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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. $7300 was given in this manner in 2004. 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.
Missions Focus for July- December 2010 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 2010 the committee focused on the issue of violence in our culture).
Fall 2010
Missions Focus:
FUM Kenya
During the second half of 2010, the
Missions & Social Concerns Committee asks
Friends to learn about the
missions efforts we support in East
Africa through Friends United Meeting.
FUM's work there is headquartered at the
Africa Ministries Office in Kisumu, on
the northeastern shores of Lake Victoria in
western Kenya. John Muhanji is the Africa
Ministries rep, and Eden Grace is the field
staffer. Friends Theological College at
Kaimosi began in 1942 and now trains
over 100 students each year in pastoral ministry
and Christian leadership. FTC's current
Principal is FUM field staffer Ann Riggs. Next
door to FTC is Kaimosi Hospital,
a medical facility that has been rejuvenated in
the past few years with the help of FUM
resources. A few miles farther north,
Friends Lugulu Hospital's 110 beds
serve 6000 in-patients yearly and is the area's
main provider of surgery. Since 1970, FUM has
worked with FTC students to carry out nutrition,
water, education, and community development
ministries among the nomadic Turkana
people of northwest Kenya. John Moru
currently leads that effort. A similar effort
began among the semi-nomadic Samburu
people of north-central Kenya in 1995,
led by FTC grad Isaiah Bikokwa. FUM also has
teamed in recent years with the indigenous
agency Africa Quaker Vision (AQUAVIS)
and Friends in Nairobi to address the needs of
thousands living in poverty in the city's
sprawling slums.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 8th 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 raises money 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!! |
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Missions Emphasis on Hunger Jan-June 2008 Missions Emphasis on Domestic Violence January-June 2010
MCC Meat Canning Trip Jan. 22, 2008
Peace and Christian Social Concerns Queries
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