With support from FUM donors, Friends Theological College has raced forward into online learning. Donors provided the funding required to access the Moodle learning platform, and for the technological upgrades needed for Moodle to run smoothly. Funding came through for Moodle access and some other technological upgrades. FTC started with a MoodleCloud plan that was limited to 200 users, but as interest in e-learning grows among the students and faculty, it became clear that they needed to upgrade to the 500-user plan. With the support of generous donors, we were able to purchase that upgrade each early July. The June module began online with 141 students, with three from Uganda, two from Rwanda, and a good number from pastoral communities in Kenya. We are still exploring ways to assist students from Tanzania in enrolling in online learning.
Read MoreAs the world is suffering from the impacts of the COVID-19 virus, FUM is deepening our commitment to connect the global family of Friends and we are increasing our support for our most vulnerable communities. In response to this commitment, all of our field staff are serving in various ways. Concurrently, in a normal year, Field Staff would be using the North American summer traveling to our Meetings and Churches to raise funds to support their ministries. Of course, they cannot do that this year. Most importantly, the three-year terms of Oscar Mmbali and Robert Wafula are scheduled to be renewed in September 2020. The COVID-19 threat and associated travel restrictions are preventing them from traveling to raise their support.
Read MoreGenesis 22:9 – 9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. The blunder many believers make I to think that, the last thing that God wants from them is the sacrifice of death, but when we carefully look at the passage above, we realize that God is interested on the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Christ Jesus did.
Read MoreMark 4:10 – “When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables”. Sometimes allows situations in our lives that would call for a time of solitude with Him. God may allow this by affliction, temptation, heartbreak, disappointment, sickness or by simply thwarting affection by a broken relationship by a loved one. When He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded by the situation and we cannot even ask a question – then He begins to expound and make things clearer to our minds so that we can know Him better. When you look at the life of Jesus Christ with the disciples, it was the disciples who were perplexed by His deeds and not the crowds outside.
Read MoreThroughout our history, the people known as Friends (or Quakers) keep rediscovering an essential and enduring truth: There is one who speaks to our most basic needs and most significant hopes—Christ Jesus the Lord. Both individually and communally, we are learning to know and follow the Voice that guides us in the way we should go. Together, we seek to understand and obey that truth which sets us free. As a people, we share in the experience of that powerful life which makes all things new. Maybe you are searching for an authentic and transforming faith and community to call home—if so, come in and join us as we seek to know and follow Christ.
Friends United Meeting commits itself to energize and equip Friends through the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved, and obeyed as Teacher and Lord.