As Way Opens
This past weekend I drove out to Fountaintown (east of New Palestine) to deliver a Sunday School resource box to one of our kids. It was a beautiful fall day and I passed an enormous field of soybeans glistening a golden yellow hue blowing in a gentle fall breeze. On the other side of State Road 52 was a large field of corn stalks ready to harvest. In the backdrop was a train heading east and I was reminded that even within our turmoil, fear and uncertainty of these times, the soybeans turn golden, the corn is ready for harvest, the trees are beginning to change their color. While there is much that is changing in our lives, there is much in our world that continues on in the cycle of life and I was comforted to feel this sense of timelessness. I know in my heart that God is not changing and I am reminded of the Psalmist writing in uncertain times a long time ago in Psalm 65:9-13 “Oh, visit the earth, ask her to join in the dance! Deck her out in spring showers, fill the God-River with living water. Paint the wheat fields golden. Creation was made for this! Drench the plowed fields, soak the dirt clods with rainfall as harrow and rake bring her to blossom and fruit. Snow-crown the peaks with splendor, scatter rose petals down your paths, all through the wild meadows, rose petals. Set the hills to dancing, dress the canyon walls with live sheep, a drape of flax across the valleys. Let them shout, and shout, and shout! Oh, oh let them sing!”
Many of you will remember my husband Jerry Henricks who passed away 4 and a half years ago. He was a photographer and a creator of posters. This was one of my favorites as he showed the beauty of Indiana calling our beloved state Oceanview Indiana. Of course there is no actual place called Oceanview and we have no ocean but the idea was to reflect on the beauty, the majesty and the spiritual nature of our Indiana land. He sold a lot of these posters to Hoosiers including our deceased Governor Frank O’Bannon. I think many of us understand the idea that nature brings us calm, a peace of mind and brings us to a magical place. This is where God lives.
I pray that we may all honor and embrace the beauty and changing nature before our eyes. Yet God is unchanging, our rock and our steadfast companion in each of our journeys. May we embrace our responsibilities to ensure our natural cycle of life will continue and thrive.
On a clear day you can see forever in Indiana!
Grace and peace,
Beth
Quaker-Affiliated Organizations
We are coming near the end of our fundraising efforts for the WYM and FUM 2020 fundraisers but have had very few contributions. Please give these causes your prayerful thought and, if you are so led, make your contribution this week to assist our brethren in Belize and Turkana, Kenya. Thank you for your consideration.
WYM and FUM 2020 Mission Projects: Each year Western Yearly Meeting (“WYM”) and Friends United Meeting (“FUM”) designate mission projects for us to consider and help. WYM is a Quaker organization of which First Friends is a member and consists of approximately 32 monthly meetings located in Indiana and Illinois. FUM is a Quaker international organization based in Richmond, Indiana and consists of a number of yearly meetings around the world. These mission projects are the primary way that folks at First Friends can assist Quakers in parts of the world that can use our help.
The WYM project for 2020 is for the benefit of the Belize Friends School. The school needs financial assistance for its operating expenses and the WYM goal is to raise $15,000. You might recall that in 2017 WYM also designated Belize as its project but monies raised at that time were designated for re-locating the school and expanded ministries including community services and the starting of a Friends meeting. Many of you knew Dale Graves, a member of Mooresville’s West Newton Friends, who poured his heart and soul into the Belize school and surrounding area and was the driving force that enabled the Belize school and Friends meeting to become what it is today. While Dale is no longer with us, there is no doubt that Dale would be very proud of the ongoing efforts to improve the Belize school and Belize Friends meeting.
The FUM project is to assist the Friends in Turkana who are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Turkana Friends Mission. Turkana Friends was founded in 1970 in Kalokol, Kenya. It began as a project of East Africa Yearly Meeting and FUM. Turkana Friends Mission has grown from one location to a vibrant multi-site Quaker community that, among other things, oversees six nursery schools and six primary schools. The number of meetings in Turkana Friends Mission has increased dramatically in the past few decades from seven village meetings in 2002 to twenty-five meetings in 2019.
We at First Friends Indianapolis seem far removed from our fellow Quakers around the world and FUM and WYM are organizations that help connect us through worthy projects each year. Please help these Quakers in Belize and Turkana as you are led. Checks should be made to First Friends with a notation as to whether the monies should go to (WYM) Belize, (FUM) Turkana, or split between these projects. Thank you.
Announcements, Reports, & Opportunities
CORRECTION: Serenity Now! In an earlier newsletter issue, the small group Serenity Now was inaccurately described. Please see below for more information about this group.
SERENITY NOW is a book-based discussion group supporting healthy relationships and communication through self-awareness and an understanding of how personal history influences present relationships. It meets the third Thursday of each month and is still welcoming new members. The next meeting will be Thursday , October 15, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Friends Meditational Woods, weather permitting. Please RSVP to the office at office@indyfriends.org, for any weather-related updates. The group is reading Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts by Iyanla Vanzant. The October meeting will focus on Part 2, Trust in God:
Ch. 5 Villa Nova
Ch. 6 God and Gravity
Ch. 7 Building a relationship with God
For questions, contact the office at office@indyfriends.org.
Participate in our "Sponsor a College Student" project! Just select a college student and send them notes, cards, treats, etc throughout the school year so they hear from someone at the Meeting and feel connected. Our college students this year are Ellie Arle, Ally Haymaker, Sam Henry, Eli Sample, Chelsea Tinsley, and Kendal Tinsley. If you’d like to participate, please email the office at office@indyfriends.org, and we’ll give you the mailing address of a student so you can send your support. Please consider connecting with our students this year!
Please Continue to Send in Your Stamps! The Right Sharing of World Resources stamp program continues during the pandemic. Please save used stamps and bring or mail them to the meetinghouse. Proceeds from the sale of these stamps benefit RSWR, which helps women and their communities in Africa and India.
Also, if you know someone who will be traveling out of country, ask them to pick up some foreign stamps if convenient, and bring them to you or send them to First Friends.
As always, save your own used stamps!
Recycling Event! The Shalom Zone plans to have its yearly recycling event with Recycle Force on Saturday, October 31 from 10:00am to 2:00pm. If an item runs (or used to run) with a plug or a battery you can recycle it! This year it will be held at Epworth United Methodist Church, 6450 Allisonville Rd. A $20 donation is required for televisions and appliances containing Freon (fridges, freezers, ac units and dehumidifiers). Other monetary contributions are greatly appreciated. This is a great opportunity to clean out your basement, garage, closets, attic and responsibly recycle unwanted electronics and appliances. If you have items that are heavy and you need assistance to move them, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org and we can arrange to have the items picked up. For more information, view the flyer here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w6uaIgilMNlIk8Hw9URMPgNHcNE8_1BE/view?usp=sharing
The Maple Seeds Preschool Co-op (MSPC) is starting back up!! Classes will return to the Meetinghouse and are going to be meeting outside starting October 12, at one class per day. They will use the building for bathroom and emergency only. We are looking forward to having the kids back!
A Public Announcement from Member Terry T, Retired Physician: Please Get Your Flu (Influenza) Shot Now ~ Per the CDC today at CDC.gov: “Everyone 6 months and older should receive ‘a yearly flu vaccine’” Unless your doctor has diagnosed a moderate-to-severe recent illness (then get flu shot when better) or a history of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
If you have questions, discuss with your doctor or read online cdc.gov or discuss with me. We still have 30,000 to 60,000 Americans die a year from influenza. If we have less flu patients sick and on ventilators the medical community can give more time and ventilators to Covid-19 patients. In over 30 years my practice gave at least 240,000 flu shots with no “major” problems but probably saw at least a hundred flu deaths.
Also keep up to date on all your other recommended vaccinations or check with your physician or a reliable medical source or me. All the CDC recommended vaccinations are safer and less costly than the diseases they cover. In college a friend died from Meningitis, my practice lost a mother to chicken pox and probably well over a hundred pneumonia deaths. As a child I knew 3 people with polio and in medical school I saw a rabies patient (not pretty). In Kenya in 2008 they had just lost a lot of children to measles and this year Syria has dealt with diphtheria. In May the WHO was worried that the world was behind on 80 million children’s vaccinations and this has grown. It is good that we are not traveling much because the world and the USA is losing its “herd immunity.” Please keep up on your preventative care visits and immunizations as you can.
~Sincerely, Teresa T, MD
Sunday School Classes Now Available! Sunday School has kicked off and will be happening each Sunday on Zoom. Please join us for these offerings!
Sunday School class (younger kids) – Sundays at 9:00am
Sunday School class (older kids) – Sundays at 12:00pm
Seeking Friends – Sundays at 9:00am
Unprogrammed Worship – Sundays at 9:00am
Kent F Invites You to a New Small Group! Several months ago, Bob Henry, Beth Henricks and I were talking about the possibility of a small group for Quakers interested in two things. First was to learn more about the Quaker spirituality and traditions. Second was to develop a little group of Friends who could share their lives and insights.
Bob and Beth suggested John Woolman’s Journal. Frankly, I had never heard of it. However once I started looking into John Woolman and his Journal, it seemed to be the perfect first book. His Journal lays out his spiritual development and how he practiced it in North America between about 1740 and his death in 1772. In addition to his spiritual development, Woolman was active as an abolitionist during the years before the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The question of slavery was not something that was of interest only in the South. Slaves were a fact throughout all of the original colonies, and they remained a very contentious topic in the development of the Declaration and the Constitution.
I want to invite you to join this group at the Meeting House for this first book. We’ll meet four times, 7:00pm, alternating Mondays starting October 12 and continuing on October 26, November 9 and 23. We’ll cover about thirty pages each time.
About eighteen months ago we started a Men’s Book Group that has met regularly on alternate Thursdays come rain, shine, snow or Covid. The format is that books are suggested by members. Everybody comes prepared. We model our Quaker belief that everybody shares. My thought is that this new group will follow the same approach.
Please give me a call if you want to discuss. If you want to join us, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org. The group will be limited to eight — seven plus me.
Voting Update~ Remember that the last day to register to vote is October 5. Please check your registration today https://indianavoters.in.gov. Don’t miss your opportunity to re-register if you were purged from the rolls.
INDIANA GENERAL ELECTION - November 3, 2020
Deadline to Request an Absentee-By-Mail Ballot by Mail, Fax, Email Or In-Person: Application Received by Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:59PM
In-Person Absentee Voting (Early Voting): Tue Oct 6, 2020 - Mon Nov 2, 2020 12:00PM
Deadline to Return Completed Absentee-By-Mail Ballot: Ballot Received by Tue Nov 3, 2020 12:00PM
Polls Open for In-Person Voting: Tue Nov 3, 2020 6:00AM - 6:00PM
Several volunteer organizations have been helping people get information and assistance to access the vote. Several members of our Meeting have been helping get accurate information to the community: Jan Hise, Barbara Oberreich, Brenda Rodeheffer and Mary Blackburn have been working with VoteRiders.org, VotebyMail, IndianaCitizen, or Indy Community Yoga Voter Squad and there are sure to be more members working quietly to help strengthen democracy in our area.
One story from this week: The Marion County Election Board is staffed to handle the “normal” election season. They have 10 fulltime staff who prepare for elections that usually involve recruiting poll workers and seasonal staff to manage the polling station logistics. In a pandemic with reduced number of traditional poll workers available, they have had to pivot by limiting polling stations. Normally they receive about 10,000 absentee ballot requests during an election. Now they are anticipating over 150,000 absentee ballots. That load involves printing ballots, instructional information, a postage paid secure ballot envelope and a postage paid mailing envelope. Everything must be sorted, placed in envelopes and voter registration checked, before the ballots can be sent out. Quite a logistical nightmare for a team that has to perform this new process in the short time between the conventions and final candidates being selected by all parties.
A volunteer group of citizens is assisting with absentee ballot preparations. Brenda Rodeheffer and Mary Blackburn have signed up to help.
1. If you are a registered voter in Marion County you can help the Marion County Election Service Center (MCESC) do this important work.
2. MCESC ONBOARDING - You must be officially onboarded by HR at the Service Center before you can do any work. This will entail a brief intro, education and signing a confidentiality agreement. This will be done on specific days by MCESC HR personnel The Center HR head has provided the following Onboarding sessions:
a. SIGN UP FOR ONBOARDING - https://signup.com/go/qKoyZnn Select one of the dates below and you will see ONBOARDING slot.
b. September 30th – 2pm- Onboarding Session
3. Sign-Up for work shifts – Please sign up for any and all shifts you can commit to. I have set up the schedule through Nov. 6th (there will be ballot processing and vote counting in the days after the election.
a. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN ONBOARDED – we really need your help this week! Please sign up for as many slots as you can. We won’t have another wave of volunteers until late in the week
b. IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN ONBOARDED – Please sign up for shifts that are AFTER your scheduled on-boarding date – see above.
4. ALL VOLUNTEERS – must wear mask – must wear closed-toe shoes
NOTE: Please bear with us – we will have growing pains, we will have process challenges, we will have down time – know we are all dedicated to the same goals of ensuring every Marion County Voter that requests an absentee ballot receives one in time AND every absentee ballot cast gets counted!
Gardeners Meet the New Season
The zinnias are numerous and colorful in our garden. They are ushering us into fall with much ado about everything. People are welcome to pick zinnias from the Hope plot, marked by a stone marked “Hope” in front of it, and in the food pantry plot to the west of it.
Gardeners are gathering the last of the summer harvest and uprooting plants that are no longer productive. There are frost warnings for this week so now is a good time to clear the beds before the weather is miserable to work in and the ground becomes too hard. Some gardeners have cleared their plots and planted cold weather crops. There are many to pick from including cauliflower, brassica, spinach, cabbage, arugula, kohlrabi, collard, carrot, broccoli, turnip, beetroot, lettuce, Brussels sprout, radish, chard, potato, garlic, mustard, pea, onion, potato, fennel, leek and beetroot. The soil needs to be warm enough so they can establish roots and some growth before the cold weather arrives.
Those not planting fall plots are fertilizing to replenish nutrients. A natural method is to dig dead leaves into the soil. The reason we clear our plots is so they will be easier to plant in the spring and have fewer weeds. Also, the rotted plants will be out of the way and will not spread disease and bug eggs they may have harbored. This is especially thoughtful if a gardener may not use the same plot next year so a new gardener will have an easier job.
Thanks to all the gardeners for their attention to their plots and for all of those who have helped us have a successful season!
~Nancy and Sam
Jeff Rasley’s New Book: Now in Audio Too! Jeff Rasley’s book, Anarchist, Republican... Assassin: a political novel is available now via paperback or audiobook! A small-town football player, Jack Blair, gets radicalized and joins an anarchist cell. Jack transforms his life and becomes a pillar of the Republican establishment in Indianapolis. His family lives a wonderfully privileged life, but this perfect life is seemingly lost when Jack's anarchist past resurfaces in a psychotic episode during the pandemic lock-down. He blames Donald Trump. A young woman ACLU attorney tries to come to the rescue with her hot-pink iPhone. If you'd like to read or listen to the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F6CG72N, or to join Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B08JSZ3VMP
What Will You be Doing on Election Day? ~ One of the many challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic in an election year is that elections officials foresee a shortage of poll workers. Typically, the majority of poll workers are over the age of 61, and over a quarter of them are over 70. Because they are the most susceptible to the virus, many of these seniors have indicated they will not work the polls this November.
Where does that leave us on Election Day?
One solution is for younger Americans to step up.
Did you know that in Indiana, high school students as young as 16-18 can serve as poll workers? And that Indiana law treats this service as an excused absence from school? Requirements vary depending on what county you live in, but the non-partisan WorkElections project has gathered all the information you need to apply, wherever you live (https://www.workelections.com/). For all ages, if you want to be a poll worker, some training is required and (unless you're in high school) you must be a registered voter in your county of residence to work at one of its polling places. See the WorkElections website for specific county-by-county requirements.
At a pivotal moment in American history, when many of our most pressing problems can seem insurmountable and it's hard to know just how to help, you can act. You can enable others to perform one of the most sacred of civic duties: voting on Election Day. By serving as a poll worker, you will be doing something non-partisan, a matter of civics, not politics. And in the 2020 Elections, you can claim to have helped your neighbor--and defended democracy.
For more information, see or share a flyer here: https://bit.ly/2PCBUvs
FUM Job Available: Coordinator of Global Ministries ~ Friends United Meeting (Richmond) seeks a full-time, highly organized person to join our staff team as the Coordinator of Global Ministries. The Coordinator of Global Ministries will be an active member of the Global Ministries Team. This person will provide administrative support for FUM’s field-staff and global ministry partners by coordinating schedules, communications, financial activities, and overseeing assigned programs. For more information and to apply, please see the full job posting here: https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/news/global-ministries-coordinator
Queries for the Week
(From online service)
How can I nurture the seeds of peace within myself, my community, and the world?
How can I work to eliminate hatred, injustice, and both physical and institutional violence?
How can I be more open to seeking the goodness in people who act with violence and hatred?
How can I work to settle disputes within the organization and the community with love and sensitivity for all involved?
How can I increase my understanding of nonviolence and use it in all my interactions?
(From self-led guide)
What is the impact I am having in my community? What would happen if I stopped doing what I am called to do?
What fears do I need to face, so that I too can let me light shine in this world?
What am I doing that brings life and positive change to those around me?