Nineteen young friends met at the 184th session of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting at Wilmington College in Wilmington Ohio from July 28th - August 1st, 2004 to consider the theme, "Telling Our Stories of Faith." The campus of the historic Quaker college was the background for a time of fellowship and deep spiritual learning.

When we arrived we shared our concerns regarding who might be president. We are concerned about young people dying in war. We are concerned for the children in Africa and the AIDS epidemic. We are concerned for the people in the nursing homes.

This week we learned that in the past all Quakers didn't believe slavery was bad. We learned that Quakers used to think that art distracted your mind. We are glad to be Quakers now instead of then.

We want others to know that we think peace is easier to deal with than violence. It is easier to keep people alive than to kill them. We think you should always believe in God. God can help you find what you lose.

~The Children of OVYM