Hello again my friends -
Well, since my last post Ginni has returned and so has Lent (totally unrelated I assure you). Our surprise this Lent was a call from the Archbishop telling us he was sending us a priest - arriving on Tues before Ash Wed. He will stay with us throughout the entire season of Lent and thru Easter. To say we were surprised is an understatement. We usually see a priest once every 6 weeks or so, now we'll have a resident priest every day for 7 weeks!
We got the news while we were in Nassau. Prior to going to Nassua we had two major events on our radar screen. First, Ash Wed is an annual ecumenical service with the Anglicans on Andros and this year it is our turn to host. Prior to going to Nassau I had put together the program and sent it off to the Anglican minister. With a priest arriving the day before Ash Wed I would have to scramble to change the program (of which 60 copies had already been made), in order to add a role for the new priest. Second, the Saturday after Ash Wed we were going to have a huge funeral, and those programs have already been printed by the funeral home. A funeral in the Bahamas is a BIG deal. The deceased was in his 40s and died a tragic unexpected death in a car accident so the turnout was going to be more than the church could hold. Since we did not plan on having a priest the program did not include Eucharist, but was a Service. Who does what and how would need to change.
So we return to Andros and I crank out a new Ash Wed program for the Anglican priest, myself, & the visiting priest that modified who said and did what during the service. The people followed along and the night was a huge success. What was unfortunate was that the visiting priest wanted to wear a Cope for an ecumenical service like this (a Cope is a cape-like liturgical vestment) and, surprise surprise, we don't have that type of vestment. It was upsetting for him and not the best way to start off our relationship especially when complicated by the added stress of the Anglican invasion filling the church at the same time.
Once we got thru Ash Wed we sat down with the program from the funeral home and marked it up so we agreed on my roles and his roles, both at the church and the cemetary. Despite the hysterics of a Bahamian funeral this actually worked out pretty well and the funeral went off without a hitch.
Our new friend is a retired priest from Florida and clearly has his way of doing things, and we are adapting. The biggest surprise for us was the weekend liturgy for the 1st Sunday of Lent. It turns out that he finds the new Roman Missal difficult to navigate so - - he has transcribed the common parts of the liturgy onto a notebook computer and, for those parts of the liturgy, he scrolls through the liturgy using his notebook computer on the altar, complete with a wireless mouse. Well, having a computer on the altar has set off a firestorm. Comments from both people on the Navy Base & Bahamians have been fast and furious, critical of a computer on the altar that blocks the view of the people, the inappropriatness of it, the scandal, the sacrilidge, et. al. (pray for me).
So on Monday, after having had an earful from people throughout the community, we asked if we could talk about a few things to plan the next 7 weeks of Lent and we tried to address the notebook. It was a difficult conversation, but he agreed to consider the objection. Clearly we need to reconcile this topic or, I am afraid, people may stop attending until he departs.
The Archdiocese has always been very supportive of us here on Andros and, knowing that, I gave a call to the Vicar. It was very helpful conversation for me and acted as a sort of relief valve for the stress I was feeling. He was very supportive and, in the end, suggested we do our best and monitor the situation and see how it plays out, but to keep him informed. We really do want to work well and be supportive of this man as we serve the people of Andros, but if this persists it will clearly be corrupting their Lenten season and will have a negative impact on our Easter celebration. We pray that doesn't happen.
While this plays out, it is not all negative. He has, in the past, hosted Teen Movie Nights and has brought several DVDs and the equipment to show them. We want to plan a weekly viewing, followed by discussion and refreshments. It sounds like he has had some success with this, and he has a plan, so we hope we can pull this off too - it really could be quite good.
So, all in all - despite a few bumps in the road we continue to work towards growing the Kingdom of God, and what kind of Lent would it be without a few bumps in the road. Praise God for the bumps of Lent!
Keep us in your prayers - we appreciate all your support.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
February Already!!!
Well I couldn't believe the last post I had here was Merry Christmas and Jolly Junkanoo. It is February already and so much has happened.
As I write this, Ginni is back home in the US being a nurse to earn the money we need to stay here. Let me explain - we do have a plan on the money issue. We have a 2 family home in Canton and a log home on a lake in NH ski country. Rental income from those properties allow us to be serving here in the Bahamas while keeping the mortgage, taxes, water bills, and insurance paid up. (If we could sell either of these properties we certainly would, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards in this economy). The problem is that not all tenants actually pay their rent - its created a financial burden we hadn't expected. The bad tenants have left and we had a few months between tenants so we are 'financially challenged'. Ginni should be able to get the hours to help fix this, but it means she'll miss about a month of Bahama time.
So Gin is gone and I am doing the 4 weekend liturgies, and the 4 CCD classes, and the RCIA classes and the cooking, cleaning, laundry, et. al. Getting time to blog is a problem!
As I wrote those words it struck me that for decades, the missionary priests that came here did all that I just described day after day after day. When I read about thier lives and what they accomplished I am amazed. Throw in the fact that for many of them, there were no roads, no air conditioning, not even electricity. Heros, every one of them.
I do have one anecdote those of you from Boston will get a kick out of. When we came here we brought all the baggage of the sexual abuse crisis in Boston. The Bahamas has been spared this scandal and so the sensitivity to 'protecting God's children', while present, is not as in-your-face as it was in Boston when I left. Bahamian parents tell me if their child acts up during CCD classes the 'beat dem deacon - if dey be bahd beat dem'. A major difference from Boston where hugging a child is frowned upon.
So anyway, Ginni is gone and I am driving the kids home after CCD. Three of these teenage girls live about a half hour away and as we drive one of them says, "Deacon, when we get out into the bush can you pull over so I can get out and pee?" I say, "Excuse me?" She says, "When we get out into the bush please pull over so I can get out and pee." I was blown away - all 3 girls thought nothing of this request - it was a perfectly innocent request from their viewpoint and expected me to just say "sure, go ahead".
Well, fortunately, our route goes past the Andros Town airport and we hadn't reached it yet so I suggested we stop there and they can actually use a toilet and they thought that was a great idea, so we did. But I gotta tell ya, if we had gone 10 minutes more we would have been driving in the bush and it would have been an interesting dilemma. Thank God I remembered the airport up ahead.
Other items of interest - the tail pipe on the van's muffler disconnected and I had tied it up with a wire coathanger until I found a parishioner who does welding. I took it to him and he welded it back on, no problem. When I offered to pay he was insulted. "Dis be da choich van Deacon, I do dis for da choich". A week later the other end of the muffler has the same problem. The pipe from the engine INTO to muffler disconnects. Once again its back to the coat hanger solution until I can find my parishioner. Turns out he is off the island seeing a dentist and won't be back for a week. (Island life dictates when you don't have something you make due until you get it). So my wire coathanger works for awhile but comes loose so I crawl under the van and wire up another one (to discover I had parked near some fire ants). Anyway this lasted until he returned and in 20 minutes this was fixed and, once again, he refused to even consider any payment. Good people.
This weekend we will have a visiting priest - the Archbishop. We are into our 4th year here and this is his 1st weekend visit to go to all the churches. It is unfortunate he is coming while Ginni is away but that's life. This past year the Archdiocese sent a surveyor to map out all the church-owned land on Andros. He will fly in Saturday morning and we will spend the day viewing all these sites so the Archbishop gets a sense of the property here. The surveyor found some land I wasn't aware of and determined some that I did know about were much larger than I had imagined. I am hoping some will be land the Archbishop may be willing to sell to help us with the costs associated with building a chapel in North Andros where there hasn't been a Catholic Church in over 40 years.
On that front - it occured to me that the Knights of Columbus might be a resource to help us with the new chapel. Coincidentally, the Grand Knight has an annual dinner to honor the clergy throughout the Bahamas and I was invited. Unfortuanely I could not attend but I sent him an email, thanking him, then telling him about the opportunity in No. Andros and asking if the Knights could help. Well I got a very nice email back, it turns out he grew up on Andros and would love to present the need to his brother Knights at their next meeting. Who knows - this could be a huge help in making this a reality. Right now the local Bahamians up North, and a few US donors, have reached the $6,000 mark. I have one builder who quoted me $50,000 and another for $30,000. All we really need is four walls and a roof (and a bathroom). I am hoping I can get the costs down but buying materials and getting them here is a significant addition to the price.
As I write this, Ginni is back home in the US being a nurse to earn the money we need to stay here. Let me explain - we do have a plan on the money issue. We have a 2 family home in Canton and a log home on a lake in NH ski country. Rental income from those properties allow us to be serving here in the Bahamas while keeping the mortgage, taxes, water bills, and insurance paid up. (If we could sell either of these properties we certainly would, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards in this economy). The problem is that not all tenants actually pay their rent - its created a financial burden we hadn't expected. The bad tenants have left and we had a few months between tenants so we are 'financially challenged'. Ginni should be able to get the hours to help fix this, but it means she'll miss about a month of Bahama time.
So Gin is gone and I am doing the 4 weekend liturgies, and the 4 CCD classes, and the RCIA classes and the cooking, cleaning, laundry, et. al. Getting time to blog is a problem!
As I wrote those words it struck me that for decades, the missionary priests that came here did all that I just described day after day after day. When I read about thier lives and what they accomplished I am amazed. Throw in the fact that for many of them, there were no roads, no air conditioning, not even electricity. Heros, every one of them.
I do have one anecdote those of you from Boston will get a kick out of. When we came here we brought all the baggage of the sexual abuse crisis in Boston. The Bahamas has been spared this scandal and so the sensitivity to 'protecting God's children', while present, is not as in-your-face as it was in Boston when I left. Bahamian parents tell me if their child acts up during CCD classes the 'beat dem deacon - if dey be bahd beat dem'. A major difference from Boston where hugging a child is frowned upon.
So anyway, Ginni is gone and I am driving the kids home after CCD. Three of these teenage girls live about a half hour away and as we drive one of them says, "Deacon, when we get out into the bush can you pull over so I can get out and pee?" I say, "Excuse me?" She says, "When we get out into the bush please pull over so I can get out and pee." I was blown away - all 3 girls thought nothing of this request - it was a perfectly innocent request from their viewpoint and expected me to just say "sure, go ahead".
Well, fortunately, our route goes past the Andros Town airport and we hadn't reached it yet so I suggested we stop there and they can actually use a toilet and they thought that was a great idea, so we did. But I gotta tell ya, if we had gone 10 minutes more we would have been driving in the bush and it would have been an interesting dilemma. Thank God I remembered the airport up ahead.
Other items of interest - the tail pipe on the van's muffler disconnected and I had tied it up with a wire coathanger until I found a parishioner who does welding. I took it to him and he welded it back on, no problem. When I offered to pay he was insulted. "Dis be da choich van Deacon, I do dis for da choich". A week later the other end of the muffler has the same problem. The pipe from the engine INTO to muffler disconnects. Once again its back to the coat hanger solution until I can find my parishioner. Turns out he is off the island seeing a dentist and won't be back for a week. (Island life dictates when you don't have something you make due until you get it). So my wire coathanger works for awhile but comes loose so I crawl under the van and wire up another one (to discover I had parked near some fire ants). Anyway this lasted until he returned and in 20 minutes this was fixed and, once again, he refused to even consider any payment. Good people.
This weekend we will have a visiting priest - the Archbishop. We are into our 4th year here and this is his 1st weekend visit to go to all the churches. It is unfortunate he is coming while Ginni is away but that's life. This past year the Archdiocese sent a surveyor to map out all the church-owned land on Andros. He will fly in Saturday morning and we will spend the day viewing all these sites so the Archbishop gets a sense of the property here. The surveyor found some land I wasn't aware of and determined some that I did know about were much larger than I had imagined. I am hoping some will be land the Archbishop may be willing to sell to help us with the costs associated with building a chapel in North Andros where there hasn't been a Catholic Church in over 40 years.
On that front - it occured to me that the Knights of Columbus might be a resource to help us with the new chapel. Coincidentally, the Grand Knight has an annual dinner to honor the clergy throughout the Bahamas and I was invited. Unfortuanely I could not attend but I sent him an email, thanking him, then telling him about the opportunity in No. Andros and asking if the Knights could help. Well I got a very nice email back, it turns out he grew up on Andros and would love to present the need to his brother Knights at their next meeting. Who knows - this could be a huge help in making this a reality. Right now the local Bahamians up North, and a few US donors, have reached the $6,000 mark. I have one builder who quoted me $50,000 and another for $30,000. All we really need is four walls and a roof (and a bathroom). I am hoping I can get the costs down but buying materials and getting them here is a significant addition to the price.
Shifting gears once more. You may be aware that the Catholic Church has changed some of the responses at Mass to be truer to the original Latin. For example, for years the response to "The Lord be with you" has been, "and also with you". Well now its "and with your spirit". Some people have picked up the new wording throughout the Mass, for others its been harder. I saw this poster the other day and fell in love with it.
One other area this has affected is music. At St. John Chrysostom in Fresh Creek the only instrument we have is a drum, and Ginni's guitar. All the new music that has been adapted to the new words are written for organ or piano. So my lovely wife took it upon herself to create an arrangement for the Gloria on guitar that uses the new words (as I said earlier, in island life you either do without or make do - so Ginni took the bull by the horns and made do). It is a wonderful version of the Gloria and we are now singing it at all of the Bahamian parishes. AUTEC is using a version from the St. Benedict Mass in the missalette. If I can ever figure out how to post audio here I'll try to record a version of us singing it. Suffice it to say this was a huge undertaking for Ginni and she did a great job.
Well I really need to sign off - this is the 1st Friday of the month and we have a Holy Hour of Adoration at the AUTEC Chapel I need to prep for. Please keep us in your prayers
- Deacon Frank
Friday, December 30, 2011
Jolly Junkanoo
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a Jolly Junkanoo to you all!
Junkanoo is a uniquely Bahamian celebration with bands and dancers and floats and the parade goes for hours! Literally, it starts at midnight on New Years and goes well into the morning hours. To say the costumes and bands are dressed to the max is an understatement - incredible stuff.
Just as an example - here's a pic of just one Junkanoo dancer - imagine a couple hundred - and that would just be one of many, many bands marching in the parade.
Christmas here was wonderful. We had our usual full complement of Sunday liturgies and with Christmas being on a Sunday this year it actually made things simpler. Here is a pic of our altar at St. John Chrysostom, fully decorated for Christmas!
New Years will be a lot busier than Christmas. We will have our 6PM service at the AUTEC Base, then a midnight Mass at St. John Chrysostom in Fresh Creek, then we'll have our regular Sunday liturgies beginning with the 830AM for those at St. John who couldn't make midnight, then the 1115 in Cargill and the 4PM up north in Mastic Point. Its the Midnight Mass followed by the 830 that'll be the killer.
Midnight on New Years here is called Watch Night Service. Its a British thing where the people want to be in Church to pray in the New Year. It will start at 11 with carols and the liturgy starting at 1130 and running through midnight.
All in all we continue to grow the Kingdom of God here on Andros and we pray 2012 will be even more fruitful than 2011. May God bless you all as well
Till next time
Friday, December 23, 2011
An Andros to Kenya connection
Well its Christmas eve eve and we've wrapped up CCD and are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus here on Andros. Our last week of CCD was actually a unique one so I thought I would share that with you.
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 pic of our class in Cargill Creek with their ballons.
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Home again
Well we are back on Andros! WE - get it? Ginni is here too!
Gin left for most of November so being back home TOGETHER is a treat.
Thanksgiving was wonderful and it was fantastic to see all my old friends at St. Timothy's once more. Being up on the altar at the 9:30 and 11:00 Masses once again was very special.
The trip started with Thanksgiving in the Hamptons where my sons Joe and Mike live. Our oldest, Matthew, flew in from Houston with his wife and son as well so it was the first time all three of them have been together for awhile.
This Thanksgiving was extra special in that we me Mike's 'special girl', Catherine, and her family invited our family to join them for Thanksgiving dinner. Once we all sat down there were 28 of us. We brought the turkey and some veggies, and they provided even more veggies and desserts and let's just say nobody left hungry and we all carried home leftovers!
I must say that, coming from the mission field in the Bahamas, spending a week in the Hamptons was a bit of a culture shock. Everything there was elegant - absolutely over the top. Even the trip I took with Mike to the hardware store made me shake my head. Absolutely everything you would ever need is right there - no waiting for the boat to bring it in at all! While Mike picked up what he needed I was able to get a masonary bit for my drill back on Andros. Now I can fix that hurricane shutter that was ripped loose by hurricane Irene. (Getting a masonary bit like this usually means a trip to Nassau).
The day after Thanksgiving Catherine's parents invited Ginni and I for dinner and it was great to finally have time for just the four of us sit and talk. We had a wonderful time and look forward to getting to know them better over time - if only via the internet and email.
After a week in NY we headed back to Canton, MA and every minute of out time was booked. We had lunch and dinner with friends almost every day and took an overnight trip to NH to meet with new tenants for the cabin up there. There was also the do-to list of things needing to be fixed that got done.
Coming back to Andros was not uneventful. We got in on Friday and we were scheduled to do an evening Benediction at the Navy base - only to find that the van's battery was dead. So I pushed it down the hill to try to start it by popping the clutch, but to no avail. So one of the people on the base came and picked us up, we did the Holy Hour, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and Benediction then he took us home, promising to come back the next day to jump the battery, which he did.
That next day we learned our toilet was broken - and I didn't have the right tools - so off to my hardware store to learn they didn't have any wrenches right now, but they could be on the boat on Wednesday So - Saturday evening we start our weekend liturgies and by Sunday morning the tail pipe on the van disconnects from the muffler (don't ya love it). We still did all four weekend liturgies but the van was a bit louder than normal.
Suffice it to say, I am writing on Wed, the boat from Nassau is on the horizon - one of our parishioners welded the tail pipe back onto the muffler, and we're almost back to normal.
This is exam week for our students here, after which they have a 3 week Christmas break. We have had two CCD lessons already this week and two to go, then it'll slow down a bit. Christmas is huge here with Junkanoo being a major celebration. Marching Bands dress up to the hilt and the competition is fierce. Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Carnival in Rio has nothing on Junkanoo in the Bahamas. I will definitely try to post pics -- its a two day parade if you can believe it.
Next week we go to Nassau for our monthly clergy meeting and it couldn't be better timed. I am so low on consecrated hosts that I will be bringing a ciborium and tapping the Tabernacle at the Cathedral once again. I hope I can stretch what I have to get through this weekend. I know that I cannot count on having a priest for Christmas so I need to replenish on my own.
Well, enough for now, I gotta go meet the boat and see if the wrenches made the trip.
Till next time - please keep us in your prayers.
Deacon Frank
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Going Home for Turkey
Well on Monday I will be flying home for Thanksgiving but its been run run run to get there.
One thing we discovered a few months ago was that the Maryknoll Fathers have created the Maryknoll classroom for CCD programs. After checking it out and talking with them we decided to give it a shot here in the Bahamas.
Maryknoll publishes a bi-monthly magazine telling stories of their missionary priests, sisters and lay missionaries all over the world. They will send you a copy of the magazine for every child in your program and age-appropriate teachers guides explaining how to use the articles in the magazine for your class.
The first box of materials arrived this week for the months of November and December so I rolled it out to all our classes this week. Oddly it was the younger Primary school children that took to it, while the older Confirmation class found it difficult to grasp.
In either case it exposes the children to the "Church Universal" and the realization that the church on Andros is the same church in Bolivia! It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day here as we try something else that's never been done. Every year the High School has a "Career Day" where they invite the major employers and the College of the Bahamas to come to the school and the students get a chance to see the opportunities (and challenges) that await them. It struck me that we should host a Vocation Table at this event and when I proposed it the High School jumped at it - and so did the Vocation Director for the Archdiocese AND the Nassau monastery of Benedictine Sisters.
So - tomorrow I will meet the morning plane from Nassau and we will be off to the High School for what should be an interesting day. Keep it in your prayers - this is our opportunity to plant a few seeds and see what happens.
I started this post by saying I was going home for Thanksgiving. Monday morning I will start that journey - which means I have taught my last CCD lesson and my last RCIA class for 2 weeks! With that said this weekend will be crazy busy. I already said it starts with an all day Friday Career Day - then its the 4 liturgy weekend, but this weekend is special for a few reasons
First, its the Feast of Christ the King so our parish in Cargill Creek will be celebrating their patron with cake and soft drinks.
Second, it is also the day we perform the Rite of Acceptance for our RCIA candidates, indicating their willingness to proceed, and our parishes willingness to accept them as candidates for full communion with the Catholic Church so two of the four liturgies will have this special twist. Third - since I won't be there for the next week I need to set up each church for the First Sunday of Advent, meaning prep for the visiting priest (even though it could be a Deacon), and set up the Advent Wreath (et. al.) in all the churches, etc. The local sacristans will change the altar cloths to Advent purple but I'll need to remind them for sure. Suffice it to say it will be a busy day.
Just to spice things up, I also have a contractor doing a major upgrade to the church windows while I am gone. The south side windows are so eaten away by the salt air they no longer open and some panes of glass have fallen out. We're replacing them with double hung windows with less moving parts, which will be an improvement. Funding for this effort is courtesy of our parishioners who were so generous in support of the annual Archdiocesan appeal. By exceeding our goal to the extent they did we had over a thousand dollars returned to us from the Archdiocese and that refund will pay for the new windows - Alleluia!
All in all we are incredibly busy and the Thanksgiving break will be a nice breather before the Christmas rush.
Please keep us in your prayers
Deacon Frank
One thing we discovered a few months ago was that the Maryknoll Fathers have created the Maryknoll classroom for CCD programs. After checking it out and talking with them we decided to give it a shot here in the Bahamas.
Maryknoll publishes a bi-monthly magazine telling stories of their missionary priests, sisters and lay missionaries all over the world. They will send you a copy of the magazine for every child in your program and age-appropriate teachers guides explaining how to use the articles in the magazine for your class.
The first box of materials arrived this week for the months of November and December so I rolled it out to all our classes this week. Oddly it was the younger Primary school children that took to it, while the older Confirmation class found it difficult to grasp.
In either case it exposes the children to the "Church Universal" and the realization that the church on Andros is the same church in Bolivia! It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day here as we try something else that's never been done. Every year the High School has a "Career Day" where they invite the major employers and the College of the Bahamas to come to the school and the students get a chance to see the opportunities (and challenges) that await them. It struck me that we should host a Vocation Table at this event and when I proposed it the High School jumped at it - and so did the Vocation Director for the Archdiocese AND the Nassau monastery of Benedictine Sisters.
So - tomorrow I will meet the morning plane from Nassau and we will be off to the High School for what should be an interesting day. Keep it in your prayers - this is our opportunity to plant a few seeds and see what happens.
I started this post by saying I was going home for Thanksgiving. Monday morning I will start that journey - which means I have taught my last CCD lesson and my last RCIA class for 2 weeks! With that said this weekend will be crazy busy. I already said it starts with an all day Friday Career Day - then its the 4 liturgy weekend, but this weekend is special for a few reasons
First, its the Feast of Christ the King so our parish in Cargill Creek will be celebrating their patron with cake and soft drinks.
Second, it is also the day we perform the Rite of Acceptance for our RCIA candidates, indicating their willingness to proceed, and our parishes willingness to accept them as candidates for full communion with the Catholic Church so two of the four liturgies will have this special twist. Third - since I won't be there for the next week I need to set up each church for the First Sunday of Advent, meaning prep for the visiting priest (even though it could be a Deacon), and set up the Advent Wreath (et. al.) in all the churches, etc. The local sacristans will change the altar cloths to Advent purple but I'll need to remind them for sure. Suffice it to say it will be a busy day.
Just to spice things up, I also have a contractor doing a major upgrade to the church windows while I am gone. The south side windows are so eaten away by the salt air they no longer open and some panes of glass have fallen out. We're replacing them with double hung windows with less moving parts, which will be an improvement. Funding for this effort is courtesy of our parishioners who were so generous in support of the annual Archdiocesan appeal. By exceeding our goal to the extent they did we had over a thousand dollars returned to us from the Archdiocese and that refund will pay for the new windows - Alleluia!
All in all we are incredibly busy and the Thanksgiving break will be a nice breather before the Christmas rush.
Please keep us in your prayers
Deacon Frank
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Its been almost a month
Hello again-
Sorry for the delay in blogging but life gets in the way. Actually, right now Ginni is back in the US getting in some nursing time. We are still without a tenant to rent our NH property and so, to continue getting what we need to pay mortgages, insurance, taxes, et al on the property we cannot sell in this economy, Gin needs to put in a month or so from time to time, and its time.
With that said, that leaves me to do CCD alone - not my favorite. Gin and I have done quite alot in the church but teaching children had never been one of them so we're learning what works and what doesn't on the fly.
One thing that we tried this year was to invite the Director of Youth Ministries from the Archdiocese to join us for a Day of Renewal with our Confirmation class. What made this a challenge is we involved all the kids from all 4 faith communities to come together so we had kids from Fresh Creek, Cargill Creek, the AUTEC Navy Base, and one from our newest community in Mastic Point from the northern part of the island. Let me tell you, some people just have the gift for dealing with kids and Jay has it. It was an all-day Saturday session and he brought his laptop and a projector and we had games and videos and talks and work projects - all in all it was a great day and we hope to do it again sometime after the holidays. Here is a pic of me helping some of the kids with a project. Jay is standing at the table behind me
working with another group of kids.
Since my last post we seem to have the diesel situation under control. The local station is still unreliable, and my friend who sells it out of his backyard has taken a step away from that so, when we can get it, I fill the van, another 5 gal gas can, and two other drums so I have a backup. Right now both my friend and the gas station are out so I have used the gas can and put one of the drums into the van this morning. The gas station hopes to get diesel on the WED boat. If he does, on THUR I will fill up my drums and the van and I should be in good shape. If he doesn't, then on FRI I'll drive north for an hour where there are multiple stations for me to re-stock. It is a pain, but its island life. If you can get it, great, if not do without. Unfortunately diesel is something I can't so without so when I can get it I hoard it a bit.
Something you may find interesting is my recent run in with more local residents of Andros that I didn't realize lived here. I think I told you earlier of my run in with a tarantula. Well that has to be superceded by the recent scorpion encounter. What made this interesting was that it took place in our living room, not in the great outdoors. This invader simply ran out from under the TV Table and headed right at me in a perfectly straight line. Gin had been reading a book on the sofa and if I hadn't seen it my guess is it would have taken up residence under that sofa - but I did see it. I yelled, 'scorpion'! and jumped up, grabbed a sandal, and smacked it. Gin looked up and said 'what?' and I said it again, then swatted it again. Incredibly - inside the house! Here is a pic next to a quarter so you get some perspective on size.
On the mission front, in addition to the 40+ kids in CCD I have 4 people in RCIA. Two have just started and 2 who started last year but, for a variety of reasons, had to take time off. If all goes well all 4 will recieve sacraments on Easter. We have been blessed to have been able to bring new people into the church as converts to Catholicism every year we have been here.
Lastly, our efforts to build a new church up north is progressing. The Architect thinks that the old church might be able to be restored so we hired a builder and he put a team of Haitians together with machetes to go clear the land around the old building. Once cleared he is less confident than the architect that the walls are stable enough. It turns out that 50 years ago they built with whatever they could get their hands on - conche shells, lime, sand, etc. While plentiful they were not that stable. So, they build walls 2' thick that could support the roof and be stable. Today, there are building codes and, after clearing the land, the 2' walls have deteriorated to the point we'd have to add something on the top and what remains at the bottom would crumble once we started. So while I would love to restore the old building, restoration in this case would cost more than new walls. I hope to have some costs soon so when I return home for Thanksgiving I might be able to solicit funds from friends and relatives. Keep this one in your prayers, we have had no Catholic Church there for over 40 years and the Catholics have been going to Anglican, Methodist and Pentacostal church since there is no Catholic church. We have a community of about a dozen who come to the Primary School for church on Sunday afternoons but I think once we put a sign up and start building that number could triple.
Pray for this effort, it has the potential of bearing much fruit.
Till next time.
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