AA on Andros!

Well surprise surprise - two blog entries in two days - this is a record!
With Ginni away I just had to tell someone about my morning and today you, my blog readers, are the lucky ones.

This morning is rainy and overcast but, true to form, our local homeless man limped his way up the driveway for his daily sandwich. I had given him a Maryknoll magazine we had for something to read and he sat on the porch watching the rain and eating when a car pulled up.

I went out to meet whoever it was to find it was Ernie - an employee at the AUTEC Navy Base. He had a bahamian man with him and a 3-ring binder. It turns out that Ernie is active in the Alcoholic Anonymous group at AUTEC and he'd been coming off-base to meet with this man who had just started his road to sobriety. They had been meeting in a park, then in a local bahamian home, but today the home wasn't available, and with the rain, neither was the park and he hoped he could meet on the porch.

I told them they were always welcome to come here to have the meeting, but with my other friend eating his sandwich I thought they needed more privacy than this area and invited them into the rectory to use the screen porch. They gladly accepted and spent a little over an hour there.

When they were done I made a point of telling them that if they EVER needed a place to host an AA meeting for the Bahamians we would be very open to being a place they could meet. Ernie jumped at the offer and said, "OK, how about Saturday's at 9:30". So it looks like we are now blessed to have the first and only AA meeting on Andros! I couldn't be happier.

Then, Ernie looks at our homeless friend and invites him to come too! Now this fellow has a definite issue with rum and drugs and when he asked what AA was I explained that it was a meeting for people who had problems with rum and a way to help stay sober. He actually said, "You know, I could use dat Deac" and Ernie laughs (turns out Ernie knows him only too well).

Drugs and alcohol are a major problem in the Bahamas and on an island like Andros there are literally no resources to address the issue. If the established AA group on the Navy Base really is willing to come off base and conduct a Saturday morning AA meeting at our church it would be a great beginning to something that could make a very real difference.

Keep this one in your prayers - till next time.

Another week without Ginni

Well its been two months and finally Ginni is due back next week Wednesday, less than a week. In that time she's missed a baptism, a funeral, a hurricane, my first encounter with a tarantula, lots of work planning CCD, and yesterday my newest Bahamian experience - a camelion frog.

Yep, a frog that actually changes colors to match his (or her) surroundings. Now frogs are very common here, but to see one huddled up on top of a white bench we have in an open patio - and to see the frog also be totally white, well that was amazing.

Ginni has our camera else I certainly would have taken pics of this guy (and the tarantula) to share with you all. During her US trip she was going to visit our newest grandson so she HAD to take the camera for that.

On the spiritual front, tonight we are going to try something new at our monthly First Friday Adoration services. Instead of my doing a short reflection we will sing the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This should be interesting since those that attend the Holy Hour are somewhat musically challenged. I trust that God will understand and accept what we offer.

While summer is a slow time for me here this month is crunch time to get ready for next years religious ed classes and RCIA. I have been cranking on the laptop to put together a curriculum for the High School and the Primary School kids we will have. We estimate that this year we will have almost 50 students. Before she left Ginni and I decided that since we have no 1st communion kids this year that we would use the parables to teach the Primary School kids about the life and teachings of Jesus. For the High School kids, however, it will be Confirmation year so our classes there will have to cover the doctrine they will need to learn. Suffice it to say its alot of material to pull together. Doing this without Ginni also has the risk of her coming back, looking at what I've done, and say, "Gee - did you forget about ---", and she'll be totally right and I'll have to re-work it. For now all I can do is keep plowing away and we'll see what happens.

A complication we always have is primary school. There is only 1 High School so we can grab all our kids off the bus as it passes the Parish Ctr and do them in one class. The Primary Schools are spread all over the island so we have kids in at least 4 different schools over a wide geographic area. Planning how to pull them together when some parents don't have cars, parents work, schedules don't cooperate, . . . With minimal to no parental catechists.

Once Ginni returns the planning and scheduling of our classes will be a big one.

Well, enough for now
Keep us in your prayers