Dear members of the Missionary Brotherhood, rejoice in the Lord! I am pleased to announce that four days ago we broke ground on the foundation of the Lord’s Resurrection Church here in Blantyre. I am sending you photos today, so you can see the beginning of the work. Pray that God will merit us in six months to finish it. The contractor, who undertook it, is very good and experienced. He is moving at a fast pace and with the supervision of an architect and engineer. I would like to announce to you now and the very good news. Now that we have started the church, we have already planned that in the future we will need to build a house for a priest, a nursery, a reading room and the necessary utilities for the parishioners. Seeing the plot of land together with the contractor and the architect, we saw that we would have to make the church a little smaller, so that in the future it would fit the other buildings. I repeat that the reduction is minimal, but I feel compelled to mention it to you. That is, instead of 350 sq. m. it will become 320 sq. m. The second important thing I have to write to you is: I humbly acknowledge my mistake about the total cost of the church. I originally told you 90,000 euros (plus 10,000 euros for the interior). Now the church will cost 75,000 euros (8,000 euros because of the reduction of 30 square meters) and 7,000 euros less because the bills of the first contractor I had were wrong (and of course he didn’t get the job). So now that we have settled down and the project has started with the new contractor and a very good Christian, we have found out that the 320 sqm church will cost 75,000 euros (plus 10,000 euros for the interior equipment: seats, icons, altars, bishop’s throne, altar, etc.). You have already given us the 20,000 euros and there are 55,000 euros left. I apologise for my mistake. Of course it’s my inexperience, but it’s also the fault of my colleagues. Here in Malawi, finding people who are reliable, intelligent and right is very difficult. Every day we suffer from various people who, because they are hungry, will engineer anything to take advantage of us. And that is why, I have decided, all the materials needed for building should go through me, I buy them and give them to build. But even when the church was completed, of course, if we had spent less, I would have told you, because above all is a clear conscience and honesty. That is what I had to write to you in this letter. I hope you were pleased. God bless you all. Happy Resurrection
From the Orthodox Mission of Malawi
π. Hermolaus
P.S. Bishop Joachim will visit us in May and will then lay the foundation stone, albeit belatedly. I will then send you an extensive article and photos of the ceremony.
