A quick update from Nassau

Well much has happened since my last post about the Navy Ball - where to begin.
Well for starters let me tell you that I am writing this entry from Nassau. Ginni is back in the US dealing with our property in NH (our tenant has left) and getting in some nursing time (more money to help cover the expenses we still have owning property in the US is always welcome). If you know of anyone who might enjoy a NH log home, on a lake, in ski country, we are putting it back on the market to see if it might sell. We wanted to do this 2 years ago when we started our ministry here in the Bahamas but the market was so horrible we decided to rent. If it sells now, great! If not, its back to the renter option for us. Time will tell.

Work on the Church we are converting to our new Parish Center is progressing nicely. The sink and counters in the rear room has yet to be done but the interior body of the building has progressed enough that we started having CCD classes there last week. When I return to Andros I will try to post some before and after pics for you all to see. So many of you back in Mass. contributed so generously to this effort I really want you to see what you have helped build.

Friends from Stoughton visited us last weekend. John and Jane are from St. James parish in Stoughton but I first met them when I was working at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham. Jane was a close friend of a prior Director of the Retreat Center who recommended her as a possible Retreat Leader. Jane led our annual 'Lenten Retreat for Women', for several years. It was an absolute treat to have them visit and they really wanted to help us out while they were here so we put them to work.

Jane helped Ginni pull together some exercises for the children to do in CCD, folded our new 'Children's Bulletin' that we distribute every week for the kids, and worked with John to help resurface our 're-cycled' white board we now have at the Parish Center. I should explain. Then AUTEC Navy Base on Andros had a rather unique piece of furniture they were not using. It was in the Chapel conference room. It was a double-sided white board and, between each white board was a pull out collapsable room divider. The white boards had been written on so many times with permanent markers, then cleaned with abrasive cleanser, that the white boards were unusable. I found a company that makes peel and stick white board material that we used to resurface the old boards (actually that 'we' was John and Jane who peeled and resurfaced the old white boards). It came out great and saved us a ton of money on a new board.

John and Jane also repaired some screens in the Church that were broken and were able to secure many of them that were falling out of their frames. These Church windows are 10-14' tall and the screens were held in place by old clips (in those windows that had clips). If a strong wind came off the sea it was not uncommon for the screens to be blown out of their frames, which can be distracting when it happens during my Sunday homily. Using a drill I had picked up on a trip to Nassau, and jury-rigging some new clips I had bought (which were the wrong size), John and Jane basically resecured all the screens in the entire Church.

They came with us to all 4 Sunday liturgies, including the one up North in the new community we are trying to establish in Mastic Point. I should mention that while this community has a large Haitian population the numbers that are coming to our service has dropped off significantly. There is a new immigration official up there and many Haitians are afraid to come to a public service for fear of harrasment.

The most tramautic thing to touch us here recently was the attack of a Catholic nun here in the Bahamas. This is a woman we know who has a ministry on another island. Late one night she was the victim of a home invasion, robbery, and was physically assaulted. This was quite upsetting to us, everyone who knows her, and to the Catholic population in the Bahamas. Crime here is a very real problem, especially violent crime. In the recent census conducted by the Bahamas, the nation has 350,000 citizens and we are sitting at just over 80 murders so far this year. That is more than one murder every week.

Last week I saw and interview with the Mayor of San Jose, TX on TV regarding thier murder rate. The reporter wanted to know if the violence from the Mexican drug cartells had come over the border to San Jose. The Mayor said, 'Well we are a major US city with a population of 350,000 (which I noted since it was the same as the Bahamas, and it was 1 city)" They've had 14 murders this year. The Bahamas has passed 80 and it continues to grow.

When we heard about this attack on the Sister we felt we had to do something and so this week we will have two prayer services for the victims of violent crime. In the two years we have been here we know of 5-6 people who have lost relatives to murder on Nassau or one of the other islands. The first service was on Tuesday in Cargill Creek and a mother whose son was murdered a few months ago, and her husband, were in attendance. The second will be Friday night in Fresh Creek. Please keep us in your prayers in this regard, it is a very upsetting issue. Also keep our Archbishop Patrick Pinder in your prayers. He has a heavy burden leading this Archdiocese in such a climate. While you are at it, this woman of God who was the victim of this attack could use a few prayers too.

To end on a happy note, Sunday will be the feast of Christ the King, the patron of our parish in Cargill Creek. We will have cake and cookies after services on Sunday. A celebration like this is just what the Doctor ordered after a week of grieving and angst regarding the attack.

Till next time

The Navy Ball

Hello All - October is the birthday of the US Navy, and so our AUTEC Navy Base has an annual 'Navy Ball' in October and this year I was invited to lead the Benediction prior to the meal (an expected benefit of having the XO (Executive Officer) on the base converting to Catholicism and in our RCIA program).

This is a very serious, very gala event on the base and they hold nothing back to make sure this is THE event of the year. They bring in guest chefs from the US (actually these Chefs donate their time to come at no cost to recognize the service of our military). This year the Admiral for Under-Sea Warfare was the keynote speaker.

To create a space with the dignity this event requires they complete redecorate a building on the base that normally is the local bar. They completely cover all the walls with white paper and using streamers, black silouette cut-outs, and black and white WW II Navy pictures they create an incredible setting. This corner table should give you some idea of what I mean.

The base turned out in full dress whites for this event and you can imagine how impressive it was with every ribbon and medal prominently displayed on the chests of these service men.

For me, I was surprised at how nervous I was to say the benediction in front of this crowd. Knowing everyone would be in dress uniforms and the wives in gowns what to wear was an issue for Ginni and I (I actually only have 1 tie). Ginni knew about this so she brought a more formal dress when she came back from the States, I on the other hand decided my best option was to wear my roman collar - not something I usually do.

We arrived at the base in time for our Saturday evening service (which we moved up from 6 to 4:30 so we could arrive at the Ball on time). There was about a half hour of cocktails and small talk before we were called to take our seats.

The color guard marched in the side door with all the formality you can possibly imagine. It really was very well done and after they had put the US flag, the Navy flag, the AUTEC flag, and the MIA flag into their stands a female officer came forward and sang a wonderful rendition of the National Anthem. Then it was time for the Benediction (gulp). I went to the podium, asked everyone to join me in prayer and every head bowed. From that point on it was the Holy Spirit but I was blown away, and rather humbled, when one of the officers on Base sent me this pic.

The XO led a ceremony recognizing all those who had been killed in action, followed by the Base Commander's welcoming remarks and his introduction of the Admiral. He gave a wonderful address, recalling not only the birth of the Navy, but also major events in the history of the Navy from John Paul Jones to the current nuclear powered submarines. Then it was the 'call to chow' and the food was rolled out - and what a feast it was! Chefs from the US donate their time to honor our men in uniform and it was absolutely fabulous. Here is a pic of our table and a bit of the ballroom so you get some perspective on the number of people who attended.

Dessert was next and, just like the meal, it was delicious. What was fun about this was the cutting of the cake. Traditionally the person with the least service time cuts the cake with the person with the longest service time. So the XO started a countdown - everyone with 2 years or less, please stand. A group stand and he asks 'those 18 months or less', people sit. 'Those 12 months or less', people sit. Eventually it fell to a young Ensign. Now that we had the person with the least service it was time to find the Senior person in the room. The XO started the countdown with all those having over 25 years and peoples scattered around the room stand. 'Those with 26 years', people sit, eventually the finalists are the Base Commander and the Admiral at the head table, and this one man in the middle of the room. Now let me describe this sailor. He is clearly career Navy, his head is shaved, his chest is full of medals, now as the years click off, and he remains standing, all the sailors in the room shout "Yo Senior Chief!" another year is called, he remains standing, "Yo Senior Chief!", again and again, "Yo Senior Chief!" it was fabulous - especially when the Admiral sat down!

Inevitably the Base Commander came out on top with 30 years. Here is the pic of the XO handing his sword to the Ensign. From left to right it is the Base Commander, the Ensign, the Admiral and the XO. It was a great time and we are thrilled we were invited to attend.

After dessert there were a 'series' of ceremonial toasts. It was good that each table had 2 bottles of wine, just to get through the series! After the toasts were completed all Navy personnel were commanded to stand, and they did. What followed was a rendition of 'Anchors Aweigh' that was absolutely inspiring - no music, no song-sheets, just these men and women far from home showing their pride in serving in the US Navy. Let me say a word about that. These folks are part of the US military and, when called upon, they will fight for our nation. What these men and women do at AUTEC, however, is create test scenarios for the men and women in the military, and their equipment, ensuring that if called upon they'll be ready. In a large part, their job is to make sure their readiness acts as a deterrent to having to fight. AUTEC's role, in ensuring our NAVY is the best, is to deter our having to prove it. It is with that mindset that AUTEC works to ensure the peace. Enough said.

As we were leaving I met one of the Chefs and we talked a bit.

He was keenly aware that he has been blessed in life and being able to donate his time and talents to pull off an event like this was an honor. We talked a little about what we do on the base and with the local Bahamian people (I try not to miss an opportunity to evangelize). With virtually no prompting on my part he said that if I could stay in touch with him, next year he'd like to come a few days early and provide a meal for a local Bahamian community. My thoughts flashed to the Haitians we serve up north and how they'd react to chocolate covered strawberries and a true gourmet meal. We'll see what happens.

Clearly, this has been a rather different experience for us here on Andros - but one that we thoroughly enjoyed. Till next time - pray for us, and we'll pray for you.

Driving Bob Marley

Well I have much to tell but not too much time to type so I will cover just one of our experiences and share more with you later.

One of the novelties about driving the Church van is that everyone on the island knows its the Church van and feels perfectly at home waving you down for a ride. This is a good thing, giving us an opportunity to meet new people and share the faith - but, as you can imagine, it can be a bit risky at times. With that said, we pretty much pick up anybody that waves us down.

Last Sunday we were on our way home from Cargill Creek with a van about half full of folks we were dropping off on the way when we were flagged down by someone needing a ride to Fresh Creek. This young man was in his 20’s and looked a bit like Bob Marley, dredlocks down to his shoulders, an old T-shirt that had seen better days, and a plastic bag full of Lord knows what. Several of the older women in the van gave him 'the look', but he settled in for the ride nonetheless . He was very thankful we stopped because some local folks had told him we wouldn’t because we didn’t know who he was, which is clearly not true. We explained that on the way home we stop and bring communion to a few people and he was willing to come along for the ride anyway.

Our first stop was in Man O War Sound, where we visit Anna. I told him he could wait for us in the car but he got out to stretch his legs. After greeting Anna and her daughter we began the Eucharistic Service with prayer and I noticed our young passenger listening by the door. I read the Gospel, (remember the story of the widow & the unjust judge?) Then I took a moment and preached a bit about that Gospel and the message that, like the widow and the judge, we should never give up, but in good times or bad, continue to pray to our God who loves us – just like the widow kept after the judge. God is our Father and He takes care of His children. After giving Anna and her daughter communion we all climbed back in the van and headed towards Fresh Creek.

Once we were alone, our passenger opened up and it turned out the Holy Spirit was moving right there in Anna's living room! He told us a bit about himself and how much what I said touched his heart. He stopped going to church when he was 13 we he discovered his minister and his mother having an affair. That was it for him and he left the church and never went back. His relationship with God was crushed by this experience and he had no place for this in his life. Now, in his mid-twenties, he heard the message that we should never give up, that we are God's children, beloved, and we should perservere in our faith whatever the world throws at us - God used this to touch his heart. He was clearly moved and the ride to Fresh Creek was an amazing one with him sharing his life story and Ginni sharing about the love of God and the Holy Spirit just about lifting the van off the pavement.

When we dropped him in Fresh Creek the 'coincidences' continued when he told us he was from Mastic Point, which was where we were headed later that day! He had some errands to do in Fresh Creek so we parted company. After another communion call, we packed the van for our services up North in Mastic Point and on the way we found him once more, on the side of the road about half-way to Mastic Point, and gave him a lift to Mastic Point. It was a blessed time for him and for us and he may just join our community in Mastic Point for our services next week in the public school where we meet there, we will see.

Keep him, and us in your prayers - till next time.

Busy Weekend

Well after all my complaints about weather the last few days have been fabulous. The winds have died down, the white caps are gone, and we are back to tranquil aqua waves lapping against the shore, blue skies and temps in the 80's . Just to give you and idea of what I mean - here is a pic of my back yard when looking to the left:

And here's the view to the right (not too shabby unless there are 30mph winds and driving rain)

I know it was Columbus Day weekend in the US but here its called Discovery Day and there were parties and events all over the island. For example, Saturday, parishioners in Cargill Creek hosted a fundraising cookout. Ribs, Chicken, Fish, Conch, Mac&Cheese, Peas&Rice - yum. Ginni baked all day Friday and we brought over about 4 cakes she made for the effort (2 chocolate, 1 pumpkin bread, and a bunt cake - double yum).

Like most things here, there were issues - for example at 7:30AM our phone rings and its one of the more active members of the parish who was supposed to work the booth dishing out food and collecting money. Her son, the night before, had gotten into an altercation with the police and she had to go see what she could do. The eve of Discovery Day was a Friday night, and cause for celebrating. After a bit too much beer, this young man ended up spending the night in the local jail. Eventually he was released, but not until late Saturday afternoon.

We arrived at the picnic at noon, when the event was to kick off, but found ourselves alone for almost 2 hours as those cooking the food finished up, taking on the slack of our missing parishioner now busy at the police station. A two hour delay in starting may seem like much, but this is the Bahamas and there is a running joke about Bahamians being on Bahamian time.

"Der be no rush faddah, don' worry, we get it done, and it be off da chain mahn!"

Basically translated - 'Chill out Deacon'

Bottom line - the food was great, the company was great, and one woman even surprised us with some Guava Duff, the absolutely primo Bahamian dessert. This is a white cake with a unique texture, topped with Guava fruit. You get a slice of this on your plate that is then drizzled with a sweet white cream sauce - its one of my favorite Bahamian treats.

We ended up having to leave around 3 to get home and prepare for the Saturday evening service at AUTEC, but the picnic continued with people dropping by all day and into the evening to buy a plate of food. When all is said and done it looks like they may have brought in over $800 which we will use to fix so many of the things needing fixing in Cargill Creek.

Speaking of facilities, as I mentioned in my last post, the donations we received while we were in the US are now being put to work to restore St. Gabriel's in Calabash Bay. The water line is installed and the septic tank as well. The electric lines are also installed and we are waiting for inspector to approve that work prior to the Electric Co. connecting the electrical line. 3 of the 4 interior walls are all painted white, the one behind where the altar was will be blue. With the donations we brought back, the new floor tiles will arrive on the boat Wednesday. It will be wonderful to have a floor! We hope its no more than 2 weeks before we can move in and start having classes. This will be a major improvement for our kids, as well as the community of Calabash Bay.

After we got home from the picnic we cleaned up and headed off to the Saturday evening service at AUTEC. Once a year AUTEC invites vendors in to showcase products they want to sell at the PX on base and this weekend it was the company that provides beer and wine who were hosting a 'tasting', to which we were invited. So - after the final blessing and church we strolled over to the 'Lighthouse Pub' to check it out. The manager of the Lighthouse is a young woman who has just started RCIA with us this year and she outdid herself serving all sorts of appetizers for the tasting. The goal of this event is to give the residents on base an opportunity to provide input on what the PX should be selling. Some items on the shelves will be replaced by new ones as a result of this social. So we tasted a few wines, submitted our votes (even though we are not allowed to shop at the PX since the Navy views us as Bahamians and not residents of the Base). What was nice, however, was we connected with Mary (our RCIA candidate), met many of her friends, and talked a bit about RCIA and why would anyone want to join the Catholic Church. Interesting conversations to say the least.

Then it was off to prepare for Sunday. We were up at 6 (with difficulty), but the 8:30 in Fresh Creek, where Ginni led our newly formed Choir, went off with out a hitch (don't you love this pic of her with her guitar).

Then we were off to Cargill Creek for the 11:00. With this being the holiday weekend we didn't go north to Mastic Point for our usual 4PM service because the school was all locked down for the holiday and we are still using the Primary School to hold services up there. Suffice it to say we were quite happy to crash. But we couldn't rest too long - Monday evening is RCIA.

This week we need to renew our Bahamian drivers license. Its become complicated because Andros just recieved a camera for driver license photos (our current licenses have no pic). The problem is the folks that know how to run the camera are a bit scarse. We went in on Wed last week and were told to come back Friday. Friday the traffic officer was in but the camera system was locked away and the man with the key wouldn't be in until Tuesday. Tuesday he is in, but there's a problem with the camera so we need to wait for the repair man to come on the boat Wednesday. Pray we don't have any traffic violations, because at this point both our Bahamian licenses are expired. "Don't worry Deacon, if you have any trouble I'll tell them you've been here and its our fault, not yours". (Try that with a State Trooper in Ma.)

So all is well, but there's much to do - this past week we also have had a man from Love Hill drop by asking if we had any meat. He is low on funds and can't afford meat - "Do you have any extra meat?" Another woman came by because the electric company shut off her power - she hasn't been able to pay for 3 months and now that the bill is over $600 they shut her off. "Could you give me a couple of hundred so they'll turn it back on?" Then in the midst of requests like this another woman drops by. This is a woman who we know has very very little, and who we had helped pay her electric bill a few months back. Now she is bringing us two loaves of bread she had baked. "Here, this will help you through Deac".

These are things that make you take a deep breath, look up at the blue blue sky, and sigh.

Till next time

Wind and Rain and Wind and (did I say wind?)

Well if you have been following the tropics you know we have had storm after storm. The first tropical depression left us and went up the east coast (actually cancelling a Red Sox Yankees game) but while it was here it was wind and rain central. Now let me explain wind when it comes to a tropical storm on Andros.

First, Andros is flat and we are on a cliff facing east. On one end of the church we have an efficiency apartment for visiting priests. Its a very nice set up, however the windows are mechanical crank-out windows and, over the years, with the salt air blowing on them, several of the cranks no longer work.

Knowing we were in for a bit of 'a blow', with the wind at a mild 15-20 mph I went around that end of the church to check them out. Well, to my surprise, one of the panes was already lying at a crooked angle and another had also become loose so, as a precaution, I went into the garage and pulled out the hurricane shutters for that end of the building. I knew this was not a hurricane, but at the very least I wanted to keep the water from blowing into the apartment.

So I grab an armful of these corrigated aluminum sheets and a bucket of clips that clip the sheet of aluminum to fasteners that are screwed into the concrete walls and begin to put them up. All the while the wind is raging and, once or twice, it picked up my pile of shutters and blew them across the yard. Eventually I had that end of the church covered and I knew it would be safer.

Well as night settled it the wind grew stronger, power went out, and pretty much stayed out for most of the night. The power of God's creation was all around us as lightning and rain and wind pummelled the house that night and into the next day. Power came on and went out again but eventually that storm moved on and up to Boston.

But that wasn't the end of it - a 'frontal boundary' settled in over the Bahamas and that front just basically sat there for 4 days. The wind was nuts! Absolutely incredible. To walk the 20' from the door of the rectory to the church I literally had to lean forward in order to make it. While it was a pain to deal with, the next storm that headed towards us from Puerto Rico ran into the front and bounced off into the open Atlantic, and the same thing is happening now with what is tropical storm Otto.

So - we haven't had much time online for blog updates because either power is out, or internet is down on the island, or power is out -- island life can be interesting.

Two days ago we had wind and rain overnight that kept Ginni up all night because of the lightning. She complained the next day that she could not believe I slept through it all.

This weather has put a crimp in the work to restore St. Gabriel's church. They had dug out the pit for the septic tank, but its hard to pour concrete in a driving rain storm. Actually, pouring concrete is a misnomer here. In the US a cement truck would come and concrete would be poured out into a form to make the septic tank. Here, two men pour a bag of concrete onto the street (yes the street), then add sand, creating a pile about 3' tall. They then mix that pile by hand with shovels to get the sand and concrete all mixed together. Then they fill a 5 gallon pail with water and gradually add water while mixing and mixing and mixing until they get a nice gooey cement mixture. You can not imagine how back breaking this work is to do it by hand, but that's what they have to do, so they do it.

We still hope to be able to open the building this month, but CCD will start a few weeks late.

Our plan is to rename St. Gabriel's church, creating the 'Father Gabriel Roerig, OSB Parish Center' Fr. Gabriel was the first priest to minister on Andros. He was ordained at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota and came here directly from the Abbey, then spent over 50 years serving the people of Andros. When I read of what conditions he worked under I am embarrased when I complain about losing power and internet access. He didn't have electricity! There were no roads - yet he travelled up and down Andros building churches, baptizing babies, teaching children and adults, serving as priest, and doctor, and mason, and carpenter, and dentist - you get the idea. There is a great book documenting the history of the Catholic Church in the Bahamas, from Columbus to the 20th century, including Fr. Gabriel. It is UPON THESE ROCKS, by Coleman Barry, OSB. I got a copy on Amazon.com, a great read.

Here is a portrait pic of Fr. Gabriel I recieved after emailing the Abbey in MN

Here is the last known pic of him with some of his friends on Andros. I think this gives you an example of the reality of his ministry. Ours may have its difficulties, but he's become a bit of a hero to me.

Enough for now, keep us in your prayers.

Frank and Ginni

Back on Andros!

Well we arrived back on Andros and the excitement didn't take long to begin.

First, we land in Nassau and clearing customs took a bit too long so we missed the only flight to Andros. We knew this was a possibility so we had arranged to stay at St. Joseph's parish 'in case' we needed to. Once inside St. Joseph we borrowed Fr. Martin's car and went to the Chancery to drop off donations we recieved while at home (Thank you all once again!)

At the Chancery we found that the priest who had offered to cover my parish here for 2 weeks was called back to Nassau by the Archbishop after the first week. This created an issue for some of our children. Since we had been without a priest for 4 months, several of our children had left the island for summer vacation when we were finally able to have First Penance and First Communion. With Fr. Glen spending two weeks here to cover for our absence we had set it up that on the 2nd week he would hear thier first confession and they would recieve first communion. So -- when he was called back to Nassau our little cherubs show up dressed in white to find a Deacon had been flown in to cover the weekend liturgy. Disappointing to say the least. So they continue to wait and the NEXT time we have a priest we'll have a special celebration.

Now let me tell you why the priest was called back. It turns out that while we were away the Chancery was robbed! The business office has a buzzer to get inside and one of the women was getting buzzed in when a man came up behind her and pushed her through the door, causing her to fall. He then put the muzzle of his rifle against her forehead and asked for her bag. It was terrifying for her and the secretary that buzzed her in but thankfully nobody was hurt. Coincidentally, the priest who was covering for us lives in the Cathedral, next door to the Chancery, and he has a closed circuit TV camera panning the driveway. Police needed him to come back to Nassau to open up the camera so they could see if the tape had captured the robber. -never a dull moment-

So the next day we get the Saturday morning flight to Andros to discover that our parishioners had moved the van from the airport to the church so it wasn't sitting there all week unprotected. Fred picked us up and drove us home and we started the chore of unpacking and settling in. We needed a few things at the store which is when we found the battery was dead. I tried to jump it with a neighbor but it wouldn't jump. Using Bahamian ingenuity we rolled it down the driveway and popped the clutch, which with a standard transmission is a tricky way to get it started - and it worked.

I drove to Love Hill and saw that the tables and chairs for the new parish center had come in, I drove to a few other parishioners and said 'Hi, we are back' -- all the while hoping this driving was charging the battery up again. Finally I stopped for lunch with Ginni, but after lunch, still a dead battery. Now I push the van down the driveway, jump in, pop the clutch, it starts again and off I go with Ginni to find a battery. "Yes Deac - I can get a battery big enough for that van, how about Thursday?" Island life - if you don't have it, you can get it, just wait for the boat to bring it. A nice idea but not when we need to go to 3 different churches to hold weekend liturgy (only one has a hill we can push the van down to get it started). I made several stops, all with the same result, until I went to the Baptist minister who has a garage. He says, "Your battery is the same as the one in my jeep - I could order one like the other guys or take the battery out of my jeep for you to use". Bottom line is we got a battery and the weekend liturgy went off without a hitch.

The other piece of news we learned after getting back on Andros was the attempted murder in Cargill Creek (next door to our church!) Next to our church there are a few dillapidated buildings tucked away in the bush. A family of squatters had moved in about a year ago, a mother, her boyfriend, and 5 kids. The buildings are owned by a parishioner who heard this family was homeless and he told them that if they were despirate they could use one of them. Well they were despirate and moved into the one with a roof, creating walls by hanging blankets. Well the oldest boy and the 'step-father' hadn't been getting along and, from what can figure out, during the night the boy decided to get rid of the 'step-father' using a butcher knife.

The man was able to get away but it was a very bloody scene, he is in intensive care in Nassau and the boy is in prison awaiting trial. The mother is in Nassau next to his bedside and the other kids are staying with friends all throughout the settlement. Terribly sad situation for everyone.

That was our 1st day back.

I makes me wonder that when we leave for 2 weeks, the Chancery gets robbed, there's an attempted murder, the van dies, and our kids miss out on First Communion yet again. Maybe we should just stay put.

Monday was spent getting ready for RCIA. Our first class was scheduled for that night and 3 of the possible 8 candidates showed up. Some of the others may still show up - time will tell.

I think that's enough of an update for now - pray that tropical storm south of Cuba stays far away from us - right now the projected track would have it go right over us. I sure hope Cuba takes the wind out of its sails.

Till next time

Here's an update

Well once again I have let too much time pass between blog entries - mea culpa!

Much has happened this past summer so I will try to give you the highlights.
First off, the economy is killing the folks here in the Bahamas. Tourism is down significantly with hotels at 20-50% occupancy. The trickle down effect of this is major. With no jobs in Nassau people have moved back to the family islands with high hopes, only to have them dashed when they find out the reality here is no better.

Locally, there is a carpenter with several children who has asked if I had any work. He didn't want money, he wanted work. Coincidentally the next day a gale blew through and ripped a 10' strip of flashing off the roof of the church and I was able to give him the job of climbing up on the roof and tacking it back in place. (Ginni was thrilled I didn't try this one on my own - especially after my adventure last year when I climbed on the roof of the church to hang the Christmas lights). It wasn't a big job, and I didn't have much to give him, but in his words "Its better than nothing Deac, and I'm providing for my family with the work of my own hands". Bahamian pride is alive and well.

The window in the sacristy has a major leak whenever it rains and that is his next job. While it would be easy to slip him a few dollars, he would much rather earn it and there is clearly alot of little jobs around this place that, when I have the money, I can use to help him out.

While I'm talking about construction - the construction effort at that old church I mentioned earlier is under way. We had gone to bid and hired one of our parishioners who does this type of work. St. Gabriel's will become the Fr. Gabriel Roerig, OSB Parish Center. Fr. Gabriel was the first priest to ever minister on Andros and he spent 56 years here serving the Bahamian people. This church had been closed years and years ago and all the windows and doors had been smashed in and boarded up, and termites were starting to take over. Our vision is to restore it as a parish center where we can teach CCD, have parish meetings, and an occasional social. A place for CCD is the primary need right now and through the generosity of many people, both Bahamians and our friends and family the work is under way.

The Sister of Mercy who had preceded us had recieved 10 colored windows from a church in Maine that had been closed. They didn't fit anywhere so she stored them in the closed St. Gabriels' building. Well termites love cardboard boxes, so to cockroaches (some day I will tell you about Bahamian cockroaches the size of your thumb). When I first saw the windows all you could see was a pile of corroded cardboard, dust, and yuck. After I did the initial cleaning of St. Gabriel's I realized I had windows - and they were an odd size. Months later, when I was meeting with the contractors, it turned out the window size is also an odd size so whatever windows we bought the windows would need to be re-framed. One contractor said, "You know, if I have to reframe the windows anyway, why not use this colored windows you already have?" That little pearl saved us $1,000.

Right now the windows are in, new doors are in, and they are breaking up the concrete floor where the water line will be for the toilet. There's still much to do before CCD classes begin in Oct, like adding electricity, putting in the water line and septic, building a bathroom, installing a toilet, powerwashing the building and paint - and the list goes on and on. When we get closer to completion we will need to buy the tables and chairs as well. We have been blessed with many donors and we hope that we can pull in the last few thousand we need to replace the floor, time will tell, but God is good!

Let me tell you just how good. The AUTEC Navy base has a room we have used to teach the children on the base. In that room is a piece of furniture that has a white board on two sides, between the white boards is a room divider that collapses and slides into a storage compartment between the two boards. Now, over the years, people have mistakenly used permanent markers, and they'd been scoured off, but it happened more than once so now its pretty much unusable and it's stored off to the side and never used. Well I did some research and found a company back in Massachusetts that sells this contact-paper-like-stuff that effectively resurfaces old white boards. So I posed the question, "Could I have that old white board thingy in the corner for our new parish center?" Without blinking an eye the Navy Chaplain says "Fine with me", the Commander says "I have no problem", the Chapel Coordinator says, "Would you like to use my truck?" God is good. So we are progressing well with the Parish Center.

With all this good news - ministry to our Bahamian friends has its peaks and valleys. One family has a potential child abuse situation that I've injected myself into and, with the help of Social Services, we may be seeing the light at the end of that tunnel.

Another family has a young girl that has been kept out of school to do chores, resulting in her missing so much school, and her final exams, that she'll have to be kept back and repeat. We worked with the family to correct the situation, and with the school so that I was allowed to proctor her, and give her the exams here at the church. The end result is she is moving on to the next grade and her parents have a clear understanding of their responsibility to get her to school

A long-time member of our church passed away in Nassau a few weeks ago. We met with her son and understood that, because of their financial situation, they would be burying her in Nassau rather than shipping the body back here for burial. While we were in Nassau we met with another son from Nassau and shared our stories of Maria. We had never met this man but he knew all about us from his mother. It turns out Maria had us in her cell phone listed under the name 'Guardian Angels'. You can imagine how that made Ginni and I feel when we heard that story! A few days later we got a call from the Vicar General in Nassau saying that Maria's funeral would be at the Cathedral and they wanted me to preach. I was blown away!

Ginni and I have had wonderful experiences here, there is the joy of Baptism and 1st communion, there is the sadness of kneeling next to the body of a parishioner on the floor of his home and praying with the family. Funerals are a major event here, and usually full of wailing and crying - but Maria's funeral was one of victory and Ginni and I were thrilled to be part of it.

Now we are cranking up for CCD and RCIA - much to do, as you can imagine. Ginni will be flying home Wednesday to get in some nursing (pending Hurricane Earle's track towards Nassau). I haven't been able to take any time this year and was planning on working through until I got a call from the Rector at the Cathedral. It seems he like to vacation on the family islands and wanted to know if he could come to Andros and spend a few weeks here - and at the same time give me a break. (Did I say God is good?) So I will leave Sept 10 and join Ginni in the states for a few weeks before we actually jump into CCD.

Well, enough for now, till next time - keep us in your prayers.

Frank and Ginni