Every Christmas and New Years our two main Bahamian parishes alternate who gets midnight services. This year it was Fresh Creeks turn for midnight at Christmas and Cargill Creek would host New Years. The Bahamians feel it is important to be in Church at the start of these days, thus the tradition.
My problem has been that over the past few years the Christmas midnight service has drawn very poorly. Being in church at the start of the New Year still seems of import and the church is full but no so much for Christmas. So this year I bit the bullet and moved the Christmas Vigil service to 8PM. (I still had the AUTEC Christmas Service at 6:30). So with Christmas being on a Tuesday I had a four day schedule that looked a bit nuts. Saturday at 6PM for the weekend liturgy at AUTEC, followed by the 830AM and 11:30AM Sunday liturgies (gratefully, with the Mastic Pt school closed for the holiday there was no Mastic Pt liturgy this weekend) - the Monday it was 6:30 Christmas Vigil at AUTEC followed by the 8:30 Vigil in Fresh Creek, and the 1130 Christmas Day service in Cargill. Of course people who hadn't been in church didn't know about the Christmas schedule and sill showed up for the 8AM service in Fresh Creek, so I did that for them too.
I should mention that we have setup for all these holidays that is a challenge. Here is our altar in Fresh Creek, sans the Advent Wreath which had just been removed.
I thought I had a pic of our outdoor manger but I guess not. It is actually quite good. We have a plastic Joseph and a plastic mary with a light bulb in each one and they are set up inside a manger that consists of 3 pallets we get from the dock. These wooden pallets make up the walls of the 3 sided manger. We then nail two boards to the front at an angle making a peak and lay palm branches across the top for a roof.
Throughout all of Christmas and New Years I was dealing with what I think is a pinched nerve in my neck causing shooting pain down my back and shoulder. I self-medicated to get through it but fnally went to the clinic who gave me different meds and a referal to a hospital in Nassau. If you remember, when I had that Angina attack back a few years ago and I was in Doctor's hospital they did an MRI and commented that my neck had arthritis and bone spurs on a few vertibrae - well I just have been dealing with the nuisance that it is but this last flare up was a pain (he he he). Seriously, the drugs have it under control but I will probably have to have it looked at when I go to Nassau in January or February.
We were blessed by a visitor of this blog from Georgia actually coming to Andros to visit relatives for the holidays. He is very enthused about the ministry and Joe brought two cases of blankets and some children's books for the Haitian community in North Andros. In Dec and Jan the temps at night here dip into the low60's and sometimes 50's and since none of the houses here have heat (especially the Haitian plywood shanty town) the cold does a number on them.
My shoulder was giving me fits at the time, and the stick shift in the bus was not a good thing. But, after my trip to the clinic I was feeling better and gave Joe a call to see if he wanted to join me for a trip North to see the folks that would get his gift. He was thrilled to come and we actually had a great conversation about the ministry here, the new projects we have going.
I've mentioned that there is no diesel gas station on our end of the island so, making this trip up north we also had a stop at the station up north and put $100 of diesel in my 3 gas cans. Then I showed him the Mastic Point building site where, I am glad to say, our new sign has been erected for Our Lady of Hope. (When Ginni returns from her US trip I will get the camera back and take a pic of that for you all).
Anyway, we drove into the Haitian shanty town and delivered our blankets to much thanks from them. Most of the men still hadn't returned from working the fields yet but Keno, one of my good friends there did recieve them and promised to work with Jacque to get the blankets to those with most need. I want to share that we did arrive without warning and we caught Keno bathing at the time. Bathing is filling a 5 gal water bucket at the pump, then going behind the bushes, getting wet, soaping up, then rinsing off. When the van pulled up he did shout a welcome but someone else came out to speak with us. After a few minutes I caught a glimpse of Keno running from the bushes to his trailer with a towel wrapped round his waist so I then figured out what was going on. Anyway - delivery made we headed out and met Jacque on his way in from the fields on his bike. We explained where we left the cases and he said he'd take care of them with Keno.
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With the holidays past, my work now is to crank out the lesson plans for the next 5 months of CCD classes. We are doing one set of lessons for the Primary School, that will include the first communion component, then another set for the Secondary School students. Lots to plan and this 2 week Christmas break is when I have to keep my head down and put it all together. A great help for me has been a web site Sermons4Kids.com that has wonderful ideas for presenting lessons as part of a homily, but it also works to help make CCD classes relavent and a bit more fun.
While all this is in the works I do want to mention the three capital expense projects that are all going on at the same time. Here at St. John's in Fresh Creek our crank out style windows in the church no longer work and alot of the window panes have broken. So, in this years budget, one line item was $5000 to replace all the church windows - which was just finished. Part of that money came out of church savings, and part from the reimbursement we got from the Archdiocese for exceeding our Annual Appeal goal. So - again when Ginni returns with the camera I will post pics of our new church windows.
The second project is to restore one of the buildings in Behring Point - part of the first Catholic Church in the family islands. Another $5000, also partially paid for from saviings and the Appeal refund. THis will give us a building for CCD and parish meetings at that end of the island that we don't have now. CCD is still in the church with kids kneeling on the floor and using the benches as desks to do their papers. If all goes well we should be using that building in Feb. A hiccup that is now a pain on this project is a toilet - or lack of one to be more correct. We missed that in our original plan and our plumber wanted to add $2200 to the bill to add septic, a toilet and a sink - so we have no toilet. I have been investigating composting toilets and have found one for $800. It looks and acts like a toilet but what it does is separate the liquid waste from the solid, with the base of the toilet being the storage tanks. Solid waste, when you 'flush' is actually mixed with peat moss or coconut husks and the combination, gradually becomes compost. The liquid waste I can carry home once a month and flush, the solid compost will be added round our hybiscus plants. Still investigating whether it will work but right now I think it will.
Finally, our third project is building Our Lady of Hope Chapel in N. Andros. All the plans have been submitted to the inspector and I hope, once approved, to begin work next month. If all goes well it won't be long before we can leave the school and start having church in Church.
Before I sign off I have to share Ebonique's story. Niqua is a 3rd grader and last year she started coming to CCD. Her father is Catholic, her mother not, and they'd decided to raise the son Catholic and the daughter in the mother's church. Well the pastor of the mother's church retired and Niqua has been coming to church and really really really wants to recieve communion. So - even though we don't accept kids until grade 3 (because they can't read), Niqua just showed up as a 2nd grader. Now in 3rd, she is a First Communion candidate - except - there is this baptism thing. We explained to her that she can come to class but until Dad finds Catholic God-parents and Mom says OK and we baptize her - we can't do First Communion. Well, let me tell you, this is a girl on a mission. She got Mom and Dad to agree she can become Catholic, she came up to me in church in November and said, "Deacon, you promised I could be batized in October, why didn't you do it?" I explained that Dad still hadn't found God-parents and she said, "Come with me". So I follow her to the back room where Dad is working as one of our money counters after services. "Dad, Deacon says I can be baptized when you get God-parents - when are you going to do that?" She is actually standing there with her arms crossed as she says it and Dad, looking at me is clearly embarrased. Well, I gotta tell you, the following week he had God-parents lined up and on Saturday I am doing a Baptism prep class with parents and God-parents and Niqua, then Sunday - the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we will baptize her and, I fully expect her to recieve First Communion on Easter. What a kid!
Speaking of the sacraments - the priest shortage is a killer here. When we arrived 5 years ago we saw a visiting priest about every 4-6 weeks. It has grown to 4 months since our last priest was here, and prior to that it was 3 months, and the priest was the Archbishop who joined us for Confirmation. I am very concerned that my flock on Andros is really losing the import of the Eucharist. They recieve it weekly and understand what it is, don't get me wrong. But without seeing the consecration with any regularity they are losing the sense of our liturgy being any different than the protestant liturgies at the Baptist Anglican or Pentecostal churches. Not to mention the absolute loss of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
To fix this I wrote up a suggestion that a priest from Nassau visit us every 4 weeks and, while they are here, I will go cover for them in Nassau. The Archbishop thanked me, but said he wanted to think about it and he'd get back to me after the holidays. Not the reaction I wanted, especially since we continued to be without a pries throughout the holidays. I am not taking it personal, there were 3 islands without a priest for Christmas this year, Cat, San Salvador, and Andros. It just frustrates me to no end.
Well, this is really getting rather long (see what happens when I don't blog for a month). Please keep us in your prayers. Till next time.
