New England Friends WomenNew England Friends WomenUnited Society of Friends Women
June 2006
From USFW New England Clerk Darcy Drayton,Over the past year New England Yearly Meeting’s USFW has had a variety of women come and give presentations on the ministry they are called to do: prison work through Alternatives to Violence, helping women and families with domestic violence, the building of an orphanage in Kenya in partnership with Quaker women from that country, and ministry to the homeless in this country.
Over the past thirty years women have either by choice or through economic necessity taken up employment outside the home. Discretionary time is limited. Across the country organizations that previously relied on volunteer help have felt the loss of this charitable labor force.
At our last meeting in Durham we discussed how we can bring in younger women to our organization. Despite their busy lives how can we provide for them a sense of belonging and purpose that fits with their goals and aspirations in following the leadings of the Spirit. In what ways can we together provide companionship through the joys and tribulations of our lives? How can USFW speak to the needs of the younger women in our Yearly Meeting?
Friends have always balanced private witness with corporate discernment. There is a kind of strength and spiritual growth that is only possible when we are gathered together to seek what divine wisdom would have us do either singly or together. Here in New England we have the freedom of economy, politics and society to follow leadings even if it is at times hard to move issues forward. Yet it is nothing compared to the struggle that Quaker women in East Africa, Cuba, Jamaica and other third world countries have where gathering together is crucial to their work in the Spirit of Christ. Their necessity is their strength. Could it be that it could be ours as well? Please come to our USFW committee meetings during our NEYM sessions and help us look to our future. And bring with you two or three friends.
God’s Blessings Be With You All!
Our spring appeal is for the Kakamega Orphanage.
Kakamega Orphanage Project Report by Sukie Rice
The project started four years ago, when Dorothy Selebwa and Leonida Mugofwa came in ministry to New England Women. In African tradition, all children are taken care of by other family relatives. But due to AIDS, they were experiencing an overwhelming number of orphans coming to them for help. The women of USFW-Kakamega began a feeding program at the church in the city of Kakamega. Their dream was to build a dining hall and kitchen so they could run the feeding program all through the year. Sukie Rice, Molly Duplisea and Sharon Salmon found themselves called to assist and began raising some funds to build the dining hall and formed Friends of Kakamega, a partner to the USFW-Kakamega. As the women began to break ground, the men of Kakamega said it was a foolish project, beyond the ability of women. Men wanted to control the money of the project but the women persisted and a year later celebrated the opening of the dining hall/kitchen!
It has not been easy. Doing a cross-cultural project has had its challenges. Many emails have gone back and forth. Each summer the women of Kakamega and New England have met together to work out the knotty problems. But now there is a three story building, which feeds 100 children each noon on the ground floor. The second floor has 12 bedrooms to house 41 children, the girls and younger boys and house parents. The top floor houses the older boys, an office for the orphanage and USFW (and another for rental income), plus a counseling room and classrooms for income generating projects. Twelve high school students are being sponsored for education along with 15 children living with grandmothers. They now are trying to become self sustaining in growing their own food, and are trying to develop other income generating projects.
Each summer Friends of Kakamega holds a summer camp at the orphanage (Care Center). When you spend time with the children, you realize what a difference you can make and how important the project is. The first year, the Americans ran the camp, the second year the Kenyan youth pastors helped, and now the local pastors are an important part of planning and running the camp.
The Kenyans have enormous hearts and strong connection to God, the Americans have skill in numbers and money, and often find it hard not to be in control. The project thrives when in God's control. It has not always been easy, and they continue to learn from each other. We in the States do not have all the answers and cannot solve all problems. We also try to avoid creating financial dependency on Americans. It is possible to just raise funds and send money, but the important thing is the relationship that has built up between the people.
Confronting and discussing confusions and difficulties makes us all spiritually stronger. It was suggested that we read The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man that explains some of the confusions we get into in such cross cultural projects.
What can we do to help? The orphanage needs $1500 per month to fully run it. Anyone wanting to sponsor a student can do so at the rate of $150 per year for an elementary, and $500 for a high school student. We could also send books for the library via the work camp travelers.
Our spring appeal is for the Kakamega Orphanage. If you wish to reach Friends of Kakamega to have them come to your meeting with slides to talk about the project, they hope you'll contact them at 51 Hunter Road, Freeport ME 04032 (207) 865-3768.
Sukie ended with thanking God for bringing her this project, a best blessing in her life, a real joy.
Contributions and membership dues
should be made out to "USFW of NEYM" and mailed to USFW of NEYM PO Box 1401, Shirley MA 01464. Please include the following information.
Total Enclosed
Please specify how you want it used:
_ Annual dues to NEYM USFW if you did not pay already in 2006
The dues are two tiered: $8 to cover the cost of the NE newsletter and dues to USFWI, or $18 to cover the above and a subscription to The Advocate, the bimonthly publication of United Society of Friends Women International. We really encourage all of you to get The Advocate since it is a great source of inspiration and information about Friends women around the world.
Please include the address to send your subscription to The Advocate :
_ Of course contributions to the general fund of USFW of NEYM are always welcome.
Minute Excerpts of USFW of New England Yearly Meeting Held at Durham, Maine Meeting, 7th May, 2006
We also noted the recent deaths of three New England women: Christine Wozich, our Christian Education Secretary from Windham Meeting;Margaret Douglas of West Falmouth Meeting, and Jane Cook of Cobscook Meeting.
After potluck provided by Durham USFW, we began our business meeting.
Present for business meeting: Weare Meeting: Darcy Drayton and Marian Baker; Gonic Mtg. Muriel Farrar; Dover Mtg. Kathy Mulhern, Heidi Porter, Barbara Sturrock; N. Sandwich- Virginia Towle; Acton- Ann Armstrong; Durham- Alice Costa, Twila Greene, Clarabel Marstaller, Dorothy Hinshaw, Muriel Marston, Margaret Wentworth, Bea Douglas, Angie Reed
Speaker, Sukie Rice gave an enthusiastic presentation on the Kakamega Orphanage Project. Report is above.
Plans for NEYM sessions: Darcy Drayton reported that Eden Grace has consented to be the speaker at our program this year. Darcy will arrange the program and place of our business meeting
Dorothy Hinshaw gave a report from USFW International Board. They are busy preparing for the USFWI Triennial to be held in Indianapolis the 19th-22nd July, 2007, on a theme from Collosians 2. Three officers recently visited Kenyan USFW Conference and stayed several nights at Kakamega orphanage. We were encouraged to subscribe and read the Advocate, use the Blue Prints devotional guide, and consider supporting the USFWI projects.
Clarabel Marstaller gave a treasurers report. Members at large were encouraged to financially support the budget and the USFWI projects.
Minutes of the previous meeting written by Margaret Hawthorn were approved.
Brainstorming on how to get younger women involved in USFW.
Get them to attend an International Triennial (July 2007)
Get a younger woman to go to Kakamega Orphanage Summer camp in Kenya July 2008
Have younger women from Durham visit other NEYM meetings to explain the value of a local USFW.
Each person presently involved bring some new women to the next meeting
Have speakers/programs that would attract new people to come.
Invite women from Cuba, Kenya, or other countries to visit and challenge us spiritually.
Each older woman, adopt a younger woman.
Choose a highlight and send into the New England Friend newsletter.
Ann Armstrong will send dates of our upcoming meetings to Kate at NEYM
Dorothy Hinshaw will help lead a discussion at our next meeting on restructuring the number of officers needed for New England USFW.
Fall appeal will be earmarked for the Ramallah play center, and a description about it should be prepared before YM sessions.
Darcy asked that any agenda items for our next meeting be sent to her.
We thanked Durham Meeting for their warm hospitality.
Meeting adjourned purposing to meet next after Sunday supper at NEYM sessions.
Respectfully submitted,
Marian Baker
Recording Clerk.
Clarabel Hadley Marstaller - The practical dependable one. by Marian Baker
We could say that Clarabel was born part of USFW, as her mother was editor of the Advocate (back when you had to laboriously type up manually each page and then physically cut and paste it onto a previous copy of the newsletter in order to be printed). Her mother was also the first USFW International President, (when it changed from being the Womens' Missionary Alliance to being the United Society of Friends Women.
Clarabel graduated from Olney Friends School (Barnesville,OH) and Earlham College. Louis also attended Earlham, but she didn’t get to know him until after they had graduated and Louis came back to visit Earlham where she was then working as a teaching assistant. They both attended a Young Friends of North America Conference held in Indiana that was planned by Virginia Towle and others. After her marriage to Louis, she became an official member of USFW.
Her parents moved to New England after she did.
Clarabel and Louis were carrying on a family business of running the Maine Idyll, (vacation cabins for visitors who come to Maine in the warm season.) Louis was called to be Field Secretary of New England Yearly Meeting, but he could not have done it without Clarabel, who was the administrative staff. (She ran the office and kept track of everything.) This was back before computers existed. They did this work using a bedroom in their house as an office for twenty five years. Her four children all helped in the folding and stuffing of mailings and cranking up copies on the old mimeograph machine.
Whether when serving on the FUM General Board, (including serving as recording clerk of FUM), or serving on numerous committees of New England Yearly Meeting or serving on USFW, what would we do without Clarabel? She has a gift of keeping us on track, following proper protocol, and always practical in getting things done. Clarabel served as president of USFW for six years, Newsletter editor for six years, and has now been treasurer for the last six years.
She has not traveled as widely as Virginia, but she did travel once to Cuba with a group from NEYM, many times to USFW and FUM Triennials in the States, and once with Marian in ministry to Kenya (where her brother David Hadley had served as a doctor at Kaimosi Hospital during the same years that Virginia and Phil served in Kenya). She was a great companion to have along. We were privileged to be present to pray for the site of the first mission work in Losuk, Samburu. After the prayers, the two Samburu donors of the land provided us a feast. As honored guests, we were given sour milk, and the liver of a goat. Having grown up on a Midwestern farm, Clarabel didn’t bat an eyelash, but graciously ate it up!
Thanks, Clarabel for all your work for USFW over the years.
Virginia Towle, The Adventurous Traveler by Marian Baker
Virginia Tripp Towle was born and brought up in Westport, Massachusetts.
As a young child she suffered from polio, and was not expected to live, but this did not stop her. By herself as a young child, she began attending Westport Friends Meeting, three miles from her home (in the days when it was a programmed meeting) . As a teen she worked as a nanny for children many summers. She was the only one of seven children in her family to complete a college education. She accomplished this at Massachusetts State College in Amherst in Home Economics.
While working at Indianapolis Children's Museum, she attended the Five Years Meeting Triennial (FUM). She was met at the Richmond, Indiana train station by a Friend from FGC who was accompanied by Phil Towle, whom she then married in 1945.
During their early years of marriage, Phil and Virginia lived in a castle in Luxembourg and offered hospitality to the first visitors to that country after the war. . They also bicycled throughout Europe on a tandem (a bicycle built for two). She also took part in a Young Friends Caravan that bicycled through Europe encouraging people after the war.
While teaching elementary school in Hinckley, Maine she gave birth to her first of five children. She taught in a one room schoolhouse in Vermont, worked in social work in Vermont, and Philadelphia and worked at Friends Community in Massachusetts. She also has served as a foster mother to a number of young people.
In the 1960s, Phil and Virginia were called to work for FUM in Kenya. Phil traveled ahead by himself and began teaching at Chavakali Boys School. Virginia then courageously traveled by herself with her five children all the way to Kenya. While in Kenya, Virginia was head of the Kaimosi Demonstration School (an elementary school which her youngest children attended). Every school holiday they traveled widely to Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, or within Kenya, usually taking a Kenya student or Dorothy, an Australian teacher with them. Virginia has many stories to tell of these adventures, such as dealing with wildlife around their tent, car breakdowns, and trying to cross a border where the guards did not know any English and they knew no French or Kigali.
Over the years, Virginia traveled to many gatherings of FWCC, FUM, and USFW, no matter where in North America they were being held. When traveling with Marian Baker in ministry, she enjoyed the challenges of the travel. She also had a gift of kicking Marian’s foot to let her know when she was going beyond her leading!
Within New England Yearly Meeting, she has been an active member of Westport, MA, North Fairfield, ME, Monadnock, NH and now North Sandwich, NH meetings- four different quarterly meetings!
Within New England USFW she has served as president for three years, nominating committee, and been a New England delegate to many USFW Triennials.
Not being able to drive due to blindness, she still tries to attend Friends meetings whenever she finds someone who can drive her there- such an adventurous traveler!
Thanks Virginia for your support of USFW over the years.
From Christine's Christmas card -- The Arbor
An arbor is a passageway adorned with flowers, sometimes with a small bench placed within it for respite and reflection. It was around my seventh year of life when an arbor was described to me. My father had been bothered by a playhouse twenty years old where I spend many afternoons playing house. My father thought it was an eye sore and one day he decided to tear the playhouse down. Watching my brothers demolish the building was very upsetting and I went to my mother to protest. My mother told me he was going to build an arbor. And so I learned about the loveliness of an arbor--not a playhouse--but an adventurous idea and an acceptable replacement. But an arbor in my Los Angeles childhood home was not to be. It was never built.
I told this story to my husband many years later. He love the idea of adding to our landscaping this childhood loss. An so, five years after the death of my mother and unintentionally and coincidentally purchased on the anniversary of my mother's death, Michael found a wrought iron arbor, the molding in the shape of intertwining roses, and only the assembled floor model available for purchase... the only one in stock. As he paid for the arbor the salesman told us an interesting story: the mold for this arbor was made in an iron foundry form the turn of the century in NYC. He explained that only a few remakes had been made of this arbor because the lost mold had been somehow rediscovered. A "rediscovered arbor" was placed in our yard on a sunny day in May. A passageway, if you will, from a long ago wounded past to a healed future. A reminder for me and perhaps for you that God will open the way to hope, light and peace when our faith is large enough, our courage great enough, and we are brave enough to share our dreams with someone we love.
Christine Lundquist Wozich,
Christmas 2005 letter to Minga.
Christine died this spring in a car accident. She is greatly missed.
In the Beginning by Kathy Mulhern
What has happened to our world---to this Earth that is our home? This question haunts us, as we watch the images on television: the melting ice-caps, the increase in devastating storms, the mudslides and wildfires, the earthquakes and hurricanes. How much of this are we responsible for? What can we do about it now, at this late date?
Many in our Quaker meetings are pondering these environmental questions. It seems to me that, as religious people, we can contribute a spiritual dimension to the pressing public debate.
I’ve been reading a book by Karen Armstrong, called In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis. Armstrong is well-grounded in contemporary biblical scholarship. Her analysis of the stories of origin handed down in the Hebrew Bible is clear and masterful. I’m particularly interested in what she says in the first forty pages about Genesis chapters 1 and 2. She discusses the priestly ( “P”) story of the beginning of things (Gen 1:1-2:3), that moving account of God’s creative action in bringing order out of chaos. Here, in Genesis 1, is the “Master of the Universe”, the One who directs our world for a purpose; the One who blesses this world with fertility, who wants it to be fruitful, beautiful, harmonious. Blessing is a theme running through the whole of Genesis, according to Armstrong. It is a theme that resonates with us today.
Armstrong points out that harmony is shattered in Chapter 2 of Genesis. Even in Chapter 1, she observes, the very act of creation separates God from the world He has created. In Chapter 2, written by the “J” writer, that inherent separateness of God from creation is exacerbated by the human factor. In analyzing the story of Adam and Eve, Karen Armstrong emphasizes that the “sin” of the first humans lay in their unwillingness to accept limits. On the one hand, human curiosity, human desire to push beyond the limits of what is seen as possible, have made life more endurable for us in the modern age, as compared to ages past. (See Armstrong, p. 32.) But haven’t we gone too far? In the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent, we see the operation of human free will. We see the desire of the first humans to know more, to reach out beyond set boundaries, to be “their own persons”. In doing these things, the Bible says, they are widening the gap between God and humanity. They are shattering the initial harmony that is represented by the Garden of Eden. Whether you call this separation “sin” or not is beside the point. Clearly, much orthodox Christian teaching about this story (particularly that which puts all the blame on Eve) has led to a gloomy, life-denying attitude about the human condition. But if we free ourselves from the traditional pre-conceptions, the symbolism of this story speaks volumes about our present dilemma. Karen Armstrong points out that, as the Garden represents harmony, the desert, to which Adam and Eve are banished, represents chaos—the initial chaos that God brought under control in the process of creation.
Think about this: in human history, how much fertile land have we lost through ignorance and greed? How many deserts have we created? We are beginning to understand that we, like Adam and Eve, can bring about natural chaos, if we forget the limits that are inherent in the very nature of our world. Perhaps that forgetfulness starts when we begin to look on creation as just “raw material” for our own purposes. The great imperative is to look at the holiness underlying everything we see. This is the holiness of God’s act in creating the world. When we forget to pause in gratitude, we set the stage for environmental disaster.
Perhaps we should periodically read those first few chapters of the Bible, to picture what the priestly writer pictured: the initial chaos, the Spirit of God “moving upon the face of the waters,” the emergence of the recognizable world, one stage at a time. Above all, we should remember the blessing God gives the world (Gen. 1:22); we should stand ready to receive that blessing; and with that act of receiving, we should move forward in humility and gratitude to preserve and protect and restore what God has given us.
Karen Armstrong, In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis , NY.: Ballantine Books, 1996.
Outbreak at Friends Hospital Kaimosi excerpts from James Grace article at http://graces.com/gracenotes/
Part of our job in Kenya is to respond to situations as they arise. This is my story of a recent dysentery outbreak at Friends Hospital Kaimosi, involving me most actively for two days on March 16 and 17. People's health and even lives were endangered, and I found myself and others suddenly in a position to make a difference to these lives in ways I could not have anticipated.
On March 16 at 5:33 AM I received a text message on my mobile phone from the hospital administrator Gabriel saying that a bloody diarrheal outbreak was swamping the resources of Kaimosi Hospital. This hospital was once the pride of Western Kenya with large and excellent staff, state-of-the art facilitates, and a fine nursing school. People would come from surrounding countries for treatment. In recent years the staff has dwindled, the facilities have decayed, and they hadn't had a doctor on the staff for some time. Most people in the densely-populated, immediate area would rather travel 20 kilometers at some personal expense to the government district hospital in Mbale rather than receive care at the Friends Hospital in Kaimosi. The hospital with 140 beds -- and ward space enough for many more -- was averaging around 20 patients and was paying only partial salaries each month. On January 27 of this year, Friends United Meeting took over the governance of the hospital for the purpose of bringing it back to better serve the needs of the surrounding area. A new board of governors was appointed consisting mostly of high-power Kenyan professional medical people. I was chosen to be FUM's representative on the board. FUM doesn't have much money at this time to use for this purpose. We are starting to fund-raise in the U.S. and the U.K., especially for infrastructure like replacing the leaky, asbestos shingle roof. But mostly we are counting on the Kenyan Quaker medical professionals to turn around the hospital through better management.
But on the morning of March 16 the hospital was in trouble. And I, as the board representative from the governing institution, was being called for help. They had admitted 41 school children and college students since the previous week, 19 of them on the previous day. The daily admissions were rising alarmingly. Outbreaks of dysentery in Kenya are not expected to be this large, and the hospital was not equipped to handle the patients coming in. The press from the two national daily newspapers "The Nation" and "The Standard" had visited the school on the 15th, along with a camera crew from the national Kenya Television Network. The district and provincial medical authorities had visited the hospital and provided some emergency medical supplies, but more was needed. Gabriel asked the government officials if they could help with food to feed the patients, dishes and utensils to serve it, linens and blankets to put on the beds (many beds were being shared by two patients.) They said the government couldn't provide this kind of assistance; Gabriel should look to the hospital's sponsor, the Religious Society of Friends, for help. So now on the morning of March 16 Gabriel was calling me for help. What could I do? I didn't have money or resources just lying around, waiting to be used.
At 8:15 AM I talked with a Kaimosi Hospital Board member and trauma surgeon who, like me, was dropping off her two children at school. She warned me that the danger of severe dehydration can be worst at night, when it is harder for the nurses to monitor each patient, and the nurses themselves may not be at the height of their numbers or concentration. That is most likely when patents from such an outbreak may die. Even without the outbreak the hospital was short on nursing staff because some of the better nurses left for government hospital jobs where they would be better paid, and at least paid regularly.
The doctor said that she had in her possession a carton of surplus Cyproflaxin that the U.S. Embassy was giving away from their stockpiles since it was nearing its expiry date. She also suggested that I arrange to have the CDC (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control) in Kisumu test the stool samples to help determine the cause and best treatments. She made phone contact with CDC to introduce me and start making arrangements. She asked the outbreak coordinator how often they had seen an outbreak of this size. The answer was "never." She also phoned the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu (the best-off hospital in the area) to ask for help with supplies and nursing assistance.
Later that evening Eden was back at home and I was at a social event at which were many business owners from our small city of Kisumu. At 11:07 PM I received another text message on my phone from Gabriel thanking God that so far nobody had died, and saying that it was only by the grace of God that he made it through the day. He also emphasized the urgent need for food and bedding supplies. Many beds were now being shared by three patients. I showed the message to a friend who stood up and got everyone's attention, and then read the message from my phone out to the crowd. Then he asked who could help. One business owner said he would donate sheeting material. Another two offered 90 blankets. Others donated chlorine for treating the water, detergent for washing the linens, and money for buying food, dishes and utensils.
I've now returned to more mundane -- if no less challenging -- tasks such as trying to make a payroll budget that we can actually meet each month, working on other ways to generate income for the hospital such as opening the pharmacy to the public, and continuing to work with the hospital leadership to improve operations. In providing assistance, our goal is to bring the hospital to a capacity where it can sustain itself without constant reliance on outside aid. But we need help and prayers to get there. Please pray for us, and help financially if you are able. Donations for improving the hospital may be sent to Friends United Meeting, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond IN 47374 earmarked for "Kaimosi Hospital." On-line credit card donations at www.fum.org are also welcome.