Just an update

Hello All - well once again I have left the blog for too long without a post and I feel guilty.  Suffice it to say we are just as busy as ever.  Since Easter we have finished our school year and our CCD classes, giving us a bit of a break.  We have had no priest with us since Easter, so we've been pretty much on our own.

Summer here is a much slower pace.  Its over 90 almost every day, some days (like today) we have torrential rain and monsoon-like conditions.  It is hurricane season after all.  So with hot, hot, hot weather, and hurricane season, its no wonder vacationing priests don't augment the number of priests we have to spread around.

With that said, there is good news and bad news on that front.  We have heard through the grape vine that one of the priests here will be returning to his home country.  No announcement from the Archdiocese but usually they don't publicize that type of info.  It will create an interesting dilemma for the Archbishop.  We pretty much are already at a 1 priest per parish staffing (for those parishes that have priests), losing one will not help.  On the flip side of that - the priest that was with us for Easter gave us a call.  He is from a Florida seminary and the professors have been discussing how they might go out from the Seminary to help with the priest shortage.  They were thinking Florida, but after spending time with us he suggested they consider a monthly trip to the Bahamas.  After all, its less than 100 miles off the coast, and clearly there is a need.  Well, he got permission and he called the Vicar, suggesting that once a month he come to Andros.  What a blessing!  The reality is, once a month he'll come to the Bahamas and the Archbishop will decide where he goes, but having mentioned us, we are hopeful that come September we might have a regular monthly visit.

A real-world example of this issue is our Confirmation class.  Every two years we have a class ready to be confirmed and this year is it.  Well we asked for a date in March, then again in April,  then again in May, and as May ended our students said, "Deacon, we go off island for the summer, when is Confirmation?"  I ended up writing the Archbishop, explaining that in June most of the kids would be leaving.  I suggested that maybe we should defer Confirmation until September, when they return for school and he readily agreed.  I think he was thankful for the suggestion.  September 13 is the feast of St. John Chrysostom, our patron, so maybe that will become Confirmation weekend.  Time will tell.

With CCD over Ginni took the opportunity to go help a good friend pack up her house and move.  She has been Ginni's friend since High School and, without an extended family to help, Ginni was a great help to pack everything up and help her move.  What that meant, however, is that for the last week of June and all of July I have been here alone.  We have a family wedding in VT in August so I will be joining her in the US for that and it will be good to reconnect with old friends - especially all those that have been supporting our ministry here, they have been God-sent.

Seriously, without the prayers and financial support of our friends in the US there is no way we could have done half of what we've accomplished here.  Thank you all very much.

Since my last post - in June we had CRABFEST - a country fair, island style.  Andros is home to land crabs the size of softballs and when the rainy season starts in May they come out and Bahamians catch them in burlap bags.  They end up in the pot and Crabfest features crab soup, crab and rice, crab and dough, baked stuffed crab, etc etc etc.  Boats and yachts from all over the Bahamas descend and the airport goes non-stop.  For parishioners, it is a chance to make some money and everyone works long hours both catching crab before the event, then event itself is 72 hours without rest.  (Church falls by the wayside when Crabfest is in full bloom).  I am always relieved when its over.  There have been years when its been a gala event, and years when a knife fight, or a mugging, or gunshots, or (you get the idea) have marred the event.  By all accounts, this year went pretty smooth.

In July Indepence Day took center stage - in the US it is July 4, here its July 10 and its been 41 years since the Bahamas became an independent nation.  What is funny about that is Ginni and I were married on June 10, 41 years ago as well.  We have 1 month on the nation of the Bahamas!

Each year the clergy are seated up on stage and we have an Ecumenical Evangelical Independence Day celebration with ministers and government officials proclaiming what a great day this is.  The Bahamas, unlike the USA, is explicitly Christian - its in the Constitution.  Consequently, government officials 'Praise Jesus' and give God glory for what He has done in giving us our freedom.  Coming from the US it really is quite different from anything you'd see in the US.

This year, as in past years, it always hits me that our freedom, our liberty, our independence is not something we get from our government - true freedom is only possible with Jesus.  Without freedom from sin we are slaves and only Jesus frees us, liberates us, from that slavery.  When I speak - that's the message.

As I write the monsoon seems to be getting worse.  Thunder and lightning are getting closer so I think I will log off and shut down for now.
Till next time -- keep us in your prayers.