africa
ftc@africaonline.co.ke

Friends Theological College in Kaimosi , Kenya , prepares students for pastoral ministry and Christian leadership in East Africa .  With over 70 students and an independent Board of Governors, FTC encourages academic excellence and spiritual growth, seeking to integrate faith and learning, while focusing on the process of maturing in Christ, from a Friends’ perspective.  FTC offers three academic programs ranging from a one year course introduction to pastoral ministry to a degree level of rigorous theological education and intensive preparation for pastoral ministry or leadership in Christian education. Courses in theology, Bible, pastoral ministry, pastoral counseling, Quakerism, church history, and English are basic courses of study at each level.

Friends Kaimosi Mission Hospital
PO Box Private Bag
50309 Tiriki
Kenya , East Africa
friendshospitalkaimosi@gmail.com

Even though Kaimosi Hospital was the finest hospital in east and central Africa in the 1950's, the lack of capital and human resources since then resulted in a grossly sub-standard hospital. FUM has now entered into a partnership with East Africa Yearly Meeting to restore high-quality medical services for this much needed medical facility. There are huge improvements, yet many challenges remain. Salaries are below normal and buildings need renovation. Even though two wards were renovated in 2007, more space is urgently needed. To restore the Hospital will require sustained commitment. It is a worthy and tremendous need to offer healing in the name of Jesus. Quality services are currently being offered particularly in the new HIV?AIDS clinic. Pray for leadership wisdom, for Christian medical personnel to serve at the Hospital, and for the funding for restoration.

SIM (Serving in Missions)

Dr. Bob & Hope Carter
c/o KIJABE Hospital
PO Box 20
Kijabe 00220, Kenya , East Africa
bob.carter@sim.org

Bob, a physician, and Hope, a physician assistant, are medical missionaries serving in Kenya under SIM at Kijabe Hospital. It is a 250+ bed referral and teaching hospital serving patients from all over Kenya and from as far away as Mogadishu, Somalia . Around 1/3 of inpatients tend to be Somali Muslims. Over 1000 people each year from many tribes and ethnic groups find new life and peace in Christ at Kijabe Hospital, including Somalis traumatized by the ongoing violence in their homeland. Bob is on the Family Medicine teaching staff and is involved in both direct patient care and medical education for the medical interns and family medicine residents there. He is blessed and privileged to contribute to both the professional and spiritual growth of young physicians being trained at Kijabe Hospital. In addition he also sits on the governing board of Friends Hospital in Kaimosi, serving as chairman of its Clinical and Standards Committee. Hope is involved part-time in the medical care of AIDS patients at Kijabe Hospital, and is also conducting nutritional research among the pediatric clients enrolled in the hospital's AIDS support program in Naivasha, located about 30 minutes away from Kijabe. She hopes the findings of her research will pave the way towards increased nutritional supports for this community. Lastly, Bob and Hope continue to be involved in activities designed to equip and empower the body of Christ in Kenya to minister effectively to those impacted by HIV and AIDS, including the 'HOPE for AIDS' program that they pioneered in 2007-2008, community-focused AIDS prayer activities and programs, and Bob's continuing involvement in the Churches AIDS Network of Kenya and his guest lectures on HIV and AIDS at St. Paul's University's master's program on Pastoral Care and AIDS.

EGYPT:  

Word Made Flesh
Melanie Curless
Cairo American College
PO Box 39
Maasi  11431, Cairo Egypt
melanie.curless@wordmadeflesh.com
www.wordmadeflesh.com

Melanie is the health & development advisor for Word Made Flesh in northern Africa. Word Made Flesh (WMF) is called and committed to serving Jesus among the poorest of the world's poor. The calling is realized as a prophetic ministry for, and a holistic ministry among, the world's poor. The method is incarnational. The means is community. WMF births communities which practice the presence and proclamation of the Kingdom of God among the poorest of the poor. These Kingdom communities are placed and nurtured within the Two-Thirds World mega-cities. Their involvement includes advocacy for the poor, ministries of compassion and proclamation of the Good News. WMF exists that Jesus, the Living Word, be made flesh. Melanie currently lives in Cairo , Egypt with her husband Marc who works as a high school counselor at an international school. Melanie has served the WMF community since 2002 as Health & Development Advisor in a part time capacity. This role supports the head office through input on health related policy and community care needs. Melanie is also available to field staff for advice and support as needed. She also periodically visits WMF fields to keep in touch with on the ground needs and offer support and training as needed.

SOUTH AMERICA - Peru

Food for the Hungry
Paul & Megan McCann
Fundación Contra el Hambre Perú
Calle Los Geranios No 388
Lince  -  Lima, 14
Perú
pmccann@fh.org

Paul and Megan are serving with Food for the Hungry in Peru. Paul manages an economic development ministry with the following aims:

1. Assist established evangelical churches in planning and creating an economic ministry for their congregation.

2. Generate savings and increase responsibility from the parishioners in order to have the funds to pay for a pastor so that he can provide for the needs of his family and for continued training and education.

3. Provide a tangible ministry so the church can reach out and meet the felt needs of their community by inviting non-Christians to enjoy relationship with Christians and see the Holy Spirit work in fellowship.

4. Teach biblical stewardship and biblical business practices in these economically poor churches.

5. Establish evangelical churches without foreign subsidies to move from the ‘incubator' to ‘adolescent' stage in their growth.

CENTRAL AMERICA: (back to top)

Belize Friends Boys’ School
Sam & Becky Barber
PO Box 454
Belize City , Belize
Central America 00106-4000
www.belizebarbers.org

Sam & Becky Barber manage the Friends Boys Continuation School in Belize City .  Boys who come to this school for a year have failed or not completed their Elementary School Leaving Certificate and so are not eligible to continue their education in High School.  If it were not for the Continuation School , they  would be at risk living on the street, prone to violence and drug abuse, and have no guidance or direction.  They often come from troubled backgrounds and are social failures of the school system. The Continuation School gives them a second chance.  The supportive environment created by the school helps restore their self esteem, reconnect them with family support and offers them a moral code undergirded by a Christian Quaker presence.

Hoosier Hearts for Honduras
Dr. Jim McCann