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Report
on Global Change Consultation at Vihiga Yearly Meeting
We were
welcomed to the Yearly Meeting by the Presiding clerk Bro. Zablon
Onyango. In attendance from the yearly meeting office were the vice
presiding clerk, the General Secretary and the Treasurer. The
presiding clerk opened the meeting with a word of prayer. We got a
word of encouragement from the book of John 15:5 by the assistant
General Superintendent. Vihiga Yearly meeting has One Hundred and Ten village meetings, Forty four Monthly meetings and twenty Quarterly Meetings.
Query 1: How has global change affected our communities and ourselves?
There
is tremendous global change in our Young people as a result of media
information technology and mixture of culture. We are experiencing
loss of respect to adults from young people. Global
change has brought about death of local languages. People are not
effective in any one language. Our knowledge of understanding has
gone down. Due to the change in food we are using, it has brought
about diseases. Our food is no longer natural. We also
have so many religions that have come up to compete with the original
major churches. This has greatly affected our believes. Some of the
new religious churches are just there for commercial purposes. There is disappearance of crops and plants we used to see. Many indigenous tree species are also disappearing. There is an increase in population and our rivers are drying up. Shrubs which had high herbal medicinal values are no more. The global change has also affected our wildlife.
Use of
mobile phone has however made communication to be very easy.
Mechanization on the other hand has brought about labour problems. Socially we are now allowed to intermarry with people from the other areas. The change in the set of Quakers staying in camps has negatively affected us and our children. Our morals have really degraded. On most occasions you will hear people say “Vana va vafriends vakhumalili malwa” meaning “The children of the Quakers have finished for us all the alcohol”.
Query 2: What actions have we taken in response to global change as experienced in our area, to express our responsibilities towards all creation? In what ways have my own activities or those of my community contributed to positive or adverse local and global change?
We are
planting trees where there are no trees. We encourage use of organic
manure to improve on food production. Through terracing we are
controlling soil erosion. To improve on food security we practice
crop rotation and zero grazing. We have also embraced
on teaching our children our native
language
to maintaine our culture values. To
control on population growth we are teaching our young people aspects
of natural family planning (spacing). We are planting indigenous
trees in plenty and doing away with eucalyptus trees to conserve our
water sources. We have
faulted as Christians by not bringing up our children in a Christian
way. We do not have good parent-child relationship. The global change
has made people to become very individualistic. Initially, all
children belonged to the society. We are no longer allowed to correct
the children of our neighbours. Continuous use of fertilizers has contaminated our water. We also have people who do not have pit latrines. We contaminate our water by washing and bathing in rivers.
Query 3: How do changes around us affect our relationship with God? How does my relationship with God affect my responses o changes around us? What role does faith have in my life and in the life of my community? In what ways do I and my Friends church or meeting community bear witness to our testimonies in our daily lives?
The
church is tearing apart because there is no unity. People are working
on levels of clanism and tribalism. We are
also giving poorly to God. We should note that everything we have
belongs to God. We have
faith but we are not putting it into action. Due to change in
lifestyle we have changed the way we worship God by failing to
observe the Sabbath day. When we are blessed abundantly by God we
tend to forget to serve Him. We only remember God when we have
problems. As a Christian, I may be willing to respond to the global change positively but the problems facing us are enormous. Our income is far less than what we spent. As a chosen people of God we value Honesty, truth and integrity. We should be a good example to the world.
Query 4: What stories or experiences from past catastrophic happenings - perhaps from Scripture, perhaps from the record of local or regional events – might inspire us to respond to the changes the world is facing today?
In the
year 1991 we had a local District Commissioner who was posted in our
District. The new District Commissioner in liaison
with the forest
department officials started illegally
harvesting trees that we planted on Maragoli Hills. All the trees were harvested leaving the hills a bare rock. To date there are no trees on that Hill. We have submitted a picture of the Maragoli Hill. Query 5: How can we bear witness to the abundance God offers us testify to the world about ways in which justice, compassion, and peace may address significant disruptions, stress, and tensions?
The greatest gift God has given us is peace. We should understand to solve issues amicably. We should share our blessings with the others. We feed, cloth and provide shelter to the orphans. It is worth to note that whenever we give, we are blessed abundantly.
Query
6: How can we support one another in
rekindling our love and respect for God’s Creation in such a way
that we are messengers of the transforming power of love and hope?
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