One of the new things we are trying this year has a Maryknoll connection. Maryknoll is a missionary order of priests and Ginni and I have been getting Maryknoll Magazine for years. This year they introduced the Maryknoll classroom. What they offer is a program, at no charge, where they will send a copy of Maryknolll Magazine for every student in your CCD program AND a teachers guide with suggestions as to how to use the articles in a classroom setting. Well, with the keyword being FREE I had to check it out and so, in DEC we got our first box of 50 magazines.
The DEC issue had a story about a special Children's liturgy held in Kenya. Over 30,000 children attended from all over the nation and priests, deacons, and bishops joined in for a wonderful day-long celebration of the children of Kenya. At one point the children were given baloons imprinted with the message 'Pray for the children of Kenya', which they released during the liturgy. The article described songs and liturgical dance, an offetory procession that included not only bread and wine, but stalks of sugar cane, fruits and veggies from family gardens - even live chickens as children brought gifts from their home villages.
Using this to teach about the 'Church Universal' and expose our kids to the needs of other missionary countries is a new thing for our kids and it went over great. After the lesson, our primary school students cut out paper baloons with the same message the children in Kenya had used. Then we took pictures of the kids and emailed them to the bishop in Niarobi.
Here is a closeup of the ballons - hope you can see the message.
A few days later I recieved a response from Kenya and when CCD resumes I'll be sharing it with our kids. What a hoot.
Ginni and I have a friend who is a Dominican priest now serving in Kenya so for kicks I sent him an email with the same pics, explaining how we came to do this. He replied asking who that old guy with the white beard was sitting with all the kids? Everyone here in Cargill Creek knows - its SANTA!!
A few days later our friends at the AUTEC Navy Base hosted their annual 'Winter Wonderland'. Its always great to see Christmas lights decorating palm trees.
I especially like the Live Nativity that is part of the evening. I read the story of the shepherd and the angels from the Gospel of Luke and as each is introduced children dressed as shepherds and angels join Mary around the manger where a baby is lying. This year we had a 6 month year old baby with his Mom and Dad. Its not the best of pic of the live nativity, but you get the idea. This pic of the palm trees gives you a better idea of our Bahamian Christmas on AUTEC.
Finally, in my last post I said I wasn't sure if we'd have a priest for Christmas - well we will. A priest from Serbia is studying at Boston College and has offered his service to the Archdiocese of Nassau and we are the lucky recipients of his generous offer. What is so cool about this is that he is living at St. Columbkille's in Brighton, MA. That is the first parish Ginni and I lived in when we first got married! Small world.
I hope to post some Christmas pics in my next post - until then.
Deacon F.
