Arrest Warrant Issued for Sudanese President

"The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir over his alleged role in crimes against humanity and war crimes in the western region of Darfur." See the Bloomberg.com article

The Flint Area Women's Missionary Society supports My Sister's Keeper, a humanitarian action group that is "focused on assisting, protecting, and advocating for" the women of the Sudan, encouraging their educational, economic, and physical enrichment.

Flint Area WMS Supports My Sister's Keeper

Our latest Newsletter, p. 1. Click the image to download.

Flint Area WMS Supports My Sister's Keeper

Our latest Newsletter, p. 2. Click the image to download.

Fundraising for My Sisters Keeper

At the Flint Area WMS meeting in October, I asked that we as an Area, collect dimes (and other change) to donate to MSK. In the next couple of months we could potentially raise $5000.

Each local society is also asked to develop a fundraiser for MSK in addition to collecting dimes. Vernon Chapel and Bethel-Saginaw have both had very successful stay-at-home teas. Local presidents were e-mailed "71 Ways to Fundraise for the WMS," from our Conference treasurer, Orletta Caldwell. Remember, all funds collected should be sent to the Area (chairperson or financial secretary) for recording and then we will pass them on.

2nd Vice Presidents (area and Local) will oversee our Global Mission efforts.

We Can Do All Things through Christ...

The 4th Episcopal District Women's Missionary Society, led by Rev. Dr. Cecelia Bryant, will strive to reach the following goals this conference year:

I. At the Women's Global Prayer Convocation in Toronto, Ontario, Canada - August 2009 (more info to come):

• 1000 U.S. registrants
• 500 Canadian registrants

II. Short-term Mission initiatives - 12 to 15 days in:

• India
• Haiti
• Liberia

III. Global Focus: Sudan

IV. District Focus: Pembroke, Illinois - Each Conference will send at least one team for 5 days.

V. Development: Church planting in Canada

VI. Eco-initiatives:

• 1000 trees
• 100 wells
• Urban gardens

VII. Mission Vision:

• 4 schools
• 4 clinics

More information will be available at the 4th District Planning Meeting in Rosemont, IL, October 23-25, 2008.

Area Global Mission Responsibilities

Each area in the Michigan Conference (and throughout the 4th District) have taken on the responsibility for developing and generating resources - both financial and in-kind - for their chosen mission opportunity. Michigan Conference Areas have chosen to work with the following organizations:

- Flint Area: My Sister's Keeper (Mission Work in Sudan)

- Central Detroit Area: Doctors Without Borders

- Ann Arbor Area: Development of AME India

- Battle Creek Area: Health Care for Haiti

- Niles Area: The Green Belt Movement (ecology) Kenya

We will have opportunities for education on the Sudan, the war in Darfur, and how our efforts in local communities can help women and children in the region. See the left sidebar of this blog for news on the Sudan.

My Sister's Keeper

Women-led Humanitarian Action

"I understand that each day as I wake up on this side of freedom, I have a gift that comes with a responsibility."

My Sister's Keeper is a women-led, women-focused, humanitarian action group. They are a faith-inspired, multi-racial, collective of women who work together to lend sisterly assistance to communities of women in various locations throughout the World. At present, they are focused on supporting the aspirations of women in the African country of Sudan. It is their hope that their way of working together will inspire other small groups of women to form sisterhoods that support the hopes of women who dare dream in the face of dire socioeconomic conditions.

Vision
My Sister's Keeper envisions a world where women all across the globe can imagine, create and sustain vibrant and joyous communities.

Mission
Today, they are focused on assisting, protecting and advocating for the women of southern Sudan who live in Gogrial County. They befriend the women, listen to their stories, learn about their needs and support their aspirations for economic, educational and physical vitality. My Sister's Keeper aims to catalyze other women across the globe: to gather in sisterhood and harness human, financial and information resources to the women and communities they choose to serve.

Values
My Sister's Keeper carries out this vision and mission with humility and with joy. They have been empowered by God, and in return, respond to God's call to sisterhood and to service.

The Flint Area Women's Missionary Society (Michigan Conference, African Methodist Episcopal Church) has chosen to work with My Sister's Keeper, helping the women of the Sudan reach their goals for a better life.

For more information and to read more about their projects, see the My Sister's Keeper website.

About the Sudan and the War in Darfur

THE SUDAN

جمهورية السودان

"Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān"

Republic of Sudan

Capital: Khartoum
Largest City: Omdurman
Official Languages: Arabic & English
Government: Dictatorship, Military
President: Omar Hassan al-Bashir (1989)
Independence from Egypt & United Kingdom: Jan. 1, 1956

Area: 967,495 square miles (total)

Ethnicity/Race: Black-52%, Arab-39%, Beja-6%, Foreigners-2%, Other-1%

Religions: Islam (Sunni)-70% in north, Indigenous-25%, Christian-5% (mostly south and Khartoum)

Population, 2007 est.: 42,292,929

Birth rate: 33.9/1,000
Infant mortality rate: 59.6/1,000
Life expectancy: 59.3 years
Literacy rate (2003 est.): 61%
Gross Domestic Product: $80.71 billion, per capita: $2,200

For more facts and to compare with the United States, go to InfoPlease.com

THE WAR IN DARFUR

Darfur is a region about the size of France located in Western Sudan. A little over half of the six million people who live there are black Africans while the rest are Arab. It is a region that has faced severe underdevelopment and neglect from the central government.

In early 2003, two loosely allied rebel groups began a rebellion in Darfur, calling for the redress of social and economic grievances and demanding greater political power. Sudanese authorities saw the rebellion as a threat to the viability of the entire country, fearing other neglected regions would similarly rise up and demand larger degrees of autonomy. Thus, the government decided to respond by carrying out a deliberate policy of extermination against the African tribal peoples of Darfur from which the rebels are drawn.

Janjaweed, a large Arab militia, has been the main group employed by the government to implement this policy of genocide in Sudan. They are armed by the government and sent into various African villages where they proceed to kill civilians of all ages, burn down houses, destroy crops and livestock, carry out mass executions, target vital infrastructure, and commit wide-scale rape. Reports coming out of the region speak regularly of such brutal acts as men being chained together and thrown into burning huts, women being raped in front of their loved ones, and children being kidnapped from their families. To date, over 400,000 people have died as a result of the Sudan genocide campaign and 2.5 million have been internally displaced.

Despite the denial of involvement with such crimes by the Sudanese government, the facts show that high ranking officials are coordinating the Sudan genocide. Sudanese intelligence forces are known to be in close communication with the militias and air force planes regularly conduct bombing raids on villages and fleeing civilians prior to Janjaweed invasions. In July of 2004, Human Rights Watch released a report revealing internal government documents showing that the central government both armed and coordinated the Janjaweed to carry out the Sudan genocide. In addition, the government has gone to great lengths to make sure that no news reporters or humanitarian personnel are allowed into the villages being targeted in Darfur.

The United States has already officially labeled the crisis in Darfur “genocide” and the United Nations has called it “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.”

For more information, see the United Human Rights Council

Global Mission Opportunities for the 4th District WMS

Missionaries of the 4th District will spread the love of Christ globally by by assisting the following orgainzations and causes:

1. My Sister's Keeper (mission work in Sudan) - adopted by the Flint Area WMS
2. 11 Basic (Primary) schools in Jamaica
3. Doctors without Borders
4. Tsepong Orphanage for Children with AIDS (Lesotho)
5. The Children's Defense Fund
6. Development of AME India
7. Health Care for Haiti (see the Battle Creek Area WMS blog)
8. Bryant Seminary in Liberia
9. Reorientation of child soldiers in Sierra Leone
10. The Green Belt Movement (ecology) Kenya