A round up of news tidbits from this past week, demonstrating a variety of ways in which Brethren congregations and districts have been offering prayer and support for Nigerian Brethren and the abducted schoolgirls. Also below: statements of support from ecumenical partners, as well as media interviews and stories with links to find them online:
Tag: Global Missions
Church of the Brethren Chief Executives Join CWS at Gathering to Strengthen Ties for Work Together
“CWS is about our members, partners, and a myriad of colleagues working together, as institutions and as coalitions, but even more, as people. That is the vision of our faith and our values.”
Nigerian Brethren Continue to Suffer Attacks, Global Mission and Service Sends Relief Funds
The members of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria or EYN) continue to suffer attacks from the extremist group Boko Haram. EYN president Samuel Dante Dali reported by e-mail yesterday that another attack has destroyed homes, and family members of a church evangelist have been kidnapped.
A Round Up of Responses to Nigeria’s Crisis
A round up of responses to Nigeria’s crisis
Walking with the Nigerian Church: An Interview with Church of the Brethren General Secretary Stan Noffsinger and Mission Executive Jay Wittmeyer
In this interview conducted last month, shortly after they returned from a trip to Nigeria, Church of the Brethren general secretary Stan Noffsinger and Global Mission and Service executive Jay Wittmeyer spoke with Newsline editor Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford about the trip and the situation of the church in Nigeria. They attended the Majalisa or annual conference at the headquarters of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), met with EYN leaders and the Brethren mission staff in Nigeria–Carol Smith and Carl and Roxane Hill–and visited the capital city Abuja.
Conference Moderator Provides Resources for Daily Prayer for Nigeria
Annual Conference moderator Nancy Sollenberger Heishman has written a resource for daily prayer for Nigeria, for the girls abducted from a school in Chibok, and for their families. Titled, “With Anguished Tears and Bold Prayers, May We Be One,” the resource is posted online at www.brethren.org/Nigeriaprayerguides .
Congregations Invited to Pray for Girls Abducted from School in Chibok, Nigeria
In a letter being mailed this week, each Church of the Brethren is invited to pray for one of the girls abducted from Chibok, Nigeria, by name. The majority of the more than 200 abducted schoolgirls, ages 16 to 18, were from EYN (Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) although the group included both Muslim and Christian girls.
Nigerian Churches Urge Global Prayer for 230 Missing Girls, Most from EYN
Church of the Brethren leaders in the US are joining Nigeria’s largest church network, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), to call for prayer and fasting for the safe release of hundreds of teenage school girls abducted April 14 from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, by an extremist Islamist terror group. Most of the affected families are part of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN–Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria).
Protests Reveal a Country’s Struggle: A BVSer Reports from Bosnia
Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) worker Stephanie Barras provided this report from Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she has been living since Sept. 2013. She is working at OKC Abrasevic, a youth cultural center: I will do my best to explain what has been happening here after the Feb. 7 protests. A day or so before, there was
The History of International Cane Awareness Day in Vietnam
The first event of International Cane Awareness Day in Vietnam occurred in October 2011, at Nguyen Dinh Chieu Blind School, Ho Chi Minh City. An overall theme was chosen for this event: “The white-tipped cane is an adaptive, functional cane used by blind persons, which alerts people to give priority to the person using the cane.”