Give to FUM's "Kenya Relief Fund"

From the Nugent Rehard Family
Former FUM Field Staff in East Africa

January 8, 2008

Dear Friends and Family:

We hope you enjoyed the holidays and send you best wishes for the New Year, with hopes for peace, joy, and community to grow around you, as visible signs of Christ's love in the world! Today is Eliza Nugent Rehard's thirteenth birthday, so we have much to celebrate in our family. But our hearts have been breaking with the news coming out of Kenya this past week, and we've been grieving with Friends there over the post-election violence that has swept up so many in its wake and affected virtually everyone in the nation, like a tsunami of fear, anger, and mistrust.

We appreciate the many messages from Friends enquiring about Kenya, and in response, Mary Kay has posted a new blog:

http://www.updatesonkenya.blogspot.com/

So far, it seems, all our friends in Kenya—Kenyan and expatriate alike—are safe and well, but many tens of thousands of others are not so fortunate. International news sources estimate more than 600 people have died and over a quarter million have been made refugees, traveling from the west toward Nairobi as IDPs, or internally displaced people. Friends in the Eldoret and Kakamega areas are sheltering the needy, while they themselves are experiencing shortages of essentials like food and fuel, and at great risk to their own families and property.

The need and opportunity for pastoral leadership and ministry of all kinds in Kenya has never been so vital. At the same time, the challenges for ministry in East Africa are greater than ever.

We are happy to report that Friends United Meeting received many generous gifts in the second half of 2007, enabling us to clear the deficit and close our ministry account in good order. Likewise, it's wonderful that support for Friends United Meeting's central office and administrative functions has been growing. Without compromising that support, we do ask you to consider how you might join other Friends in response to the humanitarian crisis in Kenya.

FUM has established a “Kenya Relief Fund.” Unrestricted gifts to this fund are vital at this time, as they can be allocated where they are most needed.

Please visit the FUM website http://www.fum.org/contributions/index.html to contribute online or send a gift by post today to: Friends United Meeting, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN 47374-1980. Earmark your gift “Kenya Relief Fund.” Pledges are welcome, as Kenyans will be suffering for months to come.

Generous gifts are needed now for the “Kenya Relief Fund” and may be used to assist all of FUM’s programs and project partners:

• Yearly Meetings providing relief to refugees and orphans in Friends churches
• Field Staff families in East Africa, the Graces and the Richmonds
• Friends Theological College—Kaimosi
• The African Ministries Office in Kisumu
• Lugulu and Kaimosi Friends hospitals
• Samburu and Turkana Friends missions
• The Lindi Friends School in Kibera slum area.

The post-election crisis is affecting virtually everyone in Kenya economically, including the families of FTC students. It will be difficult for the college to collect students' fees and tuition for the coming term. Your gift may make a crucial difference to the Friends Theological College program budget, enabling FTC to provide uninterrupted training for pastoral leaders—who will be sorely needed in coming weeks, months and years!

Join us in praying for God to raise up and reveal new leadership for Friends Theological College, as the Richmonds enter the second half of their year of interim service. Please forward any proposals for candidates to serve as the next FTC principal to Sylvia Graves, the General Secretary, or to an FUM board member from your area.

Thank you for sharing your hope and love for Kenya with our family over the past five years. We cannot adequately express our appreciation of your faithful support for us in ministry!

When we departed in August, our Kenyan Friends implored us,

“Do not forget us, marafiki!

Remember your friends in Kenya!”

Know that we join with you and thousands of others in prayer for Kenya as a nation, and for Kenyan Friends especially—praying and trusting that peace, order, and unity will prevail!

God bless,

Mary Kay and Patrick

Mary Kay Rehard and Patrick J. Nugent
Emma and Eliza Nugent Rehard

Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Learn more about Kenya at: http://updatesonkenya.blogspot.com/
Give generously at: http://www.fum.org/contributions/index.html