Musings From the Road
Dear Friends,
2019 was fruitful year for FPM as even more dreams became realities. Below are some of things we accomplished thanks to your support. Friendship-Building Tours FPM sponsored two friendship tours in 2019. On the Indiana tour, Pastors Lana, Joseph, Mumba, and Jackie as well as Papa Londwa traveled around the state visiting old friends, making new friends, and sharing with folks about the ministries of church leaders in the Tanganyika Conference and the challenges they face. (for more about this click here ) The second tour was a joint educational friendship-focused program of FPM and Purdue University’s Wesley Foundation. On this tour, young adults from the USA, Africa University students and graduates, as well as FPM leaders in Congo went on an epic road trip together. The voyage began at The UMC’s Africa U. in Zimbabwe, then down by bus to Victoria Falls, up by public busses through Zambia up to The UMC’s Mulungwishi University in Congo, and finally all the way up to Kamina by bicycle (more on their itinerary here). In addition to building new friendships, the tour functioned as a traveling missiology classroom. Participants read Biking Bob’s book (including excerpts from the not-yet-published sequel) and had challenging conversations about healthy ways to build friendships that cross socio-economic and cultural boundaries. One participant’s reflections can be found here. Spreading Missiological Education Taylor completed her DTh in Missiology, and her thesis, Decolonizing Mission Partnerships was selected by the American Society of Missiology to be published in its monograph series. The book is scheduled to come out in late 2020 and will become one of the core textbooks for FPM’s curriculum. As FPM’s lead coach, Taylor gave a number of keynotes, workshops, papers, and university guest lectures on the topic on rethinking understandings of mission as well as exploring and addressing the impact of racism on us all. Her teaching ministry took her to events on three continents. In addition, she taught the spring Course of Study on Mission at Wesley Theological Seminary, using a curriculum she has been developing for FPM. Grants, Scholarships, and Construction Support FPM continues to help connect important ministries in North Katanga and Tanganyika with folks with the financial means to support them. Some of the programs your contributions supported in 2019 were:
2020 is looking to be another great year. Our core leadership team has expanded and is more active than ever before, and together we are dreaming and discerning where the Spirit is leading us next.
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