Thursday, October 10, 2013

Hello Again -
Well another month has passed since my last entry and as summer is winding down the work load is ramping up.  Usually we let the kids start school and give them a month before we add CCD to their work load.  This year, Discovery Day, a national holiday  (US Columbus Day) is on Oct 14 so rather than start CCD and a week into it have two of our three classes cancel due to the holiday, we are starting the following week.  Saturday morning the 19th will be all our Primary School kids for an all-morning session in a building we restored in Behring Point, the southern-most point on our island.  It is also on the property of the very first Catholic Church built on the family islands (family islands = Bahamian islands not Nassau).  Fr. Gabriel Roerig, OSB was the first priest here and he built the church:

with a 2-story rectory:


and a bakery.


The bakery is 9x32 and it is that building we restored. (The church needs a $10,000 roof and the 2nd floor of the rectory has fallen into the 1st floor, but the bakery was a restoration we could afford).
Anyway - I should have pics of the restored bakery next time - AND - children in the midst of CCD within it.

Next, of course is the progress on the new church in North Andros - the Mastic Point chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Hope is coming along - the focus of the work now is on the inside but there have been a few additions on the external work, such as the small porch being added at the entry way.


 Inside, the sheet rock is up and taped and sanded - here one of the workman is beginning to prime the woodwork around the windows


 and here we are with the walls primed and ready for a little color.  Eventually the rear and side walls will be white and the front wall behind the altar will be baby blue (or sky blue, or light blue, or ...)



With money being tight we are doing everything on a shoe string.  I found an old discarded processional cross and spent some time sanding and polishing before adding a corpus from another old broken crucifix to get what will be a very nice processional cross.  I was also able to take a small wooded tabernacle from Christ the King in Cargill Creek that had been taken out of service years ago and sanded and stained and restored that.  In our garage were a few old discarded chairs and tables - to say they were in rough shape was an understatement - but with more sandpaper, elbow grease, and an old can of walnut stain the table will now be our credence table and the chairs will be the presider and deacon's chairs.  Now the seats of these chairs were in horrible shape and my lovely seamstress wife took it upon herself to reupholster them.  Here she is in the 90 degree heat "basting" the new fabric onto the seat, prior to our stapling it down securely. (I thought basting is what you did to a turkey but I guess there is a basting stitch that pulls the fabric tight before stapling it down - who knew?  Ginni knew!)


The Archbishop has confirmed he will be with us on Nov 17 to dedicate the new building so it is definitely crunch time!

One of the details of building a new church is furnishing it.  We have restored 8 ten-foot pews, again with sandpaper and a dark walnut stain.  St. Thomas More in Nassau has sent us an altar they have taken out of service that is fabulous.  Holy Family in Nassau has recently expanded into a new church building and has donated us their old Stations of the Cross.  I already mentioned the processional cross and chairs -but- we still need an Ambo(think podium), holy water font, thurible (think incensor), holy water sprinkler, etc.   The details in doing this are amazing.

This leads us onto our next adventure.  One of the AUTEC Catholics tells us his brother lives in the St. Petersburg diocese in FL and he is very well connected and could probably find all these things in church basements over there.  If it was OK, he'd be willing to pay for the shipping of anything he could get donated.   Sounded good to me - so off he goes.  I get the email asking for a list, which I provide, and he goes off on his treasure hunt for us.  The next I hear, an email has been sent to all the parishes in the St. Pete diocese soliciting donations for our mission church.  Now that is quite the deal - but - the next day I get an email from  a Deacon, the Vice-Chancellor of the diocese saying he has researched Our Lady of Hope and there is no such church in the Bahamas - what is going on?  SIGH   So I crank out an email explaining the church doesn't exist yet, who I am, what we're doing, etc. and cross my fingers.  Next day there is a wonderful email thanking us for our service and wishing us much success in furnishing the church - Whew - what a relief.

A few weeks ago as I drove thru the Haitian shanty town to pick up people for church I was directed down new paths my van had never seen (or attempted) before.  When we were back on the main road one of my friends said, "Deac, there are many more that want to come once we have a church - you're going to need a bigger bus!"

Did I tell you about Barry?  Barry has been meeting with us from time to time this summer, considering joining the church.  He is from North Andros and his job -- he drives a bus.  Does this sound like God's plan or what!

Till next time - Peace