Ginni is back! The ministry goes on.

Hello all:
Well Ginni has returned after a few weeks of nursing back in the States. Hospice just keeps on going and they seem to be happy to welcome Ginni to do some per dium nursing when she can. This is good, because we need the extra income she generates; but its incredibly stressful for her and, even after just a few weeks, she returns a bit frazzled.

While she was away we had a string of violent crime here in the Bahamas. In one week we had 3 murders in 24 hours, with a total of 5 murders in that same week, one of whom was from Andros. Nassau violent crime is getting a ton of attention here, and it should. I already know of 10 families who have lost a family member to murder.

I heard about this particular murder while I was at the AUTEC Navy base for dinner before the Saturday evening service. The cashier told me a person from a local town was killed last night in Nassau and he was related to one of my 'members'. It turns out he is the step grandson of someone who comes to St. John's.

This news upset me a bit and my planned homily took a few twists and turns I hadn't planned as a result. When I got home I threw that homily away and a new one emerged. Bahamians know this problem is serious and universally, when asked how should we deal with it, the answer is "hang them!" My problem with that is two fold - first, hanging them is immoral; second, hanging them deals with the problem after it occurs, we need to deal with it BEFORE it occurs. The question is - how do we stop the murder in the first place?

There is clearly a need for stronger gun control laws in the Bahamas, but there is also a greater need for a personal relationship with Jesus. Bahamians are proud of the fact that this is a Christian nation - unlike the US it's in the constitution that this is specifically a Christian nation. Consequently there are churches everywhere and everyone claims to be Christian. My sense is that while church is important here, and people go to church, they may or may not have a relationship with Jesus. Church without Jesus is smoke in the wind. All the prayer books, candles, incense, icons, and crosses are nice, but without Jesus they're nothing.

What we need here is revival! Suffice it to say the updated homily made people sit up straight and take notice. Now what? Well this has become a focus of my prayer, and with the Holy Spirit, and Ginni, let's see where this goes.

On a different front, this week is the July 4 weekend in the US - happy Independence Day! In the Bahamas, the following weekend is Independence Day, July 12. We will have a huge party at the Crabfest Fairgrounds and all the clergy will be up on stage (including me, in my Roman collar). It will be a wonderful celebration, just like last year, and I am looking forward to it.

This weekend is also the closing liturgy for the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of Nassau as a diocese. Two of our parishioners here on Andros will be recognized with a special medal struck for the occasion for their years of service to the Church, and I am very proud of them. I hope to have pictures for the next post. While in Nassau for this event, Ginni and I plan on taking a few days to stay at one of the resorts on Nassau to celebrate our wedding anniversary back in June. It will be interesting to experience the Bahamas as most Americans do with all the glamor of Nassau.

Finally, some of you know that our source of diesel fuel is a man who has barrels of diesel in his back yard and who, at $5/gallon, will siphon fuel into our van with a garden hose. Well he told us he is going to Cuba for a few weeks and so I filled up several 10 gallon containers with diesel to get me through his absense. I made sure I have a functioning funnel - I haven't mastered the talent of sucking on a garden hose to get diesel to drain into my gas tank just yet.

Enough for now - till next time - Peace!

Summer Blues

Well as I realize I am not as faithful to this blog as I should be I find myself a bit depressed this morning. Ginni has left to do some nursing in the States, and hopefully earn the money we need to keep our heads above water - so being without her has its affect. But there are other issues that I am sure that people in ministry like this have faced before.

As most of you know, we couldn't sell our home in this economy so we rented. Well of the 3 families renting property we own back home, 2 have lost their jobs in this economy and paying rent on time has become a problem.

As we enter the summer months things change rather dramatically here. First, school is out so most families take their children and head off to Nassau or the States for the summer. They do that because there is no work here, its too hot to stay, and there is literally nothing for their children to do. At least in Nassau there is the mall, or the movies, or the bowling alley. Here there is not too much - so off they go.

This complicates ministry on several fronts, but one that is bringing me down a bit is that we haven't been able to have a priest here since Easter, that's 12 weeks and counting. Our 1st communion kids are ready for 1st penance and 1st communion but it looks like many of them will be off the island by the time we get a priest. Last week I went to Nassau and recieved another ciborium of consecrated hosts so I can continue to do Eucharistic Services. The Archdiocese is doing a great job covering the parishes in all the islands. With some priests taking well deserved vacations, and others experiencing illness, it is very difficult for them to cover all the parishes in the 'family islands' right now, so we wait. Eventually we will have a priest and we'll celebrate the Sacrament but the shortage of priests now makes me wonder where we will be in 10 years.

Now having less people to serve may seem to make our lives easier, but in reality it creates a hidden financial burden. With the loss of the people, the weekly collection drops off dramatically, while the weekly bills stay constant. So having been here over a year now I can project that things are going to get extremely tight over the next few months.

With that on the horizon, I am still waiting for the insurance money for the Church that was flooded back on Palm Sunday. The Archdiocese changed insurance companies 3 days prior to our flood. So, the insurance company that had approved our claim and authorized us to do the work (which we did), was the old insurance company and now we are waiting on the new insurance company to pay for the work we already did, on the authorization of the first insurance company .

There are other financial and facilities related issues we're dealing with, but buildings and money are only one aspect of being the Administrator for this mission.

For example, in the midst of the financial issues, and the priest shortage, we have been working with a family that is desperately poor and who, we have learned, tends to control their children by beatings. Unlike the States, this is accepted and not uncommon in the Bahamas but in this family's case it is severe. We are now involved in child custody issues between parents and grand-parents and when the children confide in us we are told to be careful what we do to help because if word gets back to Mom that they've spoken to us they are beaten. I have met with social services here and they know the family. Bruises are explained as, 'she fell down' and nobody in the family will support the accusations whispered to us. It is an ongoing issue that will take time to resolve, but it is emotional and difficult for us right now.

While we struggle with all this stuff there are successes. It does look like we will be able to restore an old church that has been closed for several years, and put it to work at a Parish Center for CCD classes and parish meetings. Rather than the children sitting on the church floor and using the pews as desks we hope, with the support of the Archdiocese, to actually have tables and chairs -and- maybe even add a toilet to this building that never had running water.

Also - this is the 50th Annniversary of Nassau being designated as a Diocese. We have had several activities commemorating the Anniversary and the closing Mass for the Anniversary Year will be July 5. I have just learned that 2 of our parishioners from Andros will be recognized with a special medal commemorating their years of service to the parish, and the Church, at that Mass. So - while things are tough, there are good times and signs of hope as well.

God is good, His mercy endures for ever and ever - Amen? Amen!

Keep us in your prayers

It's hot!

Well my friends, there are the hot dog days of Boston I am very familiar with. Then there is hot.
A full week of 90 degrees with 80% humidity is a killer.

We do the Saturday evening service at the navy base (with AC) and when we come out our glasses fog up from the humidity. Sunday morning starts with the 8:30 liturgy and when its done I can literally wring out my shirt. I actually have to change clothes before we leave here at 10 to go to Cargill Creek for the 11AM liturgy, after which, once again, I am soaked.

Once we get back from that one we have about an hour to clean up and get ready to head North for our last liturgy. Ginni takes a shower and changes her clothes while I am loading up the car with all we need (since we have no Church up north and this liturgy is in the Primary School).

The service up North is interesting in that we have uncovered a Haitian community and some local Bahamians have begun hearing about our 4PM liturgy in the school and have joined us. The Haitians live in very poor conditions and some are extremely limited in their English, but come anyway because they know it is 'Catholique Church'. I really need to find a resource for Creole if I am ever going to break into that community. Anybody know where I can get a creole sacramentary?

The bottom line is the Haitians do speak some English, they need it for the market, trips to the clinic, and the children must learn it for school. The kids are actually a great source of translation when I can involve them in conversations. Often the adults simply smile and say, 'OK, OK, OK', which sometimes makes sense if they're answering a Yes, No question, but often doesn't when its not a Yes, No question.

"Do you want us to pick you up for Church next week?" OK, OK, OK
"What crop will you be brining in after the onions are harvested?" OK, OK, OK

But with all that said, we do communicate enough to get by. We've begun to realize what songs they recognize, and try to focus on them during liturgy. For example, everyone knows Amazing Grace.

How these folks live in this heat is beyond me - never mind how do they work the fields and do the heavy physical work they do in this heat.

Well enough for now, stay cool where ever you are.
Love ya

Frank and Ginni

Our 2nd big fire on Andros!

Well my friends, if you remember, last year (see post for May 8, 2009) we had a huge fire in Fresh Creek where a huge building burnt to the ground. There is no fire department on the island other than the US Navy, and their big truck won't fit over the bridge.

Well we had another, this time it was the Anglican church. The Anglican community here in Fresh Creek meets on Sun evening. They have 1 priest covering 6 churches up and down the east coast of Andros so starting at 7AM and going non stop till 7PM he is a busy guy and Fresh Creek gets the Sunday evening service.

Anyway, they have their service at 7, it goes till about 830, and everyone goes home. By that time I had already done my 4th liturgy of the weekend myself and had crashed. Ginni and I are watching TV when, about 10, the power goes out. This is not uncommon so we decide to call it a night and go to bed.

Well the next morning I get a call from someone on the Navy base saying she'd just seen an email saying that their Fire Department was called out during the night and St. Michael's Catholic Church had burned to the ground. Well there is no St. Michael's so she knew it was wrong but when she called the Fire Dept she was told the white church on the water had burned - well that describes us, and St. Stephen's, the Anglican Church. So when I answered the phone she was sooooooo relieved. I jumped in the van and rode down to St. Stephen's and sure enough, just 4 walls standing, the rest was a smoldering hulk.

Our phone is our fax machine, so when the power went out we lost phones. Having gone to bed we didn't even know the activity that was going on less than a mile away, while parishioners were trying to call us to let us know.

I've spoken to the minister and they are fully insured and will rebuild, until then they're merging the Fresh Creek community with their Calabash Bay community in the next town, but it is a terrible loss.

Suffice it to say, we would REALLY like to see the Bahamian government get a fire department off the ground for the family islands like Andros - time will tell, but don't hold your breath. Until then I am keeping our fire extinguishers fully charged, and I bought two 100' garden hoses. It's not much but its something

Till next time

Summer time Summer time Sum Sum Summer time

Well my friends, CCD is over for the summer and our ministry here now takes on a whole new look and feel. We have time to read, time to plan, time to visit parishioners, our T I M E is our own once again, Alleluia! For example, I just read Sydney Poiter's autobiography 'The Measure of a Man" (a native Bahamian by the way) a really great read with wonderful insights on growing up on Cat Island and how the values his Bahamian parents helped him in making some difficult life choices.

With that said, the list of things we want to do this summer is a long one.

Years ago a small church in Calabash Bay was closed and we'd like to restore that building as a Parish Center. St. Gabriels has been boarded up for years - it would be a big plus to the town if we could restore it AND a place we could set up to do all our CCD classes in next year, as well as hold parish meetings.

We took this pictures several years ago before we moved here permanently. Between then and now a homeless man broke into the church and smashed all 13 windows which are now covered with plywood. Termites are doing their thing and it will be a ton of work. BUT if we can pull it off we'd have tables and chairs for the kids (rather than them sitting on the church floor and using the pew seats as desks).

The building is on the bus route from the High School, so we could do 1 class for all our High School kids together, rather than 1 at Fresh Creek and another at Cargill Creek.

Throw in having a place for social gatherings, parish council meetings, etc. and you can see why this is a priority for us this summer.

Another possible summer job will be a new church up North in Mastic Point. Over 20 years ago the Catholic Church up north was closed when a major building effort was started on Grand Bahamas island and many North Andros Catholics left for work on Grand Bahamas. Well, they are moving back, and a large Haitian population has also sprung up on North Andros. Unfortunately there is no Catholic presence on North Andros so many have joined the Anglican, Methodist or Baptist Churches.

So we started making trips up north and have been "holding church" in the local primary school. After about 6 months of this, with attendance ranging from 3 to 15, we spoke with the Archbishop who gave us permission to investigate putting up 'a simple structure' to guage the demand. Clearly, while meeting in the primary school gives us some sense of the need, having our own place to meet will do alot to grow the Catholic community up there.

Well, since we still own the land I crawled through the bush to find the remains of St. Savior Catholic Church. You can't see any evidence it exists from the street, but once you plow through the vines, dodge the poison wood trees (yes, poison wood - imagine an entire tree where everything, bark, leaves, everything, acts like poison ivy), and keep going through all sorts of brush, eventually you come upon this:



Yup this is all that remains of St. Savior Catholic Church. So we start thinking about what our options are when we discover that the AUTEC Navy base here on Andros is upgrading some of the resident's homes from 60' trailers to permanent structures. The trailers have all seen better days and are destined for demolition - or were, until we had the bright idea that if we could get permission, we could probably convert one of them into a chapel. The Commander has given the idea his blessing, and so has the Director of Base Housing. Now the Navy has to bless it for this to become a reality. THEN we need to get the blessing of the Bahamian government, look into whether we pay duty on 'importing' the trailer from AUTEC soil to Bahamian soil, and figure out how we get it from AUTEC to Mastic Point. Not to mention all the other details like clearing the site, preparing it for a trailer, hooking up utilities, . . .

There is still alot to do on this one. How do you get a 60'x14' trailer from one end of the island to another? How do you get a 14' wide trialer over 2 bridges only 12' wide? Does ANYBODY have a 60' flatbed to move this thing? Not to mention that the roads are 'challenging' to say the least. There are a ton of issues we'd need to resolve so while the trailer idea is still in play, so is building a simple building (although no building is simple once you start thinking about septic systems on an island made of rock).

The summer should be interesting. It won't all be work however. One thing we're getting ready to look into is scuba diving. Think about it, we're living on the 3rd larges barrier reef in the world - why not? Well there is the shark issue, and drowning is another one, but exploring the reefs does have its appeal.

Throw in planning next year's CCD classes, soliciting our next class of RCIA candidates, and possibly putting together a weekend Marriage Seminar for the Bahamians - and we've filled up the summer 'free time' rather nicely, don't you think.

Keep us in your prayers - if we can get half of this done it'll be a great summer.
Till next time

Confirmation - and a whole lot more!

Hello Again

Well I promised in my last post that I would tell you about Confirmation so here it is - and a bit more.

Archbishop Pinder flew in on Wednesday, May 12 and we had some time alone to talk about ministry and enjoy the breeze off the ocean on the porch. After dinner we loaded up the van, met some folks from Man O'War Sound who wanted a ride, picked up another from AUTEC and off we went to Cargill Creek for Confirmation. We had planned to have Confession at 7 and Confirmation at 7:30, which is exactly what happened, but it wasn't easy.

If you remember from prior blog entries, on Palm Sunday we had a toilet flood the church in Cargill Creek and we were trying to rip out the old soiled rugs and replace them with tile (using insurance money) and get this done in time for the Archbishop's visit. Well the morning of his arrival Gin and I were down there mopping the floor and putting everything in order after the workers had finished the installation the prior night (is that cutting it TOO close?).

Suffice it to say the church looks magnificent! People turned out from AUTEC, St. John Chrysostom in Fresh Creek, and most of the surrounding towns to see the first Confirmation on Andros in several years. Our class this year was made up of 6 students. Two had never been baptized so they recieved the sacraments on the Easter Vigil. Here is a pic of me with the Archbishop, and the remaining 4 after they were confirmed.

On another note, in prior blogs I have told you about the family with the 8 grandchildren living with 'grammie'. Well we finally got the pics of the baptism of all 8 grandchildren a few weeks ago. Between the flu, absent god-parents, missing parents, and a variety of other logistical issues pulling this off was much harder than it seems it should be - but finally we were able to make it happen. This first pic is of us all gathered around the font. Right before I began using my conche shell to start pouring.

Here's the baby of the family, being held by her Dad - the only Dad of the eight kids who was there for the Baptism

(Does that red hair in the foreground look familiar to any of you?)

Here's one of the girls leaning forward over the font

Here's another, one of the boys this time.

Enough already - you get the idea. Suffice it to say I was thrilled to finally have this entire family baptized.

Finally - an option in the Baptism Rite is the blessing of the lips and ears. That they may hear God's word and proclaim it. Ginni got this on video so lets see if I can get it to load.

More Easter info - Confirmation is next

Its hard to believe its been 6 weeks since Easter already - time flies.

During that time we have had a wonderful visit by friends of ours from MA who now live in VA. Company is always welcome, especially when they are old friends. There is an old ryme "Make new friends, and keep the old, one is silver and the other one is gold". Well it is absolutely true.

Frank and Ellen have known us for a L O N G time and it was a joy to see them again.

Frank and I have always loved fishing and one of our RCIA candidates (I guess I should start calling him a new Catholic now) took us out on his boat. It was a rough day and inevitably we all caught fish but most we returned to the sea.

This is a MARGATE and cooked up very tender.

We have had a few Easter pics given to us from other folks with cameras. This is at the blessing of the fire and you can tell by the fire that the wind was b l o w i n g!

Here is one of me trying to get the Easter Candle into the church without the wind blowing it out or me burning my hand - I was able to do both! Then I had to sing the Exultet - fortunately there were no pictures or recordings of that!

The candle was donated to us by our parish back in Norwood MA. Although it already has had a year's service it is MUCH better than anything we could have gotten here. Thanks St. Tim's!

This is one of the Bahamians we welcomed into the Church during the Easter Vigil. I am at the ready with the chrism as Fr. Frank Herrmann prepares to confirm him.

After Easter is the annual Clergy Retreat. Priests and Deacons go on this retreat together and it was a great time to finally rest after the Easter crunch and wallow in the Lord's presence. It was bitter sweet in that, while the retreat was great, one of the Sacred Hearts fathers who was a great support for us here, retired. The retreat was his last Bahamian event and after 39 years in the Bahamas he will be sorely missed.

Before he left he shipped me some of his books. I took one of them on retreat, a meditation on the Sacred Heart by Bernard Haring. The retreat provided lots of spare time and the book was the highpoint of my retreat, once more I learned about the awesome, overwhelming love of God in a new way.

Another high point of the retreat was my discovery of the graves of the Benedictines who have served on the islands. One of them, Fr. Gabriel Roerig OSB, was the first priest to evangelize the remote 'family islands'. The island he made his home was Andros, my island. He arrived here with his books, and his tools, and basically built his church, built his house, and built the faith of the Bahamian people here into a thriving, living church. When I read about his life I am absolutely blown away with what he accomplished, having so little to work with. But all things are possible with God and, with God, Fr. Gabriel did amazing things. Finding his gravesite was significant for me and I spent one afternoon just praying by the gravesite.

Our next hurdle is Confirmation. After almost 2 years here we have 6 that are of age for Confirmation. 2 had never been baptized so they recieved baptism, eucharist, and confirmation at the Easter Vigil. The remaining 4 will be confirmed on WED night, the Vigil of the Ascension. St. Timothy's usually has Confirmation on the Ascension so I feel a certain kin-ship with the Archbishop coming tomorrow for this blessed event. But that is the topic for the next post.

I should tell you one more tale of life on Andros. Palm Sunday we arrived at the Church in Cargill Creek to find the toilet had overflowed and ran all night. This soaked the rugs in the Sacristy and the Church. In this climate the mold and mildew wasn't far behind. So I put in an insurance claim and we get through Palm Sunday. During Holy Week there is a part of the Good Friday liturgy when the celebrant lies prostrate before the altar (We did a solomn bow so as to avoid the rug).

Eventually the Archdiocese told me the claim was approved, I ask if I can start work and they so go for it. So -- I go buy $2000 worth of tile, hire a mason, and off we go. Well the day the tile arrives at the dock, I meet it with a truck and we take it to Cargill Creek, where the Church has no power. While the trucker unloads the tile I discover that in the circuit breaker box we'd had a fire and all the wires were melted. How the Church didn't burn down is God's doing. So now I need to find an electrician. So I drive back to Fresh Creek and find an electrician willing to come look at it. Then we head off back to Cargill Creek. He sees it and says "O Deacon, dis is bahd". I explained I had a mason arriving in a few hours to start work and he was going to need electricity and he does his best to jury-rig a fix, but says its a patch job and he'll have to come back - fine with me.

Anyway he fixes it just as the mason arrives. Work starts and the Archdiocese calls to tell me that they had changed insurance companies and the approval from the 1st company was invalid since the change had happened prior to the flood and the 2nd insurance company would now need to give its approval. At this point its too late to turn back so I tell them to go get the approval.

While I am waiting for that the work continues and, wonder of wonders, the inside of Christ the King now looks fantastic with a new tile floor - and it was done in time for Sunday services! Now he's working on the Sacristy and I'm sure it'll be great. All I need now is for the insurance money to come in so I can replace what I've already spent.

Next time I must tell you about Confirmation and 'having Church' alongside a caggage field with some migrant Haitians I discovered up north. Run Run Run

Till next time