Thirteen elementary school age children met at the 183rd annual session of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana from July 30th to August 3rd, 2003, to consider the theme, "Be Patterns: Living in the Life and Power that Takes Away the Occasion of All Wars." The beautiful campus of a historic Quaker college was the background for a time of fellowship, sharing and learning.

Cindi Goslee spoke to us about the children in Africa. We felt really bad that they cannot all go to school and want them to get an education. Roland Kreiger spoke to us about Right Sharing of World Resources. We are concerned about the women who have to earn the money.

We feel sorry for the people being killed in Iraq. We want to share our concern so we made a banner that says, "No Flag is Large Enough to Cover the Shame of Killing." We sat around for a long time until we came to consensus as to what the banner would say. We hope to spread the message that we want the killing and wars to stop.

We have many hopes for the future. We hope the killing of animals and people stops. We hope to build more hospitals and schools and get the needy what they need. We hope conflicts are solved in better ways and people have peace.

Sincerely,
The Children's Group of OVYM