The Road to Magyarszovát, January 7, 2018

Join four members of the BUF touring choir and friends as they detail adventures of their June 2017 pilgrimage to the BUF partner church in Magyarszovát, Transylvania, through photos, story, music, and other souvenirs. 

The region of Transylvania is known for the scenery of its Carpathian landscape and its rich and abundant history and multicultural convergence of Romanians, Hungarians, Saxons and Roma. It is a region rich in myth and misty medieval sites. Romania's greatest and best-preserved castles, fortresses, and fortified churches are to be found here. Modern-day Transylvania is home to some of the most developed cities in Romania, but also villages where people still live as they did a hundred years ago. There are many small villages still centered around their community churches, still depending upon the bounty of their livestock and land for their survival.

BUF Sunday Forum: End Child Abuse with Brigid Collins, December 17, 2017

Andrea Harrison of Brigid Collins Family Care and Support Center will update us on the work of Brigid Collins, which has served Whatcom County for 27 years. Each year, we help more than 3,000 families in our Whatcom community who are at-risk or have been victims of child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. Our Stewards of Children program is an evidence-based prevention education program that has armed more than 6,000 residents of Whatcom County with the skills to prevent child sexual abuse and how to spot and respond to child abuse when it does occur. Our goal is to educate 10,000 Whatcom County residents by 2020, and in this Forum we will share how we plan to do this. Andrea Harrison, MSW, is the Development & Outreach Manager/Stewards of Children Facilitator at Brigid Collins.

Bringing Hope to Nepal: One Woman, One Child at a Time, December 10, 2017

Nicole Strachan, a Seattle volunteer with the Friends of the Women’s Protection Center Nepal, will speak on the tragic stories behind the creation of the Center. “If a person has had to experience human trafficking, they have known a life worse than death itself. Sometimes they try to escape. When they do, they are punished, and this can be unimaginable to anyone with a conscience.”  Women’s Protection Center (WPC Nepal) supports various awareness programs in the rural villages with the partnership of the local community to raise awareness and prevent girl trafficking.