Easter Joy

Hello Again -  well I must say I am surprised that my last post was from Ash Wed and here we are a few days after Easter already.

Lent was a  time full of challenges and opportunities.  In our new church in Mastic Point, one of our members has begun bringing  all the children in her neighborhood to church, which can  be a challenge for one person to manage 7-8 little ones.  She does a pretty good job, but when she can't come she sends them with her 8th grader and the whole pack may show up on their bikes.  Without an adult that IS a challenge.

This week when I was speaking to her one of the kids came up to me and asked if he could be baptized.  He wants to become a member!  This is not the first time a child has come up and asked for baptism without their parent.  Well it turns out his mother is Catholic and, in fact, several parents of these kids are Catholic but haven't shown up yet. 

You must realize that for the church to have been absent from this end of the island for so long that many parents joined other churches and, after awhile they become members of those faith communities.  With their children coming to Catholic services, while the parents were baptized as Catholics, the question is will they now return.  It just may be that  the baptism of the children may be the catalyst to make this happen.  For example, several non-Catholic denominations "Christen" children  but don't baptize until they're teens.  So while these kids may be Christened, they have not been baptized - AND THE KIDS HAVE FIGURED  THIS OUT!

Hopefully our Lent with these kids will lead to the Easter joy of Baptism, and the return of their families to the Catholic Church.

This year we were blessed to have a priest join us for Easter. We were thrilled and prepared the people for all the various roles, from Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Day services.  Then on Tuesday we  hear that his mother has taken ill and may not be coming .  So we keep preparing as if he's coming (it was a 'may not come' not 'will not come') and were glad we did because he was able to come. 

Fr.Mike was a joy and it was very easy to work with him.  He arrived on Holy Thursday just a few hours before the first of what would be 7 liturgies in 3 days from one end of Andros to the other.  We didn't get pics of Holy Thursday and Good Friday but we did get some of the Vigil and the baptisms we celebrated, both during the Vigil and on Easter Day - so here goes.

The Vigil Started with blessing the fire - here I light my taper to get the fire going, and then -

Fr. Mike says the prayer of blessing as the flames begin to take off

Then came the blessing of the Easter Candle

I was able to process in with the candle and the fires spread to the individual candles of all the members (no  pics here, Ginni  was a bit busy trying to get back to her guitar)  I was able to sing the Exsultet and then our lectors did a great job reading all 8 readings of the Vigil with Fr. Mike doing a wonderful homily, followed by the baptism of little Lloydea. 

We started the Baptism Rite with Fr. Mike leading the church in the renewal of their baptismal promises and then I was able to baptize her.

After the Vigil was over we were able to take a few posed pics of Lloydea and her family.

Easter Day was a busy one - we started at AUTEC with an 8:30 service preceded by Confession (without a priest since February this was the first opportunity many people had for Confession).  After the AUTEC  Easter service we went to the Dining Hall for an early lunch since we would have no opportunity to eat until that night.  We then drove to Cargill Creek (30 mins south) for Easter Day service where, with great joy, we welcomed little Eric Jr. to the church with his baptism.

Just like during the Vigil, Fr. Mike led the renewal of baptismal promises and I was able to baptize Eric.  Here he is being anointed with Chrism.

And here again is  the posed pic after the service with his family

From here we drove 2 hours north for Easter at Our Lady of Hope in Mastic Point.  I was thrilled that so many of our Haitian friends were able to join us - our altar boy did double duty, not only as server for the Mass, but also playing a Junkanoo drum to compliment Ginni's guitar, and I helped Fr. Mike with some of the responses in Creole (no I don't speak Creole but I am getting better at the  responses at certain parts of the Mass).

Well, having finished our 3rd service of the day we were finally done - exhausted, but  done.  Rather than drive the 2 hours home and then cook dinner we decided  to stop at one of our favorite spots, a resort called 'Love At First Sight'.  We know the owner, who is also a great cook.  We ended up having the dining room to ourselves for a fantastic chicken dinner, and she surprised us with a dessert of rum-raison ice cream topped with toasted coconut - yum.

Here are a few pics of us on the deck as the sun was going down, just before we had dinner.

As you can tell it was a great day and we felt abundantly blessed - but it wasn't over yet.  On the way home Fr. Mike told us he was very impressed with the people here and in our ministry and that he would welcome the opportunity to come back and do it again next year - how great is that!!

Next week is the annual Archdiocese  of Nassau Clergy Retreat and I will get a chance to tell the Vicar of Fr. Mike's offer and, if all goes well, we should have next Easter's priest committed a year in advance -- amazing, unheard of, unthinkable -- but that is our God.  Amazing and ever faithful.

Keep us in your prayers, we certainly need it.
Till next time
Peace

Ash Wed Pics

Hello Again -

Well in my last post I promised to load up pics of Ash Wed once we received them and here we go -
We started with the youngest - and they all marched up without a hitch.

Gradually we progressed to the older grades and one by one, they received ashes and their blessing, 'repent and believe the Gospel'

Until we finally reached the sixth graders (the big kids), and they too received their ashes.

Special thanks to Mastic Point Primary school for passing these pics along to me.
We had 117 kids that day, from pre-K to grades 6 - and you should hear them sing!  Fantastic.
We pray this little service touches them and their parents.
I would love to have been a fly an the wall when these kids reached home with an ashen cross on all their foreheads.  :)

Till next time

Ashes to Ashes Dust to Dust

Lent - ugggh

Actually, while I know that is the sentiment of most people I like to say "Are you having a happy Lent?"

As we get ready for the 2nd Sunday of Lent I thought I would share a bit about our Ash Wednesday.  I have been waiting for some pics from that blessed event - but since they are still 'on der way Fahdah' I thought it best to enter the blog and maybe add the pics later.

Usually the high point of Ash Wed is the annual ecumenical service we have with the Anglicans.  One year they host it in their church and I preach - the next we host it in our church and their minister preaches.  This year it was our turn to host it and, for the first time, a woman Anglican priest would preach.

But that was at 6:30PM -- my day started 12 hours earlier.
We now have four churches and my challenge was to provide something for each of them, from one end of Andros to the other.  Not to make this any more of a challenge than it needed to be - this was also the day Ginni was returning from 2 weeks in the US and she would be coming in on the 4PM plane.

SO - up at 6:30, a quick bite for breakfast because there would be no lunch and then set it up with one of our parishioners that he'd meet her plane and I hit the road.  The first service was at  9 at the southern end of the island.  Just a handful (to be expected at 9AM on a weekday) for the first service, but when it was over one of the members asked if I could come to the Behring Point Primary School to give the children ashes.  My next service was at 12 so I had time, she called the Principal who gathered all the kids into one large meeting room while I loaded up my alb, stole, and ashes and headed on over there.

Well - they were all sitting on the floor waiting for me - all 61 of them!
I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and we launched into "This Little Light of Mine", before long they were clapping and weaving back and forth as they sang "Shine all over Andros - This little light of mine".  I told the story of Jonah and the Lionfish  -- "oh no fahadah" -- was it Jonah and the Grouper?  "oh no fahdah". Well what was it then - "it be da whale fahdah"  (I just love it).

Anyway - I explained that when the people of Ninevah repented they put ashes on their heads to show how sad they were because of their sin and TODAY we are going to put ashes on our heads!  Well, you should have seen the eyes of the kindergarten kids and 1st graders get big at that!  (I should explain that Kindergarten starts at age 4 here).

So we do the ashes (with an Administrator taking pics I don't have yet), then sing "God's not dead, He's still alive", said the Lord's Prayer and gave them a blessing and I was off and running to the next service.

Next was AUTEC, which went off without a hitch during the lunch hour.  I waited till 1:00 to get all who could get away but then I had to take off to get to Mastic Point.  After and hour and half on the worst roads you can imagine I made it.  Now up north several of our members work at Mastic Point Primary School so, rather than have a service at church I had asked if we could do a service with the kids and had gotten the OK.  What I did not know was that there were 117 kids!

So -- what worked at Behring Point Primary was put to work here.
Started off with "This little light of mine"
I tell the Jonah and and Lionfish story - Oh no Fahdah
Then it must have been a Grouper - Oh no Fahday
OH - it was a whale - Yes Fahdah
Ninevah repents - ashes - no WE are going to get ashes -- SHOCK and AWE
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"

You get the idea - 117 times

Then its off to the Haitian shanty town where, at 4, the workers are coming in from the fields.
So, standing by the side of the onion fields -
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"
"Repent and believe the Gospel"

Then, pack up and hit those wonderful roads for the 90 minute ride back to Fresh Creek for the ecumenical service with the Anglicans and "Father Marie".

I pull into St. John's and the church is open and our sacristan has the lights on and we are almost ready to go.  I set up the ashes to be blessed, go over the program I had printed a few days earlier, make sure the music people have copies, then go into the rectory to take a breather.

And there is Ginni!
She had been gone for 2 weeks but it felt longer.  We only had about 10 minutes to reconnect when people started arriving so I go get my vestments, greet people, the church fills up -- but no Fr. Marie.
Its time - but no Fr. Marie - its 5 minutes past the time to begin - no Fr. Marie.  An Anglican gets up and comes to me, "she called, she's on her way".  All I could do was smile and shrug.

She pulled into the driveway and came up to me with the same apology the prior Anglican priest used two years ago when he was also late.  Then she walked through church to put her purse next to the Presider's chair and then came back to where I and the altar servers were waiting and we began.

Well we had a full church and it went off without a hitch and everyone was gone by 8 and I could finally sit down and take off my shoes and hear about Ginni's trip to the US.

All in all it was quite a day - a joy actually - I found myself thanking God for the privilege I have in serving Him and His people.

When I get the pics of the kid's service I will post them
Till next time

Visitors from home

For me, home is here in the Bahamas, but when friends from Massachusetts come to visit "visitors from home" seem an appropriate title for this blog entry.

Having been here for five years now, Fresh Creek really does feel like home and I feel more like a visitor every time I return to MA.  However, when visitors from St. Timothy's in Norwood, MA travel all the way down here to visit (and help), it certainly deserves an entry in the blog.

Joe and Louise moved to MA from CA and we were at St. Tim's together for a few years prior to our beginning to work here on Andros.  Joe and Louise have been supportive of our ministry financially an spiritually.  I cannot stress enough how much your prayers are needed to support us here.

Every year, Joe and Louise travel for vacation.  Using a timeshare they own, they trade in time they own to visit vacation spots all over the country.  This year they traded for a week in the Bahamas and got to stay at a lovely resort in Nassau.  Then, they spent a second week in the Bahamas - with us!

To say the resort was a bit more glorious than our accommodations is an understatement.  I remember one of our visiting priests describing Andros as 'desolate' and, in some regard, he was right.  Andros can be a challenge but Joe and Louise settled in and attended 3 weekend liturgies, joined us for communion calls with the sick, sat in on CCD classes, took the 90 minute pot-hole challenge and drove up to see the new church in North Andros, and even helped reupholster the kneelers our altar servers use here in Fresh Creek.

Here they are outside of Christ the King church in Cargill Creek with a very handsome Deacon.

While in Cargill, Joe and Louise met many of our parishioners from that end of the island.  Here is Marian making a point of showing Joe the edition of the "Bahamas Catholic" that had published the pictures of the dedication of Our Lady of Hope in North Andros back in November.

Here Joe and Louise sit on one of our CCD classes.  This was our grade 7-9 group and you can see them at the back table taking it all in.

Once the lesson was over the students have to do some puzzles and a quiz or two.  You can see them working away and, not to be left out, I made sure that Joe and Louise did their puzzles too.  Look at them working so hard on their papers - just like the kids!

Once back in Fresh Creek we put them to work.  The kneelers used by our altar boys were in rough shape so they helped Ginni replace the cloth with a vinyl material.  Here Joe shows off the kneelers that he and Louise helped Ginni reupholster.  I think this pic does a good job of showing the before and after view and what a great upgrade it is!

After they did such a good job we did actually let them be tourists for a bit.  We took them on a two mile drive into the bush and showed the blue hole that I have shown you here in the blog a few times already.  Then we went over to the Fresh Creek Lighthouse.  The lighthouse sits on the point at the mouth of Fresh Creek where, to protect it from pirates, the British had installed some rather impressive cannons.  Here Joe and Louise pose between the two, right at the mouth of Fresh Creek.

Not wanting us to be left out, Joe and Louise had us take a pose as well.  You know, after five years here I think is the first time anyone has taken my picture at the canon like this.

Well, as you can tell it was a busy week and we were glad they got to see a bit of our ministry, as well as some of the beauty of the island.

Till next time - peace

All things work for the good, for those that love God

In my last post I spoke about crime and how it has touched one particular family here with the murder of a young mother.  Ginni and I were able to get together with the mother of the murdered girl and we had a great conversation.  While much healing is needed, our conversation seemed to be well received.  While baptized a Catholic, over the years this woman has migrated to another church and, to my surprise, the pastor of that church has not been that supportive.  I ask you all to please support us with prayer as we continue to support this family.  While grieving is needed to deal with the death, hope springs eternal that maybe this tragedy would result in this woman, and her extended family returning to the Catholic church.  God is good, even in the midst of evil like this.  Scripture says, all things work for the good for those that love God.  We believe it and trust that even this situation can be used by God to bear good fruit.  Please keep us in your prayers. - Peace

Crime on Andros

Well we have been back from our trip to the US for a few weeks and we are back in the swing of things.  One disturbing reality here in the Bahamas is crime.  As a resident US citizen, we occasionally get emails from the US Embassy, usually about safety precautions from pending hurricanes - however lately the safety precautions are more about crime.

Unemployment here is very high and young Bahamian men need income.  With no jobs, unfortunately many are turning to crime, drugs, and gangs.  Usually when we hear of these types of activities they are taking place in Nassau.  By far Nassau has more crime than the other family islands that make up the Bahamas, and the Bahamas has one of the highest crime rates in the Caribbean.

Our island of Andros has not been spared this plague.  With no work, once children leave the Secondary School they either go to the US or Nassau for work, or the College of the Bahamas in Nassau.  Those that remain have very few options for employment.  Consequently, there is a brain-drain of the best and brightest young people off Andros.  Those that remain usually end up in a blue-collar job or get caught up in gangs and crime.

Prior to our leaving for Christmas in the US we had heard of a horrific murder on Andros.  A man and his girlfriend were abducted and missing.  The presumption is that they had been killed.  The girl that was killed left a daughter, aged 5, that now her grandma must raise. While we were in the US two bodies were found, badly decomposed, and their remains sent to the US for DNA testing to see if they are the remains of the two missing persons.  The rumor mill went rampant but, just prior to our return, five men were arrested and are now imprisoned in Nassau.  Prison in the Bahamas is not pleasant.

While everyone waits the results of the DNA testing, and the police retain the bodies for further forensic testing, the family sits.  One member of this family is a man we had recommended for the Diaconate.  He is in his third year of formation and, while the family looks to him for leadership, he is hurting at the loss of his niece just as much as the rest of the family.  It is unfortunate all this went down while we were away but we have set up a meeting with the family later in the week for prayer and discussion.

As Deacon I have been with families when they suffer a loss.  As a hospice nurse, Ginni has done this many more times than I.  This, however is different.  Murder, violent murder, for money, for revenge, for what someone perceived as an insult - for whatever reason, is beyond the pale.  What comfort can we provide?

It is here that we rely on the grace of God.  All we can do is be a shoulder to cry on and offer whatever support the family needs throughout this ordeal.  The ordeal will be longer than a natural death as the police do the forensic work they must do on the bodies - and the families wait.  Wait for a time when they can put their beloved to rest.

The motive is yet unknown, but it will come out, and it will not justify the crime.  We will be with the family, we will comfort them, pray with them, talk with them, and through the grace of God eventually there will be peace.  Bringing peace into this situation, while members of the family will be seeking revenge, is a challenge. Revenge against members of the killer's family (or the accused's family) seemed justified to the family that has been hurt, but peace is the only thing that will heal.   Maybe that is why we say Jesus is the source of 'peace that passes understanding'.  Peace, forgiveness, or mercy, as a response to violence, seems incomprehensible to victims.  Yet this is what Jesus taught, 'Love your enemies, pray for those that persecute you'.

It is not clear if this is a message that the family is ready to hear, but it is the only message that will bring healing.  Keep us in your prayers as we prepare to deal with this as best we can - with God's help.
Peace

Christmas in TX

Hello Again
Well we got a Christmas surprise - a priest!
Yes the Archdiocese was able to send us a priest for most of Advent, through Christmas and New Year.  So, for the first time in five years, Ginni and I are spending Christmas with our family.  We usually get to see Mike and Joe more often, since they are in NY, relatively close to our home in MA, but our son Matt is in that alien country called Texas.  So we spent two weeks with Fr. Vince, and when he had the lay of the land down pat, we left for two weeks in TX.

Fr. Vince is a wonderful priest - the retired Vicar from Jacksonville, FL.  By the time we left he was driving the van, picking up people, and making himself at home.  This seems to have continued since we left - here is a pic he emailed me of one of his new friends in Cargill Creek.

Our son Matt lives in Kingwood, TX a Houston Suburb.  He has a great home here and his career seems to have taken off.  When we arrived he met us as the airport and we found out that his wife's two sisters would be joining us for a few days.  The guest list would be six visiting adults, and 5 visiting children, add in Matt's family and you have 8 adults, 6 kids and 2 dogs - where to put them all!!  We came up with a great solution, Ginni and I would sleep in the pop-up trailer - giving us some silence in the midst of the reunion.  What we didn't count on was the night-time temps dropping into the low 40's.  It was a challenge but we did it for the 2 nights we needed to.

One thing we learned was that the hubby of one of visiting families has never been baptized.  He has been going to various churches  near Dallas, so he's interested, but hasn't made a decision yet.  Well this missionary couldn't help but offer to take him outside into Matt's pool and do the job right now.  Clearly I wasn't about to do that without talking to him in detail but it was a funny moment.  I did follow up later and it looks like he's open to an email dialogue - which may lead to baptism (or not).  Time will tell but if we can be part of making that a reality, you know we will try.

As I write this it is Christmas Eve.  We took our grandson Jack to see a movie this afternoon but the big surprise for me is the culture shock of the Super Wal-Mart and the grocery stores.  The sheer volume of what is on the shelves and prices compared to Andros is shocking.  Absolutely unbelievable!

Last Sunday, we went to St. Martha's parish in Kingwood.  St. Martha's has grown since our last visit here and the new church is overwhelming - our new church in Mastic Point could fit in the lobby (actually, four of our new churches could fit in their lobby.  Here is a pic of St.Martha's:

One thing I know we needed to buy for Andros while we are here is communion hosts.  We left Fr. Vince with enough, but he should just about use up what we left him.  After Mass on Sunday I asked the Deacon at St. Martha's (one of eight Deacons they have - yes 8), where do you buy your hosts for St. Martha's.  It turns out that the Houston-Galveston Archdiocese is blessed to have an order of Carmelite nuns who make and sell hosts to the parishes of the Archdiocese, AND they are only one town away.

So, yesterday Matt and I took a drive to the Carmelite monastery in New Caney, TX..  This is a cloistered monastery, meaning the Sisters live with minimal contact to the outside world.  Sr. MaryAnne gave us directions over the phone and when we got there we were met by Sr. Anne, who was very helpful.  Here is a pic of their facility in New Caney, TX

Sr. Anne answered the intercom when we rang the bell and directed us to go down the hall on the right and into the first parlor on the left.  We found a cozy room with a table and chairs and the metal grate that would separate her from us.  She came in with an armful of hosts in different shapes and sizes and for just over $30 we had over 1,000 hosts and 100 of the larger priest hosts for Mass.  She was very helpful and when we left I asked if there might be one of the sisters who would be willing to adopt our mission and lift us up in her daily prayers.  To my surprise Sr. Anne said "Oh I would love to do that, and thank you for asking me to".  What a blessing this trip was.  Praying for missionaries is one of the charisms of this order of nuns - St. Therese the Little Flower spoke of it in STORY OF A SOUL.  I am very pleased that we have this type of spiritual support from these holy women of God.

Well, I have been typing for awhile so I should head back downstairs to be with the fam.
Ginni and I wish you all the very best that Christmas can bring
Till next time