A new venture of Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) is a “fast track” for orienting and placing volunteers. The arrangement allows for quicker filling of openings at projects and earlier placement of volunteers between regularly scheduled orientation units. Of the initial three fast-track volunteers, two filled assignments in Northern Ireland and one in Pennsylvania.
In January GFI manager Jeff Boshart visited Fundación Brethren y Unida in Picalqui, Ecuador, making several field visits and attending a board of directors meeting as a new member.
Attackers believed to be Boko Haram insurgents attacked three villages–Shuwari, Kirchinga, and Shuwa–in Madagali Local Government area in Adamawa State, Nigeria, on Feb. 4. The villages are in the northernmost part of the state, north of Mubi.
The Church of the Brethren is offering a mission education trip to Haiti for persons interested in exploring and supporting the church’s Haiti development initiatives in partnership with Eglise des Freres d’Haiti (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti). The trip from July 19-23 can accommodate up to 45 participants who will join 5 members of the Haitian staff for the experience. It will be based in two small hotels about 50 miles north of Port au Prince.
Emily Tyler started a new position as director of Brethren Volunteer Service on Feb. 4. She continues to work out of the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill., where she has been coordinator for BVS recruitment and the Workcamp Ministry for more than six years, since June 27, 2012. BVS is located within the denomination’s Global Mission and Service program.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has announced its 2019 training workshop calendar for the year. An online map of the locations and dates is available at https://maps.esp.tl/maps/_CDS-2019-Training-Workshops/pages/map.jsp?geoMapId=620310&TENANT_ID=178622&fbclid=IwAR0cOJkkd1sBKF4WgVt44d82P8zyQfYqyMaGehROjAj6UwSzBrP9i9-80cE . Go to www.brethren.org/cds for more information and to register for a workshop.
The Global Food Initiative (GFI) of the Church of the Brethren has made several grants in the last two months. The grants support long-term hurricane recovery for farmers in Puerto Rico, church-related community garden projects in the US and in Spain, an orchard in Nigeria, a refrigeration project of Lybrook Community Ministries in New Mexico, and Brethren participation in an ECHO East Africa Symposium. Find out more at www.brethren.org/gfi .
Church of the Brethren summer workcamps are offered for junior high and senior high youth and young adults. This year’s theme is “Grow” (2 Peter 1:5-8).
Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) has hosted the 64th annual assembly of TEKAN at EYN headquarters in Kwarhi, Nigeria. TEKAN stands for the Fellowship of Christian Churches in Nigeria and includes 15 primarily Hausa-speaking denominations, making it the largest Christian ecumenical body in Nigeria.
A visit with Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) by Global Mission and Service executive director Jay Wittmeyer and News Services director Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford took place Nov. 1-19.
