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This year’s Stoking the Fire theme, “Rediscovering the Basics”, is about reclaiming the fundamentals of our spiritual fire—getting us to a place where we can empower the core strength of our faith. We will be exploring questions about the space between ideal and real. What do we consider fire? Does everyone’s fire need to be identical? How do we show up for ourselves and one another when all we have is a small spark? What does it look like to stoke the flames of spiritual fire when it is raining and damp and the kindling is wet?
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On February 27, FUM Global Ministries Coordinator Karla Jay, North American Ministries Coordinator Michael Sherman, and Communications Director Dan Kasztelan sent a shipment of emergency supplies to Cuba Yearly Meeting through a shipping agency in Louisville, Kentucky. Friends contributed generously to this effort by using an Amazon shopping list to purchase supplies requested by Cuba Yearly Meeting. These items were delivered to the FUM office, then packaged up and driven to the agency in Louisville, to travel on to Cuba.
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As Ugandans went to the polls on 15 January 2026, the country stood at a historic crossroads, balancing four decades of continuous leadership against increasing demands for democratic openness, accountability, and peace. The recently concluded general elections, which included both presidential and parliamentary contests, have since attracted intense national, regional, and international attention. The elections re-elected 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni with 71.65% of the vote from around 21 million voters, extending his rule to forty years. Uganda’s population is approximately 51 million, including an estimated 5,000 Quakers. While many citizens participated peacefully in the voting process, the wider electoral environment showed both promising signs and significant challenges.
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The downloadable Advent devotional is one of a handful of online resources that we have that can be downloaded and copied for use and distribution by individuals and congregations. Other resources include our brochures on ministry fields and field staff; on the kinds of work we do; and our Quaker Life edition devoted to explaining FUM’s priorities, program staff, and programs. We are adding more downloadable resources, including videos, all the time.
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On 6–7 December, Friends United Meeting’s office in Kenya relocated to Kakamega from Kisumu. While this move was made because of a financial necessity to lower operational costs, it also provides strategic opportunities. For the past twenty-one years, the Reinsurance Plaza in Kisumu has been our administrative home. The office was originally established to serve our project partners and our member Yearly Meetings in Africa. The move to Kakamega brings us much closer to the communities we serve and support.
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Although Global Ministries Coordinator Karla Jay was traveling in partnership with FWCC as a translator, her visit fulfilled a long-standing request from Guatemala Holiness Yearly Meeting to begin a dialogue about the mutual benefits of becoming an FUM member body. For several years, FUM had attempted to make such a visit, but a series of obstacles—political instability leading to road blockages, and travel concerns—prevented it. In 2023, General Secretary Kelly Kellum was scheduled to travel to the country, but Guatemala’s political turmoil at that time led local leader Karen Gregorio to advise postponing the visit until conditions improved.
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