Dear members of the Brotherhood, dearfriends and colleagues,
Rejoice in the Lord always!
Through this letter I wish to inform you about my missionary tours in the LUWERO region since the beginning of the year and the situation I found in each parish and in each Orthodox community. Wherever I went, I did Mass, preaching and catechesis.
9/01/2010
I visited the Orthodox Community of St. Kosmas KAYINDU and the Divine Liturgy was held in a tent. Because it had rained the night before, or mud was everywhere. When I arrived there were ten people and I was worried but soon many people came. This community is newly formed and came out of my main parish, Metamorphosis. It has nothing yet, no property, no church and no school. The Community has two hundred and twenty people and in a Christian’s yard they put up a tent every Sunday for Catechism and Divine Word. My prayer is that we will soon find a donor to help the Fellowship.
16/01/2010
I visited the Orthodox Community of St. Luke KABONGE. It is one of the first communities of our Church and when I took it over it was in a terrible state. Now it has a small chapel with a congregation of one hundred and twenty people, a primary school with seven hundred children and an orphanage with one hundred children. Ten years ago this school had fourteen children. The serious problem is the lack of a priest’s house and classrooms.
30/01/2010
I visited the parish of St. Luke KABONGE BOMBO, one of the first parishes of the Orthodox Church in Uganda. Fourteen years ago it was in a very bad state. Now we are talking about a small but well-organized parish with one hundred and twenty people, a primary school with seven hundred children and an orphanage with one hundred children. Serious problems are the lack of a priest’s house (the office) and classrooms. For seven hundred children we have five classrooms and the church necessarily houses one classroom!
6/02/2010
I visited the parish of St. Silas KALAGALA-BOMBO. It is the first parish, created from the central parish of Transformation. The Metropolis of Philippi Kavala built us a church. We have purchased five acres for schools. The parish has three hundred and two people. The serious problem is the lack of a school.
13/02/2010
I visited the parish of St. John Chrysostom GAVVU-KIBIRIZI. It is newly established with five hundred and sixty people. The Brotherhood helped us and we built four classrooms and the Metropolis of Philippi built us a church. The school is in its second year of operation with two hundred and fifty children up to grade four. We are seven classrooms short of seven classrooms to be fully operational. On 01/13/2010 we baptized one hundred and fifteen people in this parish!
20/02/2010
I visited the parish of St. Nektarios LUNYOLYA. It is also newly established and with very good prospects. It has three hundred and seventy people. Mr. Stylianos (Orthodox Kypseli) is helping us for the church of the Saint. My dream is to organize a St. Nektarios Center here, which will be a nursery of Orthodoxy in the area.
π. John Kibouka
