Junkanoo

Well it is Boxing Day - the day after Christmas and a national holiday in the Bahamas.

Actually, since the day after Christmas was a Sunday, today - Monday is the holiday.

Boxing Day means Junkanoo in the Bahamas a day of festival and parties.

Parades start at midnight and go all night and into the day - think caribbean mardi gras and you come close. Each year a theme is selected and different bands spend the year making costumes and preparing for band competition.

The competition is SERIOUS and the winner gets serious bragging rights. Actually, there are 2 sets of parades, one on Boxing Day, and one the day after New Years. Last year one group one the Boxing Day parade and another won the New Years Parade. The two big bands are THE SAXONS, and THE VALLEY BOYS - but they are not the only ones (which is why it takes all night for the bands to march down Bay Street before the judges).

What is interesting is that the bands consist primarily of cow bells, whistles, and horns - plus the dominant instrument DRUMS! Big drums, little drums, homemade drums - and they set the beat for the entire band, big time!

This year the parades are fighting an up hill battle with the cold. Temps in the night drop to the 50s and the hi temp is low 70s. As you can see from the costume above, it can be a bit chilly in some of these outfits - not to mention the people in the grandstands watching at 3 in the morning!

Now I do want to mention that, as I write this, I realize the folks in New England are getting 20" of snow and blizzard conditions so, while we struggle with temps in the 50s I will get no sympathy from them. We pray you all stay warm and drive safe in the midst of all that white stuff I used to have to shovel.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all - and have a Happy Junkanoo too!

Bahamian Christmas

Hello my friends -

Well as I write this it is Christmas Eve Eve and we are ramping up for a busy weekend.
This past week was full of Christmas-related activities, such as the Chamber of Commerce asking me to play Santa, a Christmas nativity play at AUTEC, a Tree Lighting Ceremony at the roundabout, and putting together plans for Christmas liturgy.

One thing that is unique about the Bahamas is that it is an explicitly Christian country. By that I mean that the Constitution actually says the Bahamas is a Christian Country. Unlike the US, therefor, government officials will speak from the podium at public meetings thanking the Lord God for sending Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Every year we have a tree lighting ceremony in Fresh Creek, complete with the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band. Every year I am amazed at how freely government officials proclaim Jesus as their Lord and Savior (not only is it true, but in the Bahamas it is politically correct to do so - just the opposite of the US).

This year I hadn't been asked to do any specific role at the tree lighting so I was in jeans and a polo shirt, sitting with Ginni, enjoying the music, the speakers, and the celebratory atmosphere of the event. I was really caught off guard, therefore, when the MC said, "I notice Faddah Trimble is with us today, Faddah, will you come on up and lead us in the final Benediction?" I actually pointed to my chest and said, "Do you mean me?" People in the first three rows all turned and said, "Yes Faddah, he be calling you up" So up I went and did a spontaneous prayer and blessing - only in the Bahamas.

At AUTEC Navy Base was a bit more prepared. Every year they have a 'Living Nativity', where the children dress as shepherds, wise men, Mary and Joseph, with a newborn drafted to play Jesus (this year it was a baby girl cast as Jesus). I had been asked to read the nativity from Luke and, as each event was read, Mary and Joseph would take up their positions in the stable that the seabees had built, then the shepards would walk on stage, then the wise men - all the while I am reading the story of Jesus' birth. This isn't the best of pics but here I am reading the narrative as the procession is taking place.

It really was a great event, followed by an evening of local Bahamian food from folks that had been invited onto the Base to staff booths, along with local craftsmen and local charities the Base supports. It really was a good time - there is nothing quite as pretty as coconut palms trimmed with Christmas lights.

On another bright note, I had a call the other day from the Vicar of the Archdiocese telling me that we WILL have a priest for Christmas. A priest from the Seminary in Miami (where the Archdiocese of Nassau is sending its seminarians) will be joining us. As I said in my last post, with Christmas and New Years both being on Saturday we have back to back liturgies with Christmas followed by the Sunday services the very next day so this will be a huge help.

We met Fr. Rios yesterday and we have decided he will preach on Christmas and I will do the Sunday homilies for the Feast of the Holy Family. We'll repeat that the following weekend with him preaching for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God on New Years, and I will take the Epiphany on Sunday. With him staying for the whole week we will, for the first time in years, be able to have daily Mass as well, not to mention the availability of Confession!

Some very kind people have given us a food basket for Christmas. While we appreciate their generosity we know so many people in need that much of the basket has found its way into their homes. We have come to know where the families are that will be having peanut butter for Christmas dinner and donations like this help us help them and they are always very, very thankful.

One story along these lines will give you an idea of what I mean. I have told you in prior blogs that in the Northern part of the island we have encounted a growing Haitian community who work the fields in the farms up north. A few weeks back we were driving one of them home after having church in the primary school (since we have no church up North). I asked him what crop was he working on and, in broken english, he said, "No work today - two weeks" I repeated my question and again, "No work - two weeks". Well it turns out that he had no work right now and the next time he was promised work was in two weeks. When I finally understood that I asked what he was doing for food while he was out of work and his answer was, "No work - two weeks". The bottom line was, there was no work for two weeks, there would be no pay for two weeks, and there would be no food for two weeks. He, and all the Haitians there, would be 'getting by', but there was no plan as to how that would happen. It was the way things were for him, pretty much the normal way of life - when you had work, you ate, if not, you didn't.

Well I didn't know that this was such a desparate situation and I only had $20, but I gave it to him for food and you would have thought I had given him a thousand. "Thank You, Thank You very much - God bless you" It was an endless stream of thanks and praise.

The next week when I picked him up he had a plastic bag full of green tomatoes he gave us. He had no money, but what he did have was the produce that the farmer thought unworthy of bringing to market - and he gave us what he had in thanks. To be truthful, what he gave us was not that appetizing to look at but - after about a week they turned bright red and, once ripe, were delicious! We ended up giving many of them to those Bahamian families with so little I mentioned earlier. Our bounty, met his need - from his bounty we met the need of others. God is good.

Well I will sign off for now - Merry Chistmas to all of you. As Jesus was born in Bethlehem we pray that he may be born anew in you - He is Emmanuel - God with us. AMEN? AMEN.

Bahamas Cold, Warm Babies, and more

Hello Again
Well, once more I am writing from Nassau, attending our monthly clergy meeting with the Archbishop. This trip is unique because of the cold. Bone chilling 50 degree temps at night and mid 60 days have all Bahamians bundled up. I am actually wearing my Boston College sweatshirt day and night!

While this is terribly cold here I know back in the US people are laughing as they deal with temps in the teens and 20s. Watching the Patriots play the Jets a few weeks ago was an eye opener. We could see the breath of all the players on TV as they lined up to play as the announcer commented on the 20 degree temps, then the following week they played the Bears in the snow!

One of the biggest news stories here, after you get past the cold, is that BTC (Bahamas Telecommunications Corp), is being sold to British Cable and Wireless. BTC is our phone company and one of the few profitable government run operations. Privatization of the phone company has been a hot topic here for years but now that its finally happening we have had protests in the streets, confrontations between the police and union marchers, & political wrangling unlike anything I'd seen in the US. Coincidentally, BTC just did an audit of its customers and decided to convert all Churches to Business Class customers, tripling our rates. After months of back and forth arguing over this it was determined that since we only have 1 phone, and its in the residence, we can be converted back to residential if we change our listing from St. John Chrysostom Church to St. John Chrysostom Rectory. Time will tell if this plan works out, but we clearly cannot afford business class rates, its a killer.

Speaking of killer, the Bahamas has had a record number of murders in 2010 and the crime wave is very serious here. The economy has many, many people out of work and the result has been a skyrocketing crime wave. The police do a pretty good job of catching the bad guys, but a poor job of preventing the crimes in the first place. It really is quite serious. When we come to Nassau on trips like this one, once we are in for supper we stay in. Going out in Nassau at night is really rather risky, unlike Andros where we feel much safer. The priest we stay with on Nassau has warned us that, if we go from the Rectory to the Church at night, we should take a flashlight and never walk across the parking lot alone. Believe me, we follow his advice. Actually, the Archbishop spoke on this topic at the clergy meeting this morning, warning us all to review our security plans. With so many businesses upgrading their security systems churches are views as the next area of opportunity for thieves, especially with the midnight liturgies we will be having over the next few weeks. Merry Christmas.

On a more positive note, the big news in our life right now is the birth of Leo John Tremblay, our newest grandson, in Sag Harbor NY. Born 12 DEC at 12:30AM, 7lbs, 6oz, he is beautiful and we can't wait to get home and visit.


Getting home will be complicated since we have nobody to cover my weekend liturgies. I am hoping I can lobby to get someone for the weekend of Jan 8 so I can leave after New Years and spend 2 weeks up North cuddling with the little guy, otherwise it will be a Mon-Fri trip for me.

Our liturgical schedule for the holidays is VERY complicated this year because both Christmas and New Years (The feast of the Holy Family) are on Saturday. So, you have the Saturday Christmas liturgies, complete with that extra Midnight Mass, and then the very next day the full slate of Sunday weekend liturgies. I will have 6 liturgies for that 2-day combination. With that complete, the very next weekend we do it all again with New Years Day on Saturday, including midnight services, then the Sunday morning services starting at 8. It will be interesting to see what kind of turn out we get, not only because of the frequency of the liturgies, but also because a large number of my parishioners will be in Nassau for Junakanoo.

Christmas time on the islands is one of great celebration. On Nassau it is a MAJOR big deal and the Junkanoo celebration is serious business. To describe it, you have to think of it on a par with Mardi Gras in New Orleans. There are Bahamian marching bands, in elaborate costumes that they work on all year long. They compete for points just like the Rose Bowl Parade floats in the US and there are serious bragging rights involved. Once the parade begins it goes well into the night and beyond midnight into the next day!

One of my chores while here is to return with a ciborium of consecrated hosts. We haven't had a priest in so long I am literally down to just a few hosts between the 3 churches. The Rector at the Cathedral has been very supportive of us on Andros and I am confident he will give us what we need to hold us over until we can get a priest to visit.

Today we spent the day shopping and we sent two shopping carts, filled to the brim, with supplies we need to the docks. On Fri morning the ferry makes the Nassau to Andros run and we will take the 7AM flight to beat it home and recieve the shipment at the Fresh Creek Dock. This will include the final few things we need for the restored church in Calabash Bay, as well as things we just don't have on Andros. My challenge will be to arrive in Fresh Creek, run to the bank to get money to pay the frieght charges, and line up someone with a pickup truck to help us carry it all from the dock to the Church (ahh, island life).

Till next time - I pray you all experience the fullness of Emmanuel, God with us.

Catching up with the news

Hello my friends

Well once again I have not been as faithful to posting here as I would like, where to begin?

For starters, at the AUTEC base we have a member we affectionately refer to as 'The Card Lady'. She is a sweetheart and has taken it upon herself to generate Get Well, Birthday, and Bereavement Cards for just about everyone on base. Well she has outdone herself! Awhile back there was something called 'Clergy Appreciation Day'. I had never heard of it, but she had. With very littel fan-fare, after our Saturday evening liturgy, I was surprised with a celebration complete with chesse and crackers, fruit, juice and cake, a card, and a wonderful photo album as a gift. Everyone who came to church filed into the hall at the rear of the church, including a few visiting engineers from companies testing their equipment with the Navy. It was great to be recognized like this and it really gave me a sense that what we are doing here is appreciated.

A few weeks ago we stopped to do our regular Sunday communion call with Anna. I have mentioned her here in the blog before. Anna is in her 90's and blind. On this Sunday we were told it was her 95th birthday, so after communion we all sang Happy Birthday and she sang and clapped her hands along with us. I've never posted a pic of Anna before, but to commemmorate her birthday she let us take her pic - here it is!

Anna, if you remember, is the woman who once gave me a hug and then said, "Oh Deacon, you be da big mahn, you come from da big bone" - cracked me up.

As you can see, the beard has gotten a bit long. The local Chamber of Commerce has asked if I would be willing to play Santa and so I have let it go. I am not sure when that will take place but you will certainly hear about it here if it really happens.

Every month we go to Nassau for a meeting with the Archbishop and the other Bahamian clergy. Our meeting is at the Emmaeus Ctr, a great facility for meetings like this. It sits atop a hill overlooking Nassau and is a great place to pray, as well as connect with other clergy to compare notes on are various ministries.

The grounds include a Benedictine cemetary and I have actually found the grave of Fr. Gabriel Roerig, OSB, the first priest to ever serve on Andros.

I have much more to tell you but I just realized the time and I have to run out to teach our last CCD class before the Christmas break. After class we will head out to the AUTEC base for dinner, followed by the rosary and a liturgy to celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. As an island nation getting to church can be problematic for many people so the Archdiocese of Nassau only has two holy days of obligation, Christmas and The Feast of the Holy Family (New Years). However, with so many Americans on the Navy Base we thought we would celebrate the Solemnity with that community.

Anyway - I better get going.

Till next time

from Andros to Houston

Well my last post was from Nassau, this comes to you from Kingwood TX, a Houston suburb, as I spend Thanksgiving with my son Matthew, his wife Melissa and our first grandson Jack. I am looking forward to turkey with all the fixings but tonight (be still my heart) we will have steak!

Good beef is hard to come by on Andros so to have a nice thick steak (rare) with a nice glass of red wine is absolutely decadent.

Our priest shortage is so dramatic in the Bahamas that for me to make this trip I had to make it a Mon-Fri event. I stayed on Andros while Ginni left last week so I could be there for the weekend liturgies then, first thing Mon morning I was on the 7AM flight out of Andros to Nassau, then a quick hop to West Palm, followed by my third plane to get from FL to TX.

On Friday I will do the same gig in reverse, making sure I am back on Andros for the first Sunday of Advent.

Just before I left I realized a fantasy I have been thinking about for awhile. How to make our church on Andros more Bahamian? One of the most successful industries on Andros is the prodution of a rather unique fabric called Androsia. It is a print, coming in a wide range of colored fabrics, with designs of fish, flamingos, starfish, conche, sea horses (and the list is endless). Usually the fabric is a bright color with the print being white, with a very unique look.

This pic of a sea-grape pattern gives you an idea of what I mean.

Anyway - with the liturgical colors changing from green to purple for Advent I took our sacristan to the Androsia factory and we bought about 7' of purple Androsia fabric (pretty close to the color in the pic above, but rather than sea grapes it has schoools of fish). While I am away she will hem one length of it for the altar, and make another section into a new cloth covering our tabernacle. Having matching material will be striking, especially since our people are so used to mix and match colored alter clothes that, for the most part, they don't even realize they don't match. For example, the altar cloths for ordinary time were dark forest green, while the tabernacle was covered with a light mint green cloth and the ambo was yet another shade of kelly green. Matching purple Androsia alter linens should be a big hit.

I may not see a priest until Christmas (if even then), any priests out there want to spend Christmas in the Bahamas? With Christmas being on a Saturday, followed by the Sunday liturgies, this year I may just sleep in Church with back to back to back liturgies for 3 communities spread all over Andros.

Well, I hear my grandson coming in from playing with the boy next door (who Jack has convinced that I am really Santa with the white beard). So I think I will sign off and take time out for one more tickle fight.

Till next time

A quick update from Nassau

Well much has happened since my last post about the Navy Ball - where to begin.
Well for starters let me tell you that I am writing this entry from Nassau. Ginni is back in the US dealing with our property in NH (our tenant has left) and getting in some nursing time (more money to help cover the expenses we still have owning property in the US is always welcome). If you know of anyone who might enjoy a NH log home, on a lake, in ski country, we are putting it back on the market to see if it might sell. We wanted to do this 2 years ago when we started our ministry here in the Bahamas but the market was so horrible we decided to rent. If it sells now, great! If not, its back to the renter option for us. Time will tell.

Work on the Church we are converting to our new Parish Center is progressing nicely. The sink and counters in the rear room has yet to be done but the interior body of the building has progressed enough that we started having CCD classes there last week. When I return to Andros I will try to post some before and after pics for you all to see. So many of you back in Mass. contributed so generously to this effort I really want you to see what you have helped build.

Friends from Stoughton visited us last weekend. John and Jane are from St. James parish in Stoughton but I first met them when I was working at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham. Jane was a close friend of a prior Director of the Retreat Center who recommended her as a possible Retreat Leader. Jane led our annual 'Lenten Retreat for Women', for several years. It was an absolute treat to have them visit and they really wanted to help us out while they were here so we put them to work.

Jane helped Ginni pull together some exercises for the children to do in CCD, folded our new 'Children's Bulletin' that we distribute every week for the kids, and worked with John to help resurface our 're-cycled' white board we now have at the Parish Center. I should explain. Then AUTEC Navy Base on Andros had a rather unique piece of furniture they were not using. It was in the Chapel conference room. It was a double-sided white board and, between each white board was a pull out collapsable room divider. The white boards had been written on so many times with permanent markers, then cleaned with abrasive cleanser, that the white boards were unusable. I found a company that makes peel and stick white board material that we used to resurface the old boards (actually that 'we' was John and Jane who peeled and resurfaced the old white boards). It came out great and saved us a ton of money on a new board.

John and Jane also repaired some screens in the Church that were broken and were able to secure many of them that were falling out of their frames. These Church windows are 10-14' tall and the screens were held in place by old clips (in those windows that had clips). If a strong wind came off the sea it was not uncommon for the screens to be blown out of their frames, which can be distracting when it happens during my Sunday homily. Using a drill I had picked up on a trip to Nassau, and jury-rigging some new clips I had bought (which were the wrong size), John and Jane basically resecured all the screens in the entire Church.

They came with us to all 4 Sunday liturgies, including the one up North in the new community we are trying to establish in Mastic Point. I should mention that while this community has a large Haitian population the numbers that are coming to our service has dropped off significantly. There is a new immigration official up there and many Haitians are afraid to come to a public service for fear of harrasment.

The most tramautic thing to touch us here recently was the attack of a Catholic nun here in the Bahamas. This is a woman we know who has a ministry on another island. Late one night she was the victim of a home invasion, robbery, and was physically assaulted. This was quite upsetting to us, everyone who knows her, and to the Catholic population in the Bahamas. Crime here is a very real problem, especially violent crime. In the recent census conducted by the Bahamas, the nation has 350,000 citizens and we are sitting at just over 80 murders so far this year. That is more than one murder every week.

Last week I saw and interview with the Mayor of San Jose, TX on TV regarding thier murder rate. The reporter wanted to know if the violence from the Mexican drug cartells had come over the border to San Jose. The Mayor said, 'Well we are a major US city with a population of 350,000 (which I noted since it was the same as the Bahamas, and it was 1 city)" They've had 14 murders this year. The Bahamas has passed 80 and it continues to grow.

When we heard about this attack on the Sister we felt we had to do something and so this week we will have two prayer services for the victims of violent crime. In the two years we have been here we know of 5-6 people who have lost relatives to murder on Nassau or one of the other islands. The first service was on Tuesday in Cargill Creek and a mother whose son was murdered a few months ago, and her husband, were in attendance. The second will be Friday night in Fresh Creek. Please keep us in your prayers in this regard, it is a very upsetting issue. Also keep our Archbishop Patrick Pinder in your prayers. He has a heavy burden leading this Archdiocese in such a climate. While you are at it, this woman of God who was the victim of this attack could use a few prayers too.

To end on a happy note, Sunday will be the feast of Christ the King, the patron of our parish in Cargill Creek. We will have cake and cookies after services on Sunday. A celebration like this is just what the Doctor ordered after a week of grieving and angst regarding the attack.

Till next time

The Navy Ball

Hello All - October is the birthday of the US Navy, and so our AUTEC Navy Base has an annual 'Navy Ball' in October and this year I was invited to lead the Benediction prior to the meal (an expected benefit of having the XO (Executive Officer) on the base converting to Catholicism and in our RCIA program).

This is a very serious, very gala event on the base and they hold nothing back to make sure this is THE event of the year. They bring in guest chefs from the US (actually these Chefs donate their time to come at no cost to recognize the service of our military). This year the Admiral for Under-Sea Warfare was the keynote speaker.

To create a space with the dignity this event requires they complete redecorate a building on the base that normally is the local bar. They completely cover all the walls with white paper and using streamers, black silouette cut-outs, and black and white WW II Navy pictures they create an incredible setting. This corner table should give you some idea of what I mean.

The base turned out in full dress whites for this event and you can imagine how impressive it was with every ribbon and medal prominently displayed on the chests of these service men.

For me, I was surprised at how nervous I was to say the benediction in front of this crowd. Knowing everyone would be in dress uniforms and the wives in gowns what to wear was an issue for Ginni and I (I actually only have 1 tie). Ginni knew about this so she brought a more formal dress when she came back from the States, I on the other hand decided my best option was to wear my roman collar - not something I usually do.

We arrived at the base in time for our Saturday evening service (which we moved up from 6 to 4:30 so we could arrive at the Ball on time). There was about a half hour of cocktails and small talk before we were called to take our seats.

The color guard marched in the side door with all the formality you can possibly imagine. It really was very well done and after they had put the US flag, the Navy flag, the AUTEC flag, and the MIA flag into their stands a female officer came forward and sang a wonderful rendition of the National Anthem. Then it was time for the Benediction (gulp). I went to the podium, asked everyone to join me in prayer and every head bowed. From that point on it was the Holy Spirit but I was blown away, and rather humbled, when one of the officers on Base sent me this pic.

The XO led a ceremony recognizing all those who had been killed in action, followed by the Base Commander's welcoming remarks and his introduction of the Admiral. He gave a wonderful address, recalling not only the birth of the Navy, but also major events in the history of the Navy from John Paul Jones to the current nuclear powered submarines. Then it was the 'call to chow' and the food was rolled out - and what a feast it was! Chefs from the US donate their time to honor our men in uniform and it was absolutely fabulous. Here is a pic of our table and a bit of the ballroom so you get some perspective on the number of people who attended.

Dessert was next and, just like the meal, it was delicious. What was fun about this was the cutting of the cake. Traditionally the person with the least service time cuts the cake with the person with the longest service time. So the XO started a countdown - everyone with 2 years or less, please stand. A group stand and he asks 'those 18 months or less', people sit. 'Those 12 months or less', people sit. Eventually it fell to a young Ensign. Now that we had the person with the least service it was time to find the Senior person in the room. The XO started the countdown with all those having over 25 years and peoples scattered around the room stand. 'Those with 26 years', people sit, eventually the finalists are the Base Commander and the Admiral at the head table, and this one man in the middle of the room. Now let me describe this sailor. He is clearly career Navy, his head is shaved, his chest is full of medals, now as the years click off, and he remains standing, all the sailors in the room shout "Yo Senior Chief!" another year is called, he remains standing, "Yo Senior Chief!", again and again, "Yo Senior Chief!" it was fabulous - especially when the Admiral sat down!

Inevitably the Base Commander came out on top with 30 years. Here is the pic of the XO handing his sword to the Ensign. From left to right it is the Base Commander, the Ensign, the Admiral and the XO. It was a great time and we are thrilled we were invited to attend.

After dessert there were a 'series' of ceremonial toasts. It was good that each table had 2 bottles of wine, just to get through the series! After the toasts were completed all Navy personnel were commanded to stand, and they did. What followed was a rendition of 'Anchors Aweigh' that was absolutely inspiring - no music, no song-sheets, just these men and women far from home showing their pride in serving in the US Navy. Let me say a word about that. These folks are part of the US military and, when called upon, they will fight for our nation. What these men and women do at AUTEC, however, is create test scenarios for the men and women in the military, and their equipment, ensuring that if called upon they'll be ready. In a large part, their job is to make sure their readiness acts as a deterrent to having to fight. AUTEC's role, in ensuring our NAVY is the best, is to deter our having to prove it. It is with that mindset that AUTEC works to ensure the peace. Enough said.

As we were leaving I met one of the Chefs and we talked a bit.

He was keenly aware that he has been blessed in life and being able to donate his time and talents to pull off an event like this was an honor. We talked a little about what we do on the base and with the local Bahamian people (I try not to miss an opportunity to evangelize). With virtually no prompting on my part he said that if I could stay in touch with him, next year he'd like to come a few days early and provide a meal for a local Bahamian community. My thoughts flashed to the Haitians we serve up north and how they'd react to chocolate covered strawberries and a true gourmet meal. We'll see what happens.

Clearly, this has been a rather different experience for us here on Andros - but one that we thoroughly enjoyed. Till next time - pray for us, and we'll pray for you.

Driving Bob Marley

Well I have much to tell but not too much time to type so I will cover just one of our experiences and share more with you later.

One of the novelties about driving the Church van is that everyone on the island knows its the Church van and feels perfectly at home waving you down for a ride. This is a good thing, giving us an opportunity to meet new people and share the faith - but, as you can imagine, it can be a bit risky at times. With that said, we pretty much pick up anybody that waves us down.

Last Sunday we were on our way home from Cargill Creek with a van about half full of folks we were dropping off on the way when we were flagged down by someone needing a ride to Fresh Creek. This young man was in his 20’s and looked a bit like Bob Marley, dredlocks down to his shoulders, an old T-shirt that had seen better days, and a plastic bag full of Lord knows what. Several of the older women in the van gave him 'the look', but he settled in for the ride nonetheless . He was very thankful we stopped because some local folks had told him we wouldn’t because we didn’t know who he was, which is clearly not true. We explained that on the way home we stop and bring communion to a few people and he was willing to come along for the ride anyway.

Our first stop was in Man O War Sound, where we visit Anna. I told him he could wait for us in the car but he got out to stretch his legs. After greeting Anna and her daughter we began the Eucharistic Service with prayer and I noticed our young passenger listening by the door. I read the Gospel, (remember the story of the widow & the unjust judge?) Then I took a moment and preached a bit about that Gospel and the message that, like the widow and the judge, we should never give up, but in good times or bad, continue to pray to our God who loves us – just like the widow kept after the judge. God is our Father and He takes care of His children. After giving Anna and her daughter communion we all climbed back in the van and headed towards Fresh Creek.

Once we were alone, our passenger opened up and it turned out the Holy Spirit was moving right there in Anna's living room! He told us a bit about himself and how much what I said touched his heart. He stopped going to church when he was 13 we he discovered his minister and his mother having an affair. That was it for him and he left the church and never went back. His relationship with God was crushed by this experience and he had no place for this in his life. Now, in his mid-twenties, he heard the message that we should never give up, that we are God's children, beloved, and we should perservere in our faith whatever the world throws at us - God used this to touch his heart. He was clearly moved and the ride to Fresh Creek was an amazing one with him sharing his life story and Ginni sharing about the love of God and the Holy Spirit just about lifting the van off the pavement.

When we dropped him in Fresh Creek the 'coincidences' continued when he told us he was from Mastic Point, which was where we were headed later that day! He had some errands to do in Fresh Creek so we parted company. After another communion call, we packed the van for our services up North in Mastic Point and on the way we found him once more, on the side of the road about half-way to Mastic Point, and gave him a lift to Mastic Point. It was a blessed time for him and for us and he may just join our community in Mastic Point for our services next week in the public school where we meet there, we will see.

Keep him, and us in your prayers - till next time.

Busy Weekend

Well after all my complaints about weather the last few days have been fabulous. The winds have died down, the white caps are gone, and we are back to tranquil aqua waves lapping against the shore, blue skies and temps in the 80's . Just to give you and idea of what I mean - here is a pic of my back yard when looking to the left:

And here's the view to the right (not too shabby unless there are 30mph winds and driving rain)

I know it was Columbus Day weekend in the US but here its called Discovery Day and there were parties and events all over the island. For example, Saturday, parishioners in Cargill Creek hosted a fundraising cookout. Ribs, Chicken, Fish, Conch, Mac&Cheese, Peas&Rice - yum. Ginni baked all day Friday and we brought over about 4 cakes she made for the effort (2 chocolate, 1 pumpkin bread, and a bunt cake - double yum).

Like most things here, there were issues - for example at 7:30AM our phone rings and its one of the more active members of the parish who was supposed to work the booth dishing out food and collecting money. Her son, the night before, had gotten into an altercation with the police and she had to go see what she could do. The eve of Discovery Day was a Friday night, and cause for celebrating. After a bit too much beer, this young man ended up spending the night in the local jail. Eventually he was released, but not until late Saturday afternoon.

We arrived at the picnic at noon, when the event was to kick off, but found ourselves alone for almost 2 hours as those cooking the food finished up, taking on the slack of our missing parishioner now busy at the police station. A two hour delay in starting may seem like much, but this is the Bahamas and there is a running joke about Bahamians being on Bahamian time.

"Der be no rush faddah, don' worry, we get it done, and it be off da chain mahn!"

Basically translated - 'Chill out Deacon'

Bottom line - the food was great, the company was great, and one woman even surprised us with some Guava Duff, the absolutely primo Bahamian dessert. This is a white cake with a unique texture, topped with Guava fruit. You get a slice of this on your plate that is then drizzled with a sweet white cream sauce - its one of my favorite Bahamian treats.

We ended up having to leave around 3 to get home and prepare for the Saturday evening service at AUTEC, but the picnic continued with people dropping by all day and into the evening to buy a plate of food. When all is said and done it looks like they may have brought in over $800 which we will use to fix so many of the things needing fixing in Cargill Creek.

Speaking of facilities, as I mentioned in my last post, the donations we received while we were in the US are now being put to work to restore St. Gabriel's in Calabash Bay. The water line is installed and the septic tank as well. The electric lines are also installed and we are waiting for inspector to approve that work prior to the Electric Co. connecting the electrical line. 3 of the 4 interior walls are all painted white, the one behind where the altar was will be blue. With the donations we brought back, the new floor tiles will arrive on the boat Wednesday. It will be wonderful to have a floor! We hope its no more than 2 weeks before we can move in and start having classes. This will be a major improvement for our kids, as well as the community of Calabash Bay.

After we got home from the picnic we cleaned up and headed off to the Saturday evening service at AUTEC. Once a year AUTEC invites vendors in to showcase products they want to sell at the PX on base and this weekend it was the company that provides beer and wine who were hosting a 'tasting', to which we were invited. So - after the final blessing and church we strolled over to the 'Lighthouse Pub' to check it out. The manager of the Lighthouse is a young woman who has just started RCIA with us this year and she outdid herself serving all sorts of appetizers for the tasting. The goal of this event is to give the residents on base an opportunity to provide input on what the PX should be selling. Some items on the shelves will be replaced by new ones as a result of this social. So we tasted a few wines, submitted our votes (even though we are not allowed to shop at the PX since the Navy views us as Bahamians and not residents of the Base). What was nice, however, was we connected with Mary (our RCIA candidate), met many of her friends, and talked a bit about RCIA and why would anyone want to join the Catholic Church. Interesting conversations to say the least.

Then it was off to prepare for Sunday. We were up at 6 (with difficulty), but the 8:30 in Fresh Creek, where Ginni led our newly formed Choir, went off with out a hitch (don't you love this pic of her with her guitar).

Then we were off to Cargill Creek for the 11:00. With this being the holiday weekend we didn't go north to Mastic Point for our usual 4PM service because the school was all locked down for the holiday and we are still using the Primary School to hold services up there. Suffice it to say we were quite happy to crash. But we couldn't rest too long - Monday evening is RCIA.

This week we need to renew our Bahamian drivers license. Its become complicated because Andros just recieved a camera for driver license photos (our current licenses have no pic). The problem is the folks that know how to run the camera are a bit scarse. We went in on Wed last week and were told to come back Friday. Friday the traffic officer was in but the camera system was locked away and the man with the key wouldn't be in until Tuesday. Tuesday he is in, but there's a problem with the camera so we need to wait for the repair man to come on the boat Wednesday. Pray we don't have any traffic violations, because at this point both our Bahamian licenses are expired. "Don't worry Deacon, if you have any trouble I'll tell them you've been here and its our fault, not yours". (Try that with a State Trooper in Ma.)

So all is well, but there's much to do - this past week we also have had a man from Love Hill drop by asking if we had any meat. He is low on funds and can't afford meat - "Do you have any extra meat?" Another woman came by because the electric company shut off her power - she hasn't been able to pay for 3 months and now that the bill is over $600 they shut her off. "Could you give me a couple of hundred so they'll turn it back on?" Then in the midst of requests like this another woman drops by. This is a woman who we know has very very little, and who we had helped pay her electric bill a few months back. Now she is bringing us two loaves of bread she had baked. "Here, this will help you through Deac".

These are things that make you take a deep breath, look up at the blue blue sky, and sigh.

Till next time

Wind and Rain and Wind and (did I say wind?)

Well if you have been following the tropics you know we have had storm after storm. The first tropical depression left us and went up the east coast (actually cancelling a Red Sox Yankees game) but while it was here it was wind and rain central. Now let me explain wind when it comes to a tropical storm on Andros.

First, Andros is flat and we are on a cliff facing east. On one end of the church we have an efficiency apartment for visiting priests. Its a very nice set up, however the windows are mechanical crank-out windows and, over the years, with the salt air blowing on them, several of the cranks no longer work.

Knowing we were in for a bit of 'a blow', with the wind at a mild 15-20 mph I went around that end of the church to check them out. Well, to my surprise, one of the panes was already lying at a crooked angle and another had also become loose so, as a precaution, I went into the garage and pulled out the hurricane shutters for that end of the building. I knew this was not a hurricane, but at the very least I wanted to keep the water from blowing into the apartment.

So I grab an armful of these corrigated aluminum sheets and a bucket of clips that clip the sheet of aluminum to fasteners that are screwed into the concrete walls and begin to put them up. All the while the wind is raging and, once or twice, it picked up my pile of shutters and blew them across the yard. Eventually I had that end of the church covered and I knew it would be safer.

Well as night settled it the wind grew stronger, power went out, and pretty much stayed out for most of the night. The power of God's creation was all around us as lightning and rain and wind pummelled the house that night and into the next day. Power came on and went out again but eventually that storm moved on and up to Boston.

But that wasn't the end of it - a 'frontal boundary' settled in over the Bahamas and that front just basically sat there for 4 days. The wind was nuts! Absolutely incredible. To walk the 20' from the door of the rectory to the church I literally had to lean forward in order to make it. While it was a pain to deal with, the next storm that headed towards us from Puerto Rico ran into the front and bounced off into the open Atlantic, and the same thing is happening now with what is tropical storm Otto.

So - we haven't had much time online for blog updates because either power is out, or internet is down on the island, or power is out -- island life can be interesting.

Two days ago we had wind and rain overnight that kept Ginni up all night because of the lightning. She complained the next day that she could not believe I slept through it all.

This weather has put a crimp in the work to restore St. Gabriel's church. They had dug out the pit for the septic tank, but its hard to pour concrete in a driving rain storm. Actually, pouring concrete is a misnomer here. In the US a cement truck would come and concrete would be poured out into a form to make the septic tank. Here, two men pour a bag of concrete onto the street (yes the street), then add sand, creating a pile about 3' tall. They then mix that pile by hand with shovels to get the sand and concrete all mixed together. Then they fill a 5 gallon pail with water and gradually add water while mixing and mixing and mixing until they get a nice gooey cement mixture. You can not imagine how back breaking this work is to do it by hand, but that's what they have to do, so they do it.

We still hope to be able to open the building this month, but CCD will start a few weeks late.

Our plan is to rename St. Gabriel's church, creating the 'Father Gabriel Roerig, OSB Parish Center' Fr. Gabriel was the first priest to minister on Andros. He was ordained at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota and came here directly from the Abbey, then spent over 50 years serving the people of Andros. When I read of what conditions he worked under I am embarrased when I complain about losing power and internet access. He didn't have electricity! There were no roads - yet he travelled up and down Andros building churches, baptizing babies, teaching children and adults, serving as priest, and doctor, and mason, and carpenter, and dentist - you get the idea. There is a great book documenting the history of the Catholic Church in the Bahamas, from Columbus to the 20th century, including Fr. Gabriel. It is UPON THESE ROCKS, by Coleman Barry, OSB. I got a copy on Amazon.com, a great read.

Here is a portrait pic of Fr. Gabriel I recieved after emailing the Abbey in MN

Here is the last known pic of him with some of his friends on Andros. I think this gives you an example of the reality of his ministry. Ours may have its difficulties, but he's become a bit of a hero to me.

Enough for now, keep us in your prayers.

Frank and Ginni

Back on Andros!

Well we arrived back on Andros and the excitement didn't take long to begin.

First, we land in Nassau and clearing customs took a bit too long so we missed the only flight to Andros. We knew this was a possibility so we had arranged to stay at St. Joseph's parish 'in case' we needed to. Once inside St. Joseph we borrowed Fr. Martin's car and went to the Chancery to drop off donations we recieved while at home (Thank you all once again!)

At the Chancery we found that the priest who had offered to cover my parish here for 2 weeks was called back to Nassau by the Archbishop after the first week. This created an issue for some of our children. Since we had been without a priest for 4 months, several of our children had left the island for summer vacation when we were finally able to have First Penance and First Communion. With Fr. Glen spending two weeks here to cover for our absence we had set it up that on the 2nd week he would hear thier first confession and they would recieve first communion. So -- when he was called back to Nassau our little cherubs show up dressed in white to find a Deacon had been flown in to cover the weekend liturgy. Disappointing to say the least. So they continue to wait and the NEXT time we have a priest we'll have a special celebration.

Now let me tell you why the priest was called back. It turns out that while we were away the Chancery was robbed! The business office has a buzzer to get inside and one of the women was getting buzzed in when a man came up behind her and pushed her through the door, causing her to fall. He then put the muzzle of his rifle against her forehead and asked for her bag. It was terrifying for her and the secretary that buzzed her in but thankfully nobody was hurt. Coincidentally, the priest who was covering for us lives in the Cathedral, next door to the Chancery, and he has a closed circuit TV camera panning the driveway. Police needed him to come back to Nassau to open up the camera so they could see if the tape had captured the robber. -never a dull moment-

So the next day we get the Saturday morning flight to Andros to discover that our parishioners had moved the van from the airport to the church so it wasn't sitting there all week unprotected. Fred picked us up and drove us home and we started the chore of unpacking and settling in. We needed a few things at the store which is when we found the battery was dead. I tried to jump it with a neighbor but it wouldn't jump. Using Bahamian ingenuity we rolled it down the driveway and popped the clutch, which with a standard transmission is a tricky way to get it started - and it worked.

I drove to Love Hill and saw that the tables and chairs for the new parish center had come in, I drove to a few other parishioners and said 'Hi, we are back' -- all the while hoping this driving was charging the battery up again. Finally I stopped for lunch with Ginni, but after lunch, still a dead battery. Now I push the van down the driveway, jump in, pop the clutch, it starts again and off I go with Ginni to find a battery. "Yes Deac - I can get a battery big enough for that van, how about Thursday?" Island life - if you don't have it, you can get it, just wait for the boat to bring it. A nice idea but not when we need to go to 3 different churches to hold weekend liturgy (only one has a hill we can push the van down to get it started). I made several stops, all with the same result, until I went to the Baptist minister who has a garage. He says, "Your battery is the same as the one in my jeep - I could order one like the other guys or take the battery out of my jeep for you to use". Bottom line is we got a battery and the weekend liturgy went off without a hitch.

The other piece of news we learned after getting back on Andros was the attempted murder in Cargill Creek (next door to our church!) Next to our church there are a few dillapidated buildings tucked away in the bush. A family of squatters had moved in about a year ago, a mother, her boyfriend, and 5 kids. The buildings are owned by a parishioner who heard this family was homeless and he told them that if they were despirate they could use one of them. Well they were despirate and moved into the one with a roof, creating walls by hanging blankets. Well the oldest boy and the 'step-father' hadn't been getting along and, from what can figure out, during the night the boy decided to get rid of the 'step-father' using a butcher knife.

The man was able to get away but it was a very bloody scene, he is in intensive care in Nassau and the boy is in prison awaiting trial. The mother is in Nassau next to his bedside and the other kids are staying with friends all throughout the settlement. Terribly sad situation for everyone.

That was our 1st day back.

I makes me wonder that when we leave for 2 weeks, the Chancery gets robbed, there's an attempted murder, the van dies, and our kids miss out on First Communion yet again. Maybe we should just stay put.

Monday was spent getting ready for RCIA. Our first class was scheduled for that night and 3 of the possible 8 candidates showed up. Some of the others may still show up - time will tell.

I think that's enough of an update for now - pray that tropical storm south of Cuba stays far away from us - right now the projected track would have it go right over us. I sure hope Cuba takes the wind out of its sails.

Till next time

Here's an update

Well once again I have let too much time pass between blog entries - mea culpa!

Much has happened this past summer so I will try to give you the highlights.
First off, the economy is killing the folks here in the Bahamas. Tourism is down significantly with hotels at 20-50% occupancy. The trickle down effect of this is major. With no jobs in Nassau people have moved back to the family islands with high hopes, only to have them dashed when they find out the reality here is no better.

Locally, there is a carpenter with several children who has asked if I had any work. He didn't want money, he wanted work. Coincidentally the next day a gale blew through and ripped a 10' strip of flashing off the roof of the church and I was able to give him the job of climbing up on the roof and tacking it back in place. (Ginni was thrilled I didn't try this one on my own - especially after my adventure last year when I climbed on the roof of the church to hang the Christmas lights). It wasn't a big job, and I didn't have much to give him, but in his words "Its better than nothing Deac, and I'm providing for my family with the work of my own hands". Bahamian pride is alive and well.

The window in the sacristy has a major leak whenever it rains and that is his next job. While it would be easy to slip him a few dollars, he would much rather earn it and there is clearly alot of little jobs around this place that, when I have the money, I can use to help him out.

While I'm talking about construction - the construction effort at that old church I mentioned earlier is under way. We had gone to bid and hired one of our parishioners who does this type of work. St. Gabriel's will become the Fr. Gabriel Roerig, OSB Parish Center. Fr. Gabriel was the first priest to ever minister on Andros and he spent 56 years here serving the Bahamian people. This church had been closed years and years ago and all the windows and doors had been smashed in and boarded up, and termites were starting to take over. Our vision is to restore it as a parish center where we can teach CCD, have parish meetings, and an occasional social. A place for CCD is the primary need right now and through the generosity of many people, both Bahamians and our friends and family the work is under way.

The Sister of Mercy who had preceded us had recieved 10 colored windows from a church in Maine that had been closed. They didn't fit anywhere so she stored them in the closed St. Gabriels' building. Well termites love cardboard boxes, so to cockroaches (some day I will tell you about Bahamian cockroaches the size of your thumb). When I first saw the windows all you could see was a pile of corroded cardboard, dust, and yuck. After I did the initial cleaning of St. Gabriel's I realized I had windows - and they were an odd size. Months later, when I was meeting with the contractors, it turned out the window size is also an odd size so whatever windows we bought the windows would need to be re-framed. One contractor said, "You know, if I have to reframe the windows anyway, why not use this colored windows you already have?" That little pearl saved us $1,000.

Right now the windows are in, new doors are in, and they are breaking up the concrete floor where the water line will be for the toilet. There's still much to do before CCD classes begin in Oct, like adding electricity, putting in the water line and septic, building a bathroom, installing a toilet, powerwashing the building and paint - and the list goes on and on. When we get closer to completion we will need to buy the tables and chairs as well. We have been blessed with many donors and we hope that we can pull in the last few thousand we need to replace the floor, time will tell, but God is good!

Let me tell you just how good. The AUTEC Navy base has a room we have used to teach the children on the base. In that room is a piece of furniture that has a white board on two sides, between the white boards is a room divider that collapses and slides into a storage compartment between the two boards. Now, over the years, people have mistakenly used permanent markers, and they'd been scoured off, but it happened more than once so now its pretty much unusable and it's stored off to the side and never used. Well I did some research and found a company back in Massachusetts that sells this contact-paper-like-stuff that effectively resurfaces old white boards. So I posed the question, "Could I have that old white board thingy in the corner for our new parish center?" Without blinking an eye the Navy Chaplain says "Fine with me", the Commander says "I have no problem", the Chapel Coordinator says, "Would you like to use my truck?" God is good. So we are progressing well with the Parish Center.

With all this good news - ministry to our Bahamian friends has its peaks and valleys. One family has a potential child abuse situation that I've injected myself into and, with the help of Social Services, we may be seeing the light at the end of that tunnel.

Another family has a young girl that has been kept out of school to do chores, resulting in her missing so much school, and her final exams, that she'll have to be kept back and repeat. We worked with the family to correct the situation, and with the school so that I was allowed to proctor her, and give her the exams here at the church. The end result is she is moving on to the next grade and her parents have a clear understanding of their responsibility to get her to school

A long-time member of our church passed away in Nassau a few weeks ago. We met with her son and understood that, because of their financial situation, they would be burying her in Nassau rather than shipping the body back here for burial. While we were in Nassau we met with another son from Nassau and shared our stories of Maria. We had never met this man but he knew all about us from his mother. It turns out Maria had us in her cell phone listed under the name 'Guardian Angels'. You can imagine how that made Ginni and I feel when we heard that story! A few days later we got a call from the Vicar General in Nassau saying that Maria's funeral would be at the Cathedral and they wanted me to preach. I was blown away!

Ginni and I have had wonderful experiences here, there is the joy of Baptism and 1st communion, there is the sadness of kneeling next to the body of a parishioner on the floor of his home and praying with the family. Funerals are a major event here, and usually full of wailing and crying - but Maria's funeral was one of victory and Ginni and I were thrilled to be part of it.

Now we are cranking up for CCD and RCIA - much to do, as you can imagine. Ginni will be flying home Wednesday to get in some nursing (pending Hurricane Earle's track towards Nassau). I haven't been able to take any time this year and was planning on working through until I got a call from the Rector at the Cathedral. It seems he like to vacation on the family islands and wanted to know if he could come to Andros and spend a few weeks here - and at the same time give me a break. (Did I say God is good?) So I will leave Sept 10 and join Ginni in the states for a few weeks before we actually jump into CCD.

Well, enough for now, till next time - keep us in your prayers.

Frank and Ginni

Hello My Friends

Well summer on Andros is in full swing right now. Every day it is in the mid 90's and for Ginni and I it is a challenge. Remember the old saying "It's not the heat, its the humidity", well here we have both! This is particularly challenging when you have some physical labor to do.
Last week, for example, our groundskeeper rang our doorbell at 7:30AM to get the key to the garage. He wanted to mow the grass before the day got too hot (and before his other job started at the local lumber yard). Fortunately, 7:30 is about the time I'm up, the coffee is dripping and I am lighting my candle for Morning Prayer - so I was up.

He takes the key and happily heads off to the garage. A few minutes later the lawn mower is roaring around the yard and Ginni pokes her sleepy head out of the bedroom door "Is
that the lawn mower?" (Ginni is not a morning person). I nod and she shakes her head and goes back into the bedroom.

Ten minutes later (remember I started this describing the heat), the doorbell rings again. I open the door and Peter is standing there drenched in sweat, but in his hand he is holding our water meter, or what used to be our water meter until the lawn mower sliced it in half. On Andros the island is pretty much one big limestone rock. This means that everything usually underground back in Massachusetts is above ground here (like the water line from the street to your house).

Every house here has a white PVC pipe running from the street to the house, that's your water line. It is above ground and, at the very end, near the street, is a blue ball about the size of a tennis ball, with a tiny window on one side and the meter clicking away in that window. That's the water meter and our lawnmower pretty much destroyed it.

While Peter was indeed covered with sweat at 7:30 in the morning from the effort of mowing the grass, he was also pretty wet from the geiser now rising up into the air in a rather impressive arc and landing out into the street from what used to be our water line. So before Morning Prayer, before my toast and peanut butter, before the coffee has finished dripping, I'm working with Peter to try to shut the water off to all of the Church property - find a way to cap the geiser, then find someone from the water department to figure out where we go from here.

Fortunately for me, the main man at the water department also plays the organ at our church in Cargill Creek. Bottom line, Peter and I were able to figure out how to plug the broken pipe until help arrived. When it did, he was able to restore the connection to the water main without a meter (we need to wait for a new one to be shipped by boat from Nassau - ahh, island life). So for now, we have free water until the new meter arrives.

By the way - the geiser did help cool off my sweaty groundskeeper and I did get back to Morning Prayer (an interesting prayer time that day to be sure), as well as my coffee, toast and peanut butter - God is good.

Summer School

Hello again -
One of our parishioners works for the Bahama National Trust. This is a group that works to set aside land as part of a National Parks System, among other things. During the summer there is not too much for the children to do on Andros so she runs a summer camp to introduce the kids to the different eco-systems here on Andros. They do a class, then a field trip, usually each day on a different type of ecosystem.

Well, they were going to show the kids 'blue holes' and needed a van to carry them to the northern part of the island and they asked us! Were we glad they did!

A blue hole is a naturally occuring geological phenomenon and Andros has more than any other place in the world. I've mentioned before that this island is basically a rock - very little surface dirt on most of the island. There are literal 'holes' in the rock, some as big as football fields, that are very very very very very deep, and filled with water.

We had found one about 20 minutes from us and have gone swimming in it. What we learned at summer camp was that, not only are there land-based blue holes, there are ocean-based blue holes. We drove to Conche Sound, a nice little beach we would never have found on our own. Peter, our guide, pointed out to the sea and said, "Do you see that area of water that's a shade darker than the rest, where the water isn't quite as rough?" No if he hadn't pointed it out I wouldn't have noticed, but there was this area where the surface of the water was actually calmer than the sea that surrounded it, and it was a darker shade of blue.

Well, that was a blue hole about 30 yards off shore - and it was one we were about to lead 12 primary school kids with snorkles to explore (yikes!). Peter explained that this particular blue hole was particularly dangerous in that off the side walls of the hole were caves that went under the sea bed for great distances. When the tide changes the hole can act like a suction hose and a funnel will form sucking surface water down into the hole - or if the tides coming in the water can be forced out of the hole and water will bubble up on the surface. So, taking 12 little cherubs to snorkle over this blue hole had its challenges.

So one of the volunteers starts passing out snorkles and masks and Peter takes one of the more experienced boys with him to the hole, after about 5 minutes the boy swims back and I take the 2nd child out to Peter then swim back half-way while Ginni sends the next child out to me. In short order we had a conveyor system of kids swimming to me, where they wait for Peter to finish with the child he has at the hole, then they go out for their turn. Meanwhile Ginni and the other ladies with us kept the kids occupied that were waiting their turn (a job I was glad was not mine).

When all the children were done I swam out to Peter and finally saw the hole myself. It was amazing. You swim out over sand and turtle grass and then all of a sudden there is this shear drop. You could see 60' down and, on one side of the hole, there was an old fishing boat that had sunk into the hole years ago. There were lots of fish, amazing color, and quite the experience.

Once back on shore Peter told us that National Geographic had done a special on Blue Holes and this particular hole was a feature part of the article. They sent a scuba team to dive the caves off the side walls of the hole and one of those dives set a worlds record for the longest cave dive. It turns out the caves go miles under the surface of Andros. We actually drove over the caves on the way to the beach!

After the dive we had lunch - the summer school includes breakfast, which they ate at the classroom before we arrived to pick them up, and lunch. Lunch was peanut butter sandwiches and I was surprised at them providing breakfast and lunch since I knew this program had a very small budget. Later I learned that they provide breakfast and lunch because if they didn't, these kids wouldn't have breakfast or lunch, and once again the reality of island life here hits home.

Over the course of the week we had 3 excursions like this, and I realized if we were tourists this type of experience was worth a pretty penny. The environmental groups we worked with, the fishing lodges that let us use there boats, the tourism office who loaned a guide, were all provided at no cost to the Bahama National Trust folks to help the children learn about what a precious place Andros is. We were very thankful our offer to drive the kids exposed us to this too!

Till next time

Pics from Anniversary Liturgy

Back in early July I mentioned that the Archdiocese of Nassau was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Nassau being made a Diocese (not too shabby if you realize Nassau has only been an independent nation for 37 years).

At the closing liturgy there were bishops and visiting priests present from throughout the Caribbean, as well as the Nuncio here representing the Pope. The entrance procession through a totally packed Cathedral was impressive to say the least.

Archbishop Pinder gave a wonderful homily, walking through the history of the Archdiocese and bringing to mind past Bishops and Archbishops, Benedictines who initially served here, and the many other religious congregations of men and women who have helped make this Archdiocese the unique place that it has become.

For me, it was indeed humbling to hear all this and know that we are now part of that history. That Ginni and I are, in some small way, writing our own pages in the history of this Archdiocese.

One of the things the Archbishop did to celebrate this anniversary was the creation of a special medal, struck for this occasion. The Cordis et Mentis award (Heart and Mind) was created on the occasion of this anniversary to recognize people throughout the Archdiocese of Nassau who, over the years, had served the church in such a way that they deserved special recognition.

We were particularly pleased that two of the honorees we from our parishes on Andros. In this picture the Archbishop poses with all those recipients of this award throughout the Archdiocese. I like this particular picture because in the background you can see not only the old original St. Francis Xavier Cathedral on the right, but also the new St. Francis Xavier Cathedral on the left. St. Francis Xavier was the first Catholic church built in the Bahamas, later elevated to the status of Cathedral.

The following pictures are of Ms. Evelyn Minnis, from St. John Chrysostom in Fresh Creek and Mr. Harold Braynen, from Christ the King in Cargill Creek. These two individuals, during the years when there was no permanent clergy on Andros, were the driving forces behind keeping the people together and continuing to grow the faith on Andros.

The following picture shows Ginni and I with Harold and his wife Charlene after the ceremony. I am pleased to share with you that, after much prayer and discernment, Harold is also beginning his journey in the Deacon Formation Program here in the Bahamas.

If you look closely, Charlene is holding the medal that Harold recieved while he holds the certificate. I told Charlene that although Harold was recognized at this ceremony, she had a major part in him being recognized so she should be the one wearing it!

We are blessed with many good people here and Evelyn and Harold are only the tip of the iceberg. It was a wonderful celebration, affirming that the Church is growing here and if we take the time to look around and see the many gifts of the Holy Spirit that are all around us we have much to be thankful for!

Bye Bye Bonnie

Well Tropical Storm Bonnie blew threw here in the middle of the night and it seems all is well. I was glad I put up the hurricane shutters in the priest's apartment. There no water leakage on the leaky windows I covered - naturally the windows that never leak, which I did not cover, had a lovely puddle waiting for me the next day.

The storm itself was a wind and rain event. The wind was pretty constant at about 30-40 mph all night long and when the rain started it was a monsoon! Around 2AM the lightning and thunder just rocked the place, literally, windows rattled and when I got out of bed I could feel the vibrations from the thunder in the soles of my feet on the tile floor.

What was most surprising the next day was that on the patio between our home and the church were about 100 small white paint chips all over the grey floor - the storm actually blew chips of paint off the walls! As I drove through town and saw a branch here or there I could not help but wonder about our Haitian friends up on the northern part of the island. In that community there is actually 1 house, the rest are the tin roof huts with makeshift walls consisting of whatever planks were around when they were built. Some have dirt floors, some are raised up on cinder blocks and have plywood floors. Needless to say they were not built to endure tropical storms, much less an actual hurricane.

We haven't been able to hold church services for them up north since the schools closed (we had been meeting in the school). I have called my Bahamian contact up there, but she is off the island for the month of June so, since they have no phones, I will have to take the hour drive up there to check up on them, and possibly have church outside next to the fields where they grow cabbages and onions.

We still haven't had a priest for some time. The last priest to join us on Andros was on Easter but I am hoping we will have one with us soon. The first communion class is still waiting to experience their first confession and then first communion, but for now we wait until either a visiting US priest on vacation offers to help, or a priest from Nassau can be sent. I was talking to the Sister who had been on Andros prior to our coming here. She is now on another family island and she's in the same boat, not having had a priest since Easter.

The Archbishop actually does a great job providing coverage throughout the Bahamas with the limited resources he has. In the US a priest may cover multiple churches by driving great distances. When the different churches are on different islands that are miles and miles apart it creates a whole different dynamic.

The Bahamians simply smile and say "Dis be island life faddah" - and smile, recognizing the reality of island life. When you run out of something you just have to wait for the boat, if its not on the boat you wait for the next one. When I had a flat tire once, it took 4 days before I could get another tire - all you can do is wait. In our case, we're waiting for a priest (a limited resource). Until then, everyone has to settle for the Deacon. :)

Till next time.

Tropical Storm threatens oil spill - what about us!

Well if you watch CNN or the Weather Channel you've been hearing about this tropical storm that is brewing that could cause all kinds of caos in the Gulf of Mexico and disrupt the oil spill cleanup. You might also have heard that this storm is forming IN THE BAHAMAS!!!


You got it folks, lets forget for a minute where it 'might' go, and talk about where it IS!


Actually, as far as storms go, its not that big a deal compared to an actual hurricane, but the point is, this storm is right now chewing up the south eastern islands of the Bahamas and is on track to just follow the entire Bahamaian chain and pass over the tip of Florida.


This means Andros, and Fresh Creek in particular, is the bulls eye of this storm's projected track. So - the good Deacon needs to get ready. The storm is headed on a NW track and we sit on the east coast of Andros so we'll get it from the SE. The sky right now is dark dark grey in that direction and the wind is about 20-30 mph.


Our church as a small apartment for visiting priests on the south end of the church that will get the full force of this thing so I went into the garage and pulled out hurricane shutters and covered all the windows on that end of the church and the window in the sacristy that faces due east. Usually we don't need the shutters for a big wind/rain event, only for hurricanes, but these windows all face the sea and the years have taken their toll. We know that several of these windows leak and some of them, being the crank-out style, no longer close tightly. So I sorted through piles of tin shutters until I found the right ones, gathered up the metal clips that hold them in place, and my ball-pean hammer (actually my only hammer) and the shutters went up not only to protect the windows, but to help keep the rain out as well.


Rainstorms here are an amazing example of natures power. The wind is so strong here that the rain falls sideways, literally, sideways, parallel to the earth.


As I write this its about 4PM, we have already lost power once around 2:30, and I am sure we'll lose it again a few times before this passes on by and creates problems in the Gulf. All we can do is sit and wait - after all its not a hurricane, its not even a tropical storm, its a tropical depression, basically a big windy rainstorm (OK since the Weather Channel shows it as all red and orange its a really really big rainstorm).


So we will just sit tight and see what happens. Both here, and in the Gulf - but for now, its OUR storm and the Gulf will have to wait their turn. Bye for now.

Vacation Bible School - Bahamian Style!

Hello again - Well let me tell you what's been keeping us busy this week - Vacation Bible School.

For the past 25 years the AUTEC Navy Base has been hosting a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for all the grade 1-6 Bahamian children. This has been done in collaboration with an evangelican church from the US who has been planning the entire program, gathering up volunteers, equipment, supplies ... Then coming to Andros to lead the Bible Study. On the Bahamian side there is a complex network of volunteers to register kids, and coordinate transportation.

Historically, the volunteers have conducted fundraisers in their local churches to fund this mission trip which includes them chartering 2 planes to get here and AUTEC has provided housing and food for the team of volunteers once they are here. This year, however, with Navy budget cuts and economic stress, the policies have changed and this year the volunteers have to pay AUTEC for on-base housing and food, which may mean this is the last year for this program.

Later on tonight I will be talking with some of the other ministers, and possibly a government official, to see if we can continue the program using the Crabfest Fairgrounds. Clearly the team that comes from the US wants to keep coming, they just can't afford the added expense and there isn't anything the Navy can do with current Navy budget constraints. If we can pull this off using Bahamian resources we just might keep this program alive. Keep this one in your prayers because this program is a winner!

Last year Ginni and I were travelling off island and missed VBS, this year we made a point of being here and you cannot believe how valuable this program is for the local children. During the school year the kids are all in school doing what you do in the school year. In the summer there is NOTHING for them to do. There is no mall, no movie house, no bowling alley, no youth center, not a thing - until Vacation Bible School. So the kids come in droves, from everywhere. This year there were over 200!

Ginni and I get to the gate at the Base a little before 8AM where there are already a crowd of kids waiting to get signed in. Signing the kids in is a MAJOR project. This is, after all, a secure US Navy Base. Every day Security requires each child is signed in, gets a guest badge, and is chaperoned while on Base. So I drop Ginni off on one side of the gate, where she works with the Chapel Staff to sign in kids and pass them off to the Security Guards. The Guards sign in the kids and give them their Navy badges, then they are passed through the gate in blocks of 10-12 and given to me. They pile into our Church van and we drive off through the Base to the beach where the volunteers are waiting. They climb out of the van and the guitars and song time begin to kick off the day as I shuttle back to the gate to get another load.

After 4 or 5 van loads of those kids that have been dropped off early, the buses begin to arrive. Two school buses of kids from the far reaches of the island arrive and the check in process continues until they are all done and the bus loads of kids hit the beach where Ginni and I are now traffic cops directing the kids towards bleachers that had been set up under a pavilion the Navy has at the beach.

One thing that happens to me since I let the beard go longer is that the Bahamians want to know if I am really Santa Claus. So of course I say I am and explain that I always come to the Bahamas for the summer and tell them all about my riendeer and the elves working away at the North Pole. These two just couldn't get enough of it.

Camp songs from my youth are still in vogue, we used to get our kids out of bed with "Rise and Shine and Give God Your Glory Glory", and here it was again - complete with hand motions and weaving back and forth in your seats. A guitarist that was just fantastic with the kids, and a crew of 20-something volunteers that were the most energenic, positive, upbeat crew you can imagine. The kids ate it up. Older songs like "Amazing Grace" become new when sung to the tune of "The Gilligan's Island Theme Song". The song leader was an incredibly talented guy, he had the kids in the palm of his hand in no time - singing, clapping, and making all the hand motions to each song, including the Deacon!

After "song time" there was a skit the volunteers put on depicting a bible story such as Daniel in the Lion's Den, or the birth of Christ, or Noah. Hillarious stuff and very well done. Then the kids would go to small groups. On the first day each block of about 10 kids were given a colored sticker and they had picnic tables with the same colored flag. When in was time to break the volunteers would shout, "OK, purple team come with me". "Green team, over here", "Yellow team, follow me" and in minutes all 200 kids were off doing their individual projects with 2 team leaders. The organization was amazing.

Once they broke up into small groups it was time for us to head back to Fresh Creek and get back to work on our own programs. We haven't had a priest since Easter (does that give you a new perspective on the priest shortage) and we have lots to do. Last week Ginni led "A Ladies Renewal Night" for the women of all 3 churches. We had a great turn out and Ginni's reflection was as big a hit as my barbequed chicken fresh off the grill. We hope that this might become a monthly event and help bring our 3 churches closer together.

Well there is always more to tell, but I need to go meet one of the contractors about restoring the church in Calabash Bay we want to re-open, so until next time - Peace.

Independence Day - True Freedom

Well a few weeks have passed since my last post and we've celebrated the US Independence Day as well as the Bahamian Independence Day a week later.

Whenever we attend a Bahamian holiday, the difference between the US and the Bahamas always strikes me as amazing. The difference is that the Bahamas is an explicitly Christian nation. Unlike the US that tries to be tolerant of all cultures and religions, the Bahamas is Christian and has no fear about making that plain.

Here, on Independence Day, the stage at fairgrounds is full of priests and ministers, as well as government officials. Whoever speaks, be it the Town Administrator or the Baptist Minister, they all praise Jesus, and thank God that because of Jesus Christ we are free, and an independent nation because Jesus Christ died for us. True freedom only comes from Jesus, without Jesus we're not free - thank God we are a free independent nation!

To have this as part of the Minister's presentation is one thing. To have it also be from the Town Administrator, or the Member of Parliament is radically new for us Americans. In the Bahamas Christianity is in the Constitution and everyone here it totally comfortable with Christianity being proclaimed publicly.

This time of year is also the time for the daily downpour. We have blue sky sunshine all day long and then - BOOM - torential rain and thunder and lightning and power outages and rain coming at you sideways - then its done and the sun is out again. A few days ago we drove from Cargill Creek back to Fresh Creek and mid-way had about 3 minutes of a downpour. Then we realized it was a strip of rain that we basically, drove through. There was no rain north of that downpour, nor any south of it, but if you lived in that strip of rain you probably had your 3 hour rainstorm.

A few days ago it was a terrific storm, that actually ripped a strip of flashing off the roof of the church. A 10' strip of copper strapping was now held on by 1 nail as it rapped against the side of the church. I had loaned our ladder to a parishioner and it took 2 days to get it back and, when he returned it and saw the flashing he said, "Deac, You're not going up there are you?" I said that sure I was, it was only about 10 nails to put the flashing back in place, and he said, "Oh no, Deac, I don't want you up on the roof of the church. You call Leonard and if he can't do it, I will, you're not going up there" (Leonard is a parishioner who does roofing). I thought to myself, 'this is what Ginni would say', but held my tongue.

Anyway, I tried calling Leonard but his phone was out of commission so I drove to work sites where I expected to find him and still couldn't find him, but while trying to reach him I remembered another parishioner who is a carpenter that recently lost his job (this economy is a killer here) and drove by his house. "Sure Deac, I can fix that, want me to come over now?" So he came back, and in 10 minutes all was well. I gave him $20 and it was like I'd saved his life. With that $20 he'll get some rice and a few other things to get his family though the week.

I guess the last thing I should mention with this post is our work to restore the church in Calabash Bay. St. Gabriel's has been closed for quite some time, the windows and doors were all smashed in and termites had begun to take their pound of flesh. Ginni and I would really like to restore it and so, last year, I put money in the budget to restore it. Well the contractors who have looked at it have come in with bids well in excess of what I put aside. So now we are trying to figure out how we can change what we 'want' to what we 'need' and come up with other sources of support to get the job done.

It will be a struggle, but hopefully some of you reading this blog might be willing to help restore St. Gabriel's so our CCD classes might actually have tables and chairs instead of sitting on the floor and using the pews in church as desks. We need to replace 13 windows, 4 doors, install water and electricity, repaint the interior and exterior, plus add a septic system for the toilet. (The Anglican Church had a fair and I won $100 of plumbing supplies in the raffle, so with that, I bought a toilet!) Anyway, we are about $4,000 short so that's our next challenge.

Feeling generous? Let me know.
Love Ya - till next time.

Deacon Frank and Ginni

Ginni is back! The ministry goes on.

Hello all:
Well Ginni has returned after a few weeks of nursing back in the States. Hospice just keeps on going and they seem to be happy to welcome Ginni to do some per dium nursing when she can. This is good, because we need the extra income she generates; but its incredibly stressful for her and, even after just a few weeks, she returns a bit frazzled.

While she was away we had a string of violent crime here in the Bahamas. In one week we had 3 murders in 24 hours, with a total of 5 murders in that same week, one of whom was from Andros. Nassau violent crime is getting a ton of attention here, and it should. I already know of 10 families who have lost a family member to murder.

I heard about this particular murder while I was at the AUTEC Navy base for dinner before the Saturday evening service. The cashier told me a person from a local town was killed last night in Nassau and he was related to one of my 'members'. It turns out he is the step grandson of someone who comes to St. John's.

This news upset me a bit and my planned homily took a few twists and turns I hadn't planned as a result. When I got home I threw that homily away and a new one emerged. Bahamians know this problem is serious and universally, when asked how should we deal with it, the answer is "hang them!" My problem with that is two fold - first, hanging them is immoral; second, hanging them deals with the problem after it occurs, we need to deal with it BEFORE it occurs. The question is - how do we stop the murder in the first place?

There is clearly a need for stronger gun control laws in the Bahamas, but there is also a greater need for a personal relationship with Jesus. Bahamians are proud of the fact that this is a Christian nation - unlike the US it's in the constitution that this is specifically a Christian nation. Consequently there are churches everywhere and everyone claims to be Christian. My sense is that while church is important here, and people go to church, they may or may not have a relationship with Jesus. Church without Jesus is smoke in the wind. All the prayer books, candles, incense, icons, and crosses are nice, but without Jesus they're nothing.

What we need here is revival! Suffice it to say the updated homily made people sit up straight and take notice. Now what? Well this has become a focus of my prayer, and with the Holy Spirit, and Ginni, let's see where this goes.

On a different front, this week is the July 4 weekend in the US - happy Independence Day! In the Bahamas, the following weekend is Independence Day, July 12. We will have a huge party at the Crabfest Fairgrounds and all the clergy will be up on stage (including me, in my Roman collar). It will be a wonderful celebration, just like last year, and I am looking forward to it.

This weekend is also the closing liturgy for the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of Nassau as a diocese. Two of our parishioners here on Andros will be recognized with a special medal struck for the occasion for their years of service to the Church, and I am very proud of them. I hope to have pictures for the next post. While in Nassau for this event, Ginni and I plan on taking a few days to stay at one of the resorts on Nassau to celebrate our wedding anniversary back in June. It will be interesting to experience the Bahamas as most Americans do with all the glamor of Nassau.

Finally, some of you know that our source of diesel fuel is a man who has barrels of diesel in his back yard and who, at $5/gallon, will siphon fuel into our van with a garden hose. Well he told us he is going to Cuba for a few weeks and so I filled up several 10 gallon containers with diesel to get me through his absense. I made sure I have a functioning funnel - I haven't mastered the talent of sucking on a garden hose to get diesel to drain into my gas tank just yet.

Enough for now - till next time - Peace!