Specifically, the committee agreed on these principles for its work:
What are the marching orders for the Friends Africa Board of Missions?
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses. . . to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Therefore, what should the Friends Africa Board of Missions do?
- Inspire the Quaker Church in Africa —by inspiring God’s people to passionately pursue Christ’s mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we believe that the African Church has a great missionary destiny.
- Training the Quakers in Africa—by training believers in authentic Quaker principles and practice. Therefore, we believe that the nations will be reached by an authentically Quaker church, moving in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Resource mobilization within the Quaker church in Africa—by leading the Quaker in resource mobilization by the African leaders and enabling them to lead their churches into a Quaker experience and Spirit-empowered mission. Therefore, we believe that the Quaker church in Africa stands at a crossroads in the Quaker experience/principles and practice in resource mobilization.
- Praying for God’s power to take control—leading an intercessory prayer movement for an outpouring of the Spirit and evangelizing the yet-to-be-reached in Africa and beyond. Therefore, we believe that prayer is foundational for a Spirit-led revival and essential for mobilizing the church for mission.
The Friends Africa Board of Missions concluded on the following objectives:
- Cultivate a culture of missions/mission-sending among African Friends.
- Assist individuals in the discernment of a call to missions.
- Aid in training, preparation, and placement for cross-cultural ministry collaboration with other mission agencies/institutions.
- Provide ongoing communication, prayer support, and missionary care to those placed in the field.
- Raise funds to support mission work from various sources, including member churches, individuals, and grants/support from mission organizations with similar objectives.
- Oversee financial support for those placed on the field.
- Assist with training and other programs designed to empower and enable new churches to become self-sustaining, self-governing, and reproducing. We seek collaboration with like-minded mission agencies interested in partnering together toward these goals.
- Nurture relationships between sending churches and field missionaries via
- Overseeing communication and ongoing connection between sending churches and field missionaries.
- Facilitate and oversee short-term teams to the field when such teams contribute to that site’s goals and priorities.
As the retreat ended, we all agreed to fast-track the support system for an ongoing missionary team in Tanzania that is doing an excellent job, though overwhelmed by much work due to the larger area covered by the Yearly Meeting of Tanzania. We have embarked on the campaign to rally Kenyan churches to support the missionaries in Tanzania, Nicholas and Dorcas Otieno. The Otienos have been under the support of the Indiana Yearly Meeting, but their support by Indiana came to an end in September. Other North American Friends are supporting them until the end of 2021, giving the new Mission Board time to gather support among African Friends. Their minimal annual budget for their work in the vast nation of Tanzania is 1,200,000 Kenya shillings. The Board developed a giving tree to support these missionaries in Tanzania doing incredible work in planting churches, developing leadership, and encouraging new churches. Yearly Meetings, Monthly Meetings, and individuals are encouraged to support this mission as one would choose from the giving tree.
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