Summer on Andros - with vaca

Hello again - and again its been too long.
Summer on Andros is a bit different than the rest of the year.  First, its hurricane season; Second its hot, really hot, my son calls it Africa hot; Third, because its so hot many of our local folks leave.  School is out and there really isn't anything for the kids to do.  Families leave for the US or Nassau or to visit families abroad.  Even some of our Haitian friends in North Andros go back to Haiti - its too hot for the crops to grow so there is no work, why stay?

With attendance down, so are donations, which makes it even more of a challenge.  The people who stay are the poor.  They cannot afford to leave and so they endure the heat with us.

A side effect of the heat is that the usual 'visiting clergy' from the US have no desire to take a vacation here during these months so we go for months without a priest.  This year we were blessed to have a priest from FL for Easter, but by the end of July we hadn't had a priest since.  

This year we had a family wedding so I went home the last week of July and first week of August.  Ginni had taken the whole month of July to help a friend pack up her house and move.  The result was I spent July here alone, then flew to Boston and met up with Ginni then.  While I was gone a priest flew in from Nassau to provide weekend coverage, not once, but TWICE.  In my six years here that is the first time we had a priest two weeks in a row.  Our next visit should be in September when the Archbishop is due to come for Confirmation.

Our trip to Boston was great, we met many old friends and family AND we went to northern VT for a wedding, which was a real vacation.  Usually a trip to the US is filled with meetings and lunches and fundraising and, while I love seeing old friends, fundraising is not vacation.  This trip I swore I'd take it easy and just be on vacation, but God is good and fundraising just sort of happened, without our planning it.

First, our parish in Norwood, MA has had a change.  Our pastor of many years was reassigned and for the first time was not at St. Timothy's.  Ginni and I went to a mid-week Mass and met the new priest.  I asked if he needed weekend help and he said if I wanted to be with Fr. G, that was fine with him.  Fr. G is a retired priest with some health issues so I called him and he was thrilled to have me serve with him and even asked if I would preach.  SUPER.  So Sunday comes and I serve at the 9:30 and the 11 with Fr. G.  He starts Mass by recognizing me and the whole church applauds - I was amazed, touched, and really felt welcome.

After each service I stood at the door, as usual, shaking hands and thanking people for coming.  Eventually some little old lady passed be a $20 (put this to work for me Deacon), then someone else did the same, and it happened over and over and over again.  By the end of Sunday I have over $300 in bills simply stuffed into my hand.  Then for the next few days we met with friends, who all wanted to go out to eat.  I think in the 2 week trip we ate at home 3 times.  During these meals, an envelope would appear, totally unrequested, simply because they love us.  It was really quite overwhelming.  At the end of the trip we had almost $2000.

Then, as part of this trip we had to check in with the Archdiocese of Boston.  As a Deacon, my status is "unassigned, with permission".  We do need to check in and do a sort of 'status' with them and we did.  The head of the Diaconate program spent about an hour with us and was very supportive and encouraging.  Then we met with the Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the Archdiocese of Boston.  This is the group that promotes and supports missionary work.  I had hoped to get him to put me on the schedule of missionaries allowed to do missionary appeals in Boston.  Well, he really surprised me - not only did he know about us and our work in the Bahamas - he had discovered and read this blog!  Then he had gone onto the website for the Archdiocese of Nassau and confirmed I was working there.

Well he could not have been more affirming, or more welcoming.  After we met he took me around the office and introduced me to his entire staff.  He asked that the Archbishop of Nassau write him, confirming I am a Deacon in good standing and would represent the Bahamas missions (which Archbishop Pinder readily agreed to do).  After introducing me to his staff he asked, is there anything you need?  Then opened a closet with vestments, candlesticks, bells, chalices - "let's see what we have here you might use".  How great is that!

We found a set of red vestments (which we don't have in the new church in North Andros), an altar boy alb, an extra priest alb (which our Deacon candidate here actually needs), a white and green set of priest vestments, a red deacon stole - and a magnificent chalice and paten.  Now let me tell you about this.  In North Andros we have a ceramic chalice (we should be using gold), and a gold chalice that is really too small.  This chalice is perfect, but get this, its engraved "To Richard Cardinal Cushing, in memory of - - - "
IT WAS CARDINAL CUSHING'S CHALICE.  What a hoot!  I really think I may keep this gem in Fresh Creek and send my Fresh Creek chalice up north.

So - all in all it was a great trip -- then it was on to VT for the wedding.  My son Joe is married to Lily's sister Liza.  Lily and Pat have been together for several years and now it was time to tie the knot - and boy they did it big time.

Lily and Pat decided to not do a traditional church wedding and reception in a hall - they wanted country and they got it.  Way up north, quite close to Canada, they found a perfect spot.

The wedding was outside on a lovely lawn behind a grand old inn.  Here is John walking down the aisle to give Lily away.

and here is the happily married couple after the blessed event heading down the hill towards the reception.

The reception was held in a huge tent for the event and when I say huge, think big

The food was great and then, of course was the first dance

We all had a great time and, for us, it really was great to see all our friends and family and reconnect with New England.  Driving to VT was like being a tourist again -- nothing like driving through mountains after living on the flat flat land of Andros for six years.

Anyway, enough for now.  Our next job is to crank up for the school year and prepare the curriculum for CCD - not to mention the financial reports for the end of the fiscal year that we need to do as Administrator for the island churches.  Suffice it to say vaca is over, back to work.

Till next time

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.

The figs are in!

Well here we are coming up on Ascension Thursday and this blog entry will be about figs.  No, not about the holy events of the Easter season, or our upcoming Confirmation (if the Archbishop will ever commit to a date) or about so many holy experiences with our CCD kids or serving the Haitian shanty town - nope - figs.

Here in the Bahamas we have fig trees.  They grow to be huge and every year I promise myself I will take some pics and do a whole blog entry about them - well after five years I am finally getting around to it.

The figs here are not what most people imagine when the word fig is mentioned.  Usually we think of a pear-shaped fruit about the size of a golf ball - here they are closer to berries, but just as sweet and great in your morning oatmeal.

We have two fig trees on the property in Fresh Creek, one alongside the driveway and another at the top of the hill nearer to the church.  When the figs get ripe they drop their berries and the birds go nuts for them.  All the ground feeding birds like doves just swamp the place, while gulls squawk and swoop down upon the tops of the trees picking off as many as they can get.

Here is a pic of the tree near the church.  It is so big that we can park the van under it to protect it from the heat of the sun.

Here are a few close ups of the branches showing the figs that are getting ripe.

They really are sweet and go great in my cereal or in some of the banana bread recipes Ginni has come up with.

In other news - we have had a run of everything breaking at the same time.  The van needs new shocks (no surprise with the roads here) and a new universal joint in the transmission - AND - the roof is leaking.  Yup, Ginni was driving the van during the May rains (Monsoon May we call it) and rain dripped on her head from the roof.  We checked it out and, yup, there is a rust spot the size of a nickle right over the drivers side on the roof.  So those are things we need to take care of .

Then we began to smell gas in the kitchen, then had one of our 2 propane tanks run dry after only a few days use.  Turns out it was just a loose fitting outside the house, but $100 of propane just leaked out over night.

Not to be outdone, my body also joined the revolt.  I've developed a rash on my right leg that is very itchy. Lord knows what I picked up where but we will have to see a dermatologist in Nassau.  We have poison ivy-like trees here called poison wood where the leaves, the bark, every part of the tree is a curse, but I haven't been in the woods lately so who knows.  We will see.  I have told you in earlier blogs that bush medicine is very popular here.  Maybe I should go see Miss Daisy and she might know what to do.

Till next time - peace.

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