Hello Friends, 

While we haven’t been meeting in person for worship on Sundays, there has been a lot of effort behind the scenes. I want to thank the members of the Administrative Committee who have spent many hours in research, discussion and prayer for our Meeting. Those members are: Carla Tappero, Mark Burton, Drew Krupp, Phyllis Krupp, and Patsy Burton as well as Pastor Jesse and myself. Our focus continues to be on the well-being of the entire meeting. We have not set a specific time for reopening, but continue to monitor new developments, regulations and recommendations for meeting together.

It is difficult, in a time such as this, to have a good “sense of the meeting”. Feel free to reach out to me with any thoughts or concerns you may have. We are also exploring some different ways to gather feedback from all of you. Look for updates in the Touchstone.

                                           Lena Anderson

There are copies of the July, August, September 2020 “Fruit of the Vine” Barclay Press publication, Friends Daily Devotional Readings available in the office at MFC.

I thank my God every time I remember you, In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.                                                            Philippians 1:3-6   While we are not together in body we certainly are together in our faith, love and hope. Let’s continue to stay safe, praying for one another, knowing we will be together again. In the meantime, please know that the Elders and others in our church are holding you up in prayer. We all look forward to a time when we can be together at church in the safest way.                               Blessings to each of you, From the Elders of MFC

Registration and a daily schedule for Annual Sessions will be available soon!

Overnight Summer Youth Camps Canceled
We are deeply saddened by the news that the State of Oregon will not permit overnight camps for children and youth to operate during summer 2020. Our hearts go out to our campers, as we know that this will be disheartening for each of them (and our staff!), as we continue on this long and arduous COVID-19 journey. That said, we are grateful for the care for

camper safety identified by those at the Oregon Health Authority and Governor’s Office. For more information or updates see the camp’s website.

Celebrate Their Achievements!

We are so proud of our MFC youth and want to celebrate those passing a major educational milestone.  Please offer your congratulations to:

Promoting into 1^st Grade: Phoebe Archibald & Kaleb Mathieson

Promoting into 7^th Grade:  Evan Hayes & Payshens Cichy

Graduating from High School:  Nate Krupp

Graduating from George Fox University:  Richard Anderson

Hurray for these awesome young people!                 

Easter in May??!! Yes it Was!! The CE Committee is delighted to report that while we may have missed having an Easter egg hunt at Easter, we were able to help our church families celebrate in May.  We put together baskets with Easter eggs filled with toys and candy and delivered to our MFC Kids and to some families who came to our carnival last fall.  All baskets were received with surprise and appreciation!

Thank You Tasty Treat Tippers!  The Friends Women group would like to extend a huge Thank You to everyone who supported our Father’s Day “Bake Sale.” Even though we were not able to provide you with treats this year, donations still came in, and $200 was raised to help support various outreach ministries! (We are still accepting donations if you happened to miss the opportunity.) Thanks again so much!

From the Stewards These have been interesting times and as the Stewards, we thank everyone who continues to support the ministries of Medford Friends Church through your financial gifts, prayers, and reaching out to on another. It is a blessing to be a part of such a loving church family.

While we haven’t been meeting, a variety of projects have been completed – including some repairs, cleaning of rooms, some deep cleaning and general organization. While some of these may not be obvious we are so thankful to have them done.

When the time comes and we know what our reopening will look like we will review all of our cleaning procedures and add new cleaning protocols as needed to ensure that we provide as safe of an environment as possible for all who can gather for worship. In the meantime, may God bless you richly and keep you safe and at peace as you trust in Him.

Eagle Scout Recognition Four (4) more names have been added to the Eagle Scout Recognition Plaque for BSA Troop 10, chartered by MFC and on display in the main hall.      

Andrew J. Rambo-2018, Edmond L. DePlois-2018, William Anderson-2019 and Logan Z. North-2020

Congratulations for the commitment to earn this Top Rank in Scouting and for the leadership efforts within the Troop, District, and Crater Lake Council, BSA. We say thank you to the Adult Volunteers who have faithfully served as members of Troop 10’s Committee and the scouts’ supportive family members as well. Submitted by Rita Bingham, CR for Troop 10.

Friends Women Fellowship To our church family, The Friends Women Fellowship says, “THANK YOU!” for your faithfulness in partnering with us in the missionary support programs of Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Women Fellowship, which includes global and local endeavors.  We once again met our pledged support. The July meeting is scheduled as “on call” after the yearly meeting business session is concluded. As usual, we do not meet in August, the next scheduled meeting will be in September.

This year’s Annual Sessions, like many events you likely had on your calendar, will be moving to a virtual platform.  The dates have changed slightly, moving to July 19-21st.  We will open our time together (virtually) on Sunday evening with a message from our general superintendent, Dr. Jim Le Shana.  We will hear from Dr. Joseph Clair as our main speaker on Monday and Tuesday.  There will be business sessions, workshops, and opportunities for fellowship and learning for each age group.  

We know that this change will be hard for some to hear.  It was not a simple decision to make.  But, we trust that in making this unprecedented decision, God can meet us where we are at, and move in ways that are fresh and new.  Our theme for this year’s conference is Thriving.  When this theme was picked, we had no idea of the changes that would be happening.  And so, given our current context, we are able to ask questions like; “what does it mean to be a thriving church in a new world for churches?  How can technology advance our mission — what parts of our shared life cannot and should not be replicated through technology?” In the days ahead we will have more specific information, including a schedule and details for participation in the conference.

The Friends Women fellowship group has made it our tradition to hold a bake sale on Father’s Day. This is an easy way to give dad a treat and for us to raise funds to support both local and overseas outreach ministries. Given our current restrictions on meeting and other regulations surrounding meetings, it is not feasible to hold a Father’s Day bake sale this year. Outreach ministries, however, continue to need support, now more than ever. Would you consider continuing your generosity and partnership with our Friend’s Women group? There may not be any Goodies in exchange for your donation, but the Good your donation does will continue!

Checks can be made out to Friends Women and sent to the church! (525 DeBarr Ave., 97501) Thank you so much for your generosity and support!

FYI: Ministries supported by our Friends Women group include (but are not limited to): our EFM missionaries all over the world, DOOR international (Josh and Audra Cadd), Child Evangelism Fellowship (think “Good News Club”), Samaritan’s Purse (Shoebox gifts), NWYM projects, and more!

Thanks!

Janelle Ralph