The Peace Education subcommittee is accepting submissions for January’s daily devotional focused on how NWYM members are walking in peace. The foundational query is: “In what ways have you felt called to live out the Friends peace testimony?” We want to hear about ALL of the different ways that peace is expressed in and by NWYM. Tell us how the Quaker peace testimony speaks to YOU, your community, or your congregation. For details of how to write and submit your devotional, download this pdf.
The theme for January’s Peace Month is “Our Stories of Peace.” The subcommittee is looking for names and biographical info on Quakers to be highlighted during the month. What Quakers come to mind as people who worked tirelessly for peace in the last century? (In this context, “peace” doesn’t just mean anti-war activism but includes any action that is loving toward one’s neighbor.)
Consider joining Friends from across the northwest for our annual Yearly Meeting Sessions, July 25-29, at George Fox University. Worship, business, workshops, and leadership development round out this week of fellowship and spiritual growth. See details of events and speakers, along with the opportunity to register online.
The tribal chair woman at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has declared a “state of emergency” for her people because of youth suicide, alcohol, drugs and a general bleak outlook on life by the tribal members. There really is nothing there for them to look forward too and housing in general is horrible, jobs are hard to find etc.
Our church (Living Waters Ministry) is planning to bring our youth group of 12 kids to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to help in any way we can. Other ideas include bringing “Spirit Jam” a concert series featuring Christian hip hop, break dancers, and Native American culture and drumming for Jesus there.
I think some of things we could bring to help are every day items such as baby food, diapers, bathroom items, clothes for babies, blankets, clothing for adults, shoes, coats etc.
Living Waters Ministry has set up a bank account at Sterling Savings under “Pine Ridge Donations Account.” Please help get this word out to your local church or other organizations etc, that might consider helping us?
First and foremost please pray for healing on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. If God/Creator leads you to help with this fundraiser or send supplies, we would be glad to have your help. If God/Creator leads you to donate to this cause you can do so at any Sterling Savings bank at account #59980382804.
If you have any idea’s, or would like more information we can be contacted by this email.
WanMniAwacin@aol.com
or by phone or text at (509)-499-0516
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this urgent matter.
Duane Garvais-Lawrence
Youth Pastor Living Waters Ministry
The House of Ruth Discipleship Program is a Christ-Centered ministry of Whitney Friends Church, providing a safe and loving environment for women to begin living a transformed life. We focus on the inner healing through the redemption of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and believe Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life.
Listen to Valerie’s Story:
Length: 3min
What We Believe
We believe through Christ, anything is possible. Each of us has experienced great blessing and amazing miracles through our walk with the Lord. We believe if you want to truly change your life, you will achieve this change only with Christ, and fulfilling a commitment to Him. We believe that life as you once knew, doesn’t have to be the way you live, ever again. We believe Christ will show you a new way, through your obedience to His will.
A Word From Graduates
“Before the House of Ruth, and Whitney Friends
Church, not only my life, but the life of my children, were headed in a bad direction.” – House of Ruth graduate
“Through the house, I found how to be part of a family and even more importantly, how to live to glorify God.” – House of Ruth graduate
“I am now independent in my living. It is wonderful having God at the center of my relationship and my decisions.” – House of Ruth graduate
A Immigration Ministry Team exists under the SoHR to explore topics pertinent to this one facet of Human Rights. Resources are becoming available on their specific page.
Living Water Ministries, a ministry point of NWYM, serves the people of the Coeur d’Alene Reservation in Plummer, Idaho. They recently held a “Spirit Jam” dance and music outreach
Nick and Trinity have been involved with the Twentyfour-Seven program, run by the Hayden Lake Friends Church, since 2007. Nick and Trinity represent all that is good and right about a faith-based approach to transitional recovery programs. This outreach, Twentyfour-Seven has been transformational for the folks at Hayden Lake Friends, all the clients who have been through the program, and also for the community at large.
Listen to Nick’s Story: Length: 9min Listen to Trinity’s Story:Length: 4min
MaryKate Morse, a recorded ministry in NWYM, is a member at Reedwood Friends and associate dean at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, assisting with spiritual formation, and director of strategic planning. She has a teaching emphasis on building healthy enduring spiritual leadership, which includes: leadership development and formation, deep change/spiritual formation processes in individuals and in groups, discussions of power and influence, as well as team and gender issues. She recently published Making Room for Leadership: Power, Space, and Influence.
What do Quakers Bring to Leadership? Plenty. Quakers have contributed a great deal to the understanding of leadership. Many ideas that seem new and fresh in today’s leadership literature were normative for Quakers from the beginning. Our foreparents such as George Fox, Margaret Fell, Elizabeth Fry, Joseph Gurney, and many others practiced a unique form of leadership in Quaker meetings not at all natural in 17th century Europe. But let’s begin with what leadership is.
Leadership is a relationship process for catalyzing intended change. There is a lot packed into this definition. Leadership is not just about leaders. It is a process that happens over time and is grounded in a group’s relationships. If they trust each other, they can move forward. If they don’t, they won’t. Also simply getting things done is not leadership. Leadership involves improving the character or circumstances of a group. It involves catalyzing the group out of unproductive routines or stuck-ness. Therefore, leadership happens when people trust each other and make decisions together so they can thrive.
For Quakers, this is our fundamental understanding of how decisions are made, weighty issues are considered, and vision is sought. Continue reading …
Arthur Roberts, is professor emeritus at George Fox University and has supported NWYM with wisdom and insight for several decades. A prolific writer and speaker, Arthur has become a well-known Quaker statesman. Barclay Press carries a wide selection of his writings. Query 8: “Do you uphold the standards of Friends? Are you careful in appointing officers and Sunday school teachers, in calling pastors and special speakers, in sending out missionaries and recording ministers, to see that they are in harmony with the principles of Friends as stated in the Faith and Practice of Northwest Yearly Meeting?”
Standards refer to scriptural principles documented in our Faith and Practice. Find time to read them this week.
This query stresses the importance of exemplary leadership. Continue reading …
2 Samuel 22:20—God brought me out into a spacious place; God rescued me because he delighted in me.
In my column in the last Connection, I noted one beautiful way scripture describes the experience of salvation by pointing to the Old Testament notion of “a spacious place.” This language of spaciousness is directly tied to the Hebrew vision of a God-directed life. I also suggested that shalom—peace with God, oneself, neighbor, enemy, and even creation—is central to the spacious way.
Such peace is much, much more than the absence of conflict. Rather, as it is imagined in its fullness, it is an unhindered, contented life lived before God and in the beloved community belonging to God. It is learning to live in the righteousness and justice of God in every sphere of one’s life, depending as we must on God’s overwhelming mercy for us to even make a start in this direction. In the Christian context, it is learning to walk in the fullness of our faith, becoming people of truth and a community of light, even as we live in an oftentimes faithless and dark world.
I am struck again and again by the “spacious place” verse found in 2 Samuel. Continue reading …
Deborah Climer, member at Silverton Friends, serves on the Recording subcommittee of the Board of Leadership Development
I have experienced the “recording subcommittee” within two different structures of NWYM. One of the parts of the recording process that always amazes me is when the candidates share their testimonies. No two stories about their encounters with God are ever the same. I am constantly reminded that God cannot be put in a box.
The other moving aspect that I hear from each candidate is that whether or not they are recorded, they will continue to minister in the way in which God has called them. Each person has sensed a call to minister in ways might include preaching, but also might be broader than that. And they have chosen to follow that call in what ever form it takes. Continue reading …
Consider joining Friends from across the northwest for our annual Yearly Meeting Sessions, July 25-29, at George Fox University. Worship, business, workshops, and leadership development round out this week of fellowship and spiritual growth. 
Arthur Roberts, is professor emeritus at George Fox University and has supported NWYM with wisdom and insight for several decades. A prolific writer and speaker, Arthur has become a well-known Quaker statesman. 
