A big year for Belize!

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "A big year for Belize!"

Gwendolyn Small
6 years ago
Views:

FUM 2017 Summer Mission Project A big year for Belize!

equipping our new building in Belize a former auto parts

This 8,000-square foot space will become the new quarters for

1 FUM 2017 Summer Mission Project A big year for Belize! Goal: $25,000 This year s Summer Mission Project focuses on equipping our new building in Belize a former auto parts warehouse. This 8,000-square foot space will become the new quarters for Belize Friends School, and home to a new Belize City Friends Center. This is the start of a new, larger vision for FUM in Belize! Friends United Meeting 101 Quaker Hill Drive Richmond, IN USA info@fum.org phone fax friendsunitedmeeting.org

2 Friends United Meeting Dear Friends, 2017 is a Big Year for Belize as you may have read in the Connections newsletter, on our website, and in various letters from the Richmond office. In November, we purchased a new building in Belize City which will serve several purposes first of which is expanding the Belize Friends School so that we can provide a second chance education to many more children and a growing number of adults. Also in November, we asked Oscar Mmbali to become our pastoral minister in Belize, where he will work to build a Friends Church for Belize City, and to offer the Friends building as a community center for the Southside neighborhood. In keeping with this year s emphasis on Belize throughout Friends United Meeting (friends in Africa and the Caribbean are also raising funds for Belize), 2017 s Summer Mission Project will be A Big Year for Belize. We are emphasizing the work on the new building and how it will lead to the expansion of the school. We believe that attending school and getting an education in order to be safe and to find a good job are themes with which Quaker children and teens can empathize. We ve set the goal for the summer at $25,000. (Last year s Summer Mission Project raised $35, to help fund the installation of solar power in the library at Friends Theological College.) We rely on your imagination and your partnership to equip all of us to move forward in the work of expanding God s kingdom in Belize. Whether by passing a plate, including a prayer in your bulletin, putting out a jar for pennies or hosting a fundraising barbecue, the Belize Friends Mission needs your spiritual and financial support. To help you get started understanding the FUM vision for Belize, we ve enclosed a Big Year for Belize packet, which contains information and ideas on how your Meeting can connect to and participate in this project. We ve included some basic information about Belize, and some curriculum ideas emphasizing the new building. We ve also included information about FUM s expanded vision for our presence in Belize, highlighting the work of the Belize Friends School as well as the dream of establishing a vital Belizean Quaker community. As always, your Meeting is a significant participant in the work of Friends United Meeting. Your community, small or large, is part of a global ministry that equips, energizes, and connects Friends. The Summer Mission Project is one avenue for you and your Meeting to participate in a hands-on way alongside FUM field staff to bring Christ s hope and redemption to a hurting world. Your financial contributions can be sent to FUM, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN Please indicate, on the check or elsewhere, that your donation is for the Summer Mission Project. Please let us know about how you decide to participate in the Summer Missions Project. We would love to update the FUM community on the progress of the Summer Mission Project using your stories and pictures. We believe that seeing what you are doing will encourage others to join this endeavor. Please send your pictures and stories to danielk@fum.org. In peace, Dan Kasztelan Communications Director friendsunitedmeeting.org info@fum.org phone Quaker Hill Drive Richmond, Indiana USA fax

A big year for Belize! Hunger. Instability. Hopelessness. Passing the really big test. These are just a few of the problems faced by the students of the Belize Friends School.

Passing the exam is proof of an eighth-grade level of attainment. Failing the exam means that the student cannot enroll in high school and is left with few options.

3 A big year for Belize! Hunger. Instability. Hopelessness. Passing the really big test. These are just a few of the problems faced by the students of the Belize Friends School. In the Belizean educational system, students face a primary school exit exam which determines whether or not they are prepared to move on to secondary school. Passing the exam is proof of an eighth-grade level of attainment. Failing the exam means that the student cannot enroll in high school and is left with few options. Belize has a modern economy, with roads, banks, grocery stores, washing machines, etc. As in America, however, there are areas of poverty and despair. The Belize Friends School is located in one of these areas, in the Southside neighborhood of Belize City a transit point for drugs and weapons, and home to gangs which are connected to North American gangs in places like Los Angeles. The stakes are high for these kids. Unlike their counterparts in other neighborhoods, there s no safety net for them. Traditional education has failed them, and so they ve made their way to the Belize Friends School to study for the exam. Friends educational outreach in Belize City began with Sadie Vernon in the 1980s. Sadie was a Belizean woman who became a convinced Friend while teaching in Jamaica. She later came to the United States, studied at the Earlham School of Religion, and then went home to Belize to serve the Council of Churches there. As an experienced teacher, she saw the need for a last chance school on I often wondered what the teachers thought who wanted to write me off. But what I learned most of all was... never to write off anyone. [As a teacher], it was really important to me to go all out for those who had been given over to failure. Within the human person there has to be a reachable place, a responsive place, and if we understand that, how many can be saved from the hopeless end to which adults have driven them? Sadie Vernon the Southside. She founded the Continuation School for Girls, and then asked Friends to start a similar school for boys, in the early 90s. The Continuation School was eventually absorbed into the national educational system, and the Belize Friends Boys School has become co-educational as, simply, the Belize Friends School. The Belize Friends School continues to do well so well, in fact, that the Belizean government has asked us to take on more students. In addition, FUM wants to expand Friends work to include more adult educational opportunities, a pastored Friends Meeting, and a community center offering Alternatives to Violence workshops, sports ministries, parenting classes, and more. All of this adds up to a Big Year For Belize! Read on to learn more about all of these plans. Friends United Meeting 101 Quaker Hill Dr, Richmond IN friendsunitedmeeting.org info@fum.org

FUM Summer Mission Project 2017 This year s SMP goal is to raise $25,000 to purchase and upgrade a new building in Belize. It takes work to convert a warehouse into a school.

4 FUM Summer Mission Project 2017 This year s SMP goal is to raise $25,000 to purchase and upgrade a new building in Belize. It takes work to convert a warehouse into a school. We re building a new stairway, installing public restrooms on each floor, cutting windows & doors into the concrete walls, repairing the leaky roof, installing whiteboards & new lighting fixtures, walling off space for offices & storage. And there are dozens of other jobs, big and small. Partner with us to expand Friends work in Belize by raising funds and prayers in the best ways you can imagine. Collect pennies or quarters, throw a fundraiser or two, sell lemonade... we are always impressed by the many ways Meetings and Churches find to contribute financially and spiritually to the work God has given us. Send your contributions to FUM, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN Please indicate, on the check or elsewhere, that your donation is for the Summer Missions Project Summer Mission Project update: Last year Friends far exceeded the SMP goal, raising $35, to supply the Friends Theological College Library with reliable solar power. Thank you! Each year, we highlight one project from the global work of Friends for prayer and support raising. Meetings and Churches from around the world come together to focus on our shared ministry. This year, we ve chosen one piece of the Big Year For Belize as our Summer Mission Project focus: our new building! For a number of years, a simple lack of space has prevented FUM from expanding operations at the Belize Friends School. Our building on Allenby Street didn t have enough room to take on more students, nor to host any form of community outreach. But we took our time finding a new building because we wanted to make sure that our ministry remained rooted in the Southside neighborhood that needs it most. Finally, in November of 2016, we were able to purchase a spacious building to purchase at the south end of the Southside a combined warehouse and storefront with space for several school classrooms and a school office; a meetingroom for the Friends Meeting; accommodations for visiting work teams; and living quarters for both the pastor and the eventual Belize Ministries director. Friends are hard at work remodeling and expanding our new building, cutting in windows and putting up whiteboards and making it into a space for learning and blessing... but we need support from Friends around the world to get it done. friendsunitedmeeting.org

Prepare and support Oscar Mmbali While faith has always been at the heart of our work in Belize City, one thing has distinguished our ministry there from FUM s ministries around the world: there was

5 Prepare and support Oscar Mmbali While faith has always been at the heart of our work in Belize City, one thing has distinguished our ministry there from FUM s ministries around the world: there was no Friends Church undergirding the work. At the time that the Friends School was founded, Sadie knew that there were many churches in the area where people could share in worship and fellowship, and she wanted to focus on the educational work that wasn t being done. But in recent years, we have felt the Spirit calling us to expand into evangelism and discipleship in Belize. After considered discernment by the FUM General Board, we re moving ahead. The Southside community is hungry for the relational, personal church that Friends have always offered. How can we say no to that? We ve called Oscar Mmbali to serve as the first Friends pastor for Belize. Oscar is a Kenyan Friend who has felt called to work in Belize since he was a student at Friends Theological College in Kaimosi. He is an experienced church planter who has worked throughout Kenya in different cultural contexts and ministered in the slums of Bangkok while working on his PhD in International Development. Throughout the spring and summer, Oscar will be traveling among North American Friends raising financial, emotional, and prayer support. He has already traveled extensively among East African Friends, who are excited to be sending one of their own as a missionary. After Triennial, he ll be headed to Belize! Oscar s work in Belize will be full-time in the community: learning from the people and knowing their condition. George Fox had a vision of a people to be gathered, and we have a similar vision for Belize City. Oscar will be finding the community s places of hunger and of spiritual openness and gathering a people who want to worship God together and work for God s kingdom in their community. Seeing Friends gathered in a circle brought back memories of my training at Friends Theological College (FTC). It was like I was re-living that time when I sat at the FTC library reading Quaker Life articles about Belize. I remembered the day, ten years ago, that I first felt God calling me to Belize. Last Sunday, when Friends were led by the Spirit to lay hands on me and pray for me, I felt the presence of God in the work that we are about to do. Oscar Mmbali, on his first Sunday in Belize City friendsunitedmeeting.org

Building a Friends Center Belize Friends Ministries Vision Statement Building on the existing Belize Friends School ministry, FUM will engage in a holistic Quaker Christian ministry that is deeply

We seek to witness to the transforming power of Jesus Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit through our witness, including worship, discipleship, education, leadership development,

6 Building a Friends Center Belize Friends Ministries Vision Statement Building on the existing Belize Friends School ministry, FUM will engage in a holistic Quaker Christian ministry that is deeply grounded in the discernment of God s direction in Belize. We seek to witness to the transforming power of Jesus Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit through our witness, including worship, discipleship, education, leadership development, alternatives to violence, community building and economic empowerment. We re renovating an 8,000 square-foot building that used to be an auto parts warehouse, and planting a church but that s not all! We re committed to showing God s love to people on the Southside by every means available to us. With all the new space come exciting new opportunities to reach out in the community. We re actively seeking a Director for the Belize City Friends Center, which will include the Friends School and much more, and will complement Oscar s church-planting work. We ve done a community needs assessment, so we have some ideas about the kinds of work that we might begin, but we also want to stay listening for the voice of Christ calling us onward. Other churches and other social service agencies exist on the Southside, but Friends are a trusted presence in the area and offer a unique history of connecting worshipping practice with social action and service. People who know little else about us know that we stand for peace a message and a hope that this impoverished neighborhood desperately needs to hear. May God use all of us to bless this work. friendsunitedmeeting.org

7 A big year for Belize! Wondering how to get Young Friends excited about Friends work in Belize? Here are some Children s Message ideas to start with: Building Up A House Materials needed: Lincoln Logs, LEGO, building blocks, or other way of demonstrating building a house. Start the message by building a structure. Ask the kids to help, if possible. What s the most important thing in your house? We re building walls, here, to keep out the rain and the wind and the bugs. Walls are important, but walls don t make a home. You need a bed, right? And a fridge, and a table to eat at, and a bathroom. What else do you need? [allow discussion] Quakers in Belize are buying a house, but it s going to be more than just a house. It s going to be a school, too, and a church, all at the same time! In this building people are going to worship, and they re going to learn math, and they re going to make friends. What do you think a building like that might need? [allow discussion] It would need a kitchen, to make food. And it would need an office, for the teacher to grade papers in. And it would need cleaning supplies, like mops and brooms and sponges, to keep it tidy. Go back to building the structure. You know what else this building is going to need, though? It s going to need people to build it. Right now, Quakers all over the world are raising money to help build this house. People are raising money here in [name your own Meeting/Church/Yearly Meeting], and in [name one or more Meetings/Churches/ Yearly Meetings within FUM]. Each time we give to this project, it s like putting one more block in place. God is using us, together, to make this happen. It s important that all of us be generous, to help this happen. You know what, though? Maybe you don t have a lot of money. That s okay, because here s the other thing that s important: we all need to pray. When you pray, when you ask God to bless our work, it s like putting another block in place and it doesn t cost a thing! It just means that you have to hold it in your heart. Will you pray with me right now? Prayer: God, we re so happy about the work that you re doing in Belize. We re happy that children have a safe place to learn, and that people can come together for church. God, please multiply the gifts that Friends are giving, so that we can do more good work than we even imagined. AMEN. Love is an Invisible String that Connects Us All Materials needed: map or globe, copy of The Invisible String, pictures of Oscar Mmbali and students in Belize How many of you have heard the phrase, that of God in everyone? What do you think it means? [allow discussion] When Quakers use this phrase, we re talking about something that God gives us, something that s deep inside each and every person. It s not your lungs, and it s not your liver... it s your ability to hear God speaking. It s the feeling that you get when you love someone, or when you see something beautiful. That feeling is something that connects you to every other person on the whole planet. We speak different languages, and we eat different foods, and we sing different songs, but we re connected by the gift of love. Friends United Meeting 101 Quaker Hill Dr, Richmond IN friendsunitedmeeting.org info@fum.org

8 Today, we re going to talk about a man named Oscar. He s going to be building a Quaker community in Belize City. He s from a village called Shanderema, in western Kenya. [Offer map or globe and help the children find Kenya, Belize, their own home, and other points of interest.] These places are far away from us, but all Friends are connected by love. Let s read a book that tells us about that. [Read The Invisible String or substitute another book about love.] So, look at these pictures. [show pictures] We don t know Oscar, and we don t know the students at the school in Belize City, and we don t know their teachers, but we re all still connected by love. Even though we don t know them, it s still important that we pray for them. Will you bow your heads and close your eyes? Prayer: God, we thank you for the community of Quakers around the whole world. We thank you for the way in which your love connects us to people we ve never met, to schools we ve never seen, to cities we ve never been to. We pray for the students at the school in Belize City, that they would have all the supplies they need and be excited about learning. And we pray for their teachers, that they would be kind and compassionate. And we pray for the church in Belize City, that Quakers there will be just as happy in their church as we are in ours. It s in Jesus name that we pray for this, AMEN. Stumped on fundraising ideas? Here are a few to try: Yard and Housework party! Most Friends won t be able to travel to Belize to help with the work there, but if we re willing to work, we can earn some money to send their way. Friends who are willing and able to work can offer their services, whether that s shoveling snow, mowing grass, weeding flower beds, washing windows, painting walls, or whatever else needs to be done. Instead of charging for services, ask recipients to donate to FUM s work in Belize. Chili cook-off! No one can resist a good bowl of chili... but who makes it best? Ask Friends to bring in their best chili recipes, and invite the community in to vote on which blend is the best. When publicizing your event, be sure to describe the amazing work in Belize that this cook-off is supporting. Have materials available at the cook-off for people who are interested in FUM, and set out a basket for donations. Don t forget the cornbread! Flower fundraiser! This year, give your Mother s Day flowers extra meaning. Some mothers send their children off to safe schools, while other mothers send their children off and worry. One of our goals in Belize is to expand our ability to offer good schooling to Belizean children, and we think that s a goal that all mothers can get behind. Purchase a bucket of carnations from a local florist for Mother s Day, and make them available by donation for families who purchase one to honor or remember a faithful mother. Seven facts about Belize 1. Belize has the longest barrier reef system in the Western hemisphere it hosts more than 500 species of fish! 2. The country of Belize does not contain a single McDonald s, Burger King, or Starbucks. 3. Every other Central American country has Spanish as their official language, but the official language of Belize is English. 4. The motto on Belize s coat of arms is sub umbra floreo, which means under the shade I flourish. It s a reference to the thick forest canopy and to logging, which was Belize s first industry. 5. The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Belize, is the only jaguar reserve in the world. 6. The highest point in Belize is called Doyle s Delight. It s 1,160 meters high! 7. The Maya Indians were the first people in Belize. The first non-indians to settle in Belize were pirates, loggers, and escaped slaves. Friends United Meeting 101 Quaker Hill Dr, Richmond IN friendsunitedmeeting.org info@fum.org

9 A big year for Belize! Love is an invisible string that connects us all Oscar Mmbali, the new pastoral minister for Belize, is from a rural village in western Kenya. Left: Belize is located on the Yucatan peninsula of Central America. It borders Mexico and Guatemala. With a land area of nearly 9,000 square miles, Belize is comparable in size to New Jersey. Below: A view of the Southside neighborhood of Belize City from the roof of the new Belize Friends Center. Friends United Meeting 101 Quaker Hill Dr, Richmond IN friendsunitedmeeting.org info@fum.org

10 Friends United Meeting friendsunitedmeeting.org

picture yourself in this beloved fellowship

picture yourself in this beloved fellowship Friends United Meeting The Friends United Meeting community stretches far and wide across the globe. We are a collection of Christ-centered Quakers, embracing