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 MoreMathew 4:19 - He said to them, “Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people!” For us to become effective co-workers with Christ, we must come to a place of fully accepting our ministry call. 1 Thess. 5:23 – Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your whole spirit… the great mystical work of the Holy Spirit is in the less bright side of our personality which we can get at. This is what David thought when he wrote Psalm 139 and said – “though art the God of the early Mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks and greater depth than any sea in nature – You are the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach the depth of the horizons of my soul without you. Take my hand and lead me in ways everlasting.
Read MoreJohn 15:1-4 (NIV)15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. When I read about pruning it reminds me of a time when my grandfather would send us to his coffee farm to help him prune the coffee bushes. In preparation, would sharpen the pruning saw and the pruning shears and head to the farm...
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.