I have been trying to write to you for quite some time now, but life concerns have been keeping me away. When we talk about life concerns, we mean the efforts for the daily struggle to keep the Diocese as well as the missionary work alive.
Apart from the construction of churches, schools and surgeries, there are functional expenses that should be covered, too. If I were alone, I wouldn’t mind. What I do mind though, is the priests and the little children we have with us, two Greek-African kids from a Greek father and an African mother. Both parents have died, so we have undertaken raising them.
There are plenty of things we have to take care of: the priests, their cassocks, their families, the scholarships we grant, the common meals and the medical care for a large number of little children and elderly people.
The conditions in the countries of our diocese are not good. In Burundi there is political upheaval, there are no phones, and everything has risen by 200%. How can these people survive? They cannot find either gas cylinders or charcoal to cook with. An absolute chaos!
I have been here for a couple of days now and disappointment and fear can be seen on the faces of young and old, who rush to the mission centers asking for help. The instruction I give to the priests and partners of the Mission is to be restrained and only promote the urgent medical cases of the children in need because our financial condition does not allow for more, and I honestly do not know how long we will be able to bear such rises and such a severe situation.
I very much wanted to write to you about Rwanda, where there is a serious problem on the border with Congo, and a war in full progress between guerillas and the army. However, I preferred to share with you these difficult missionary cases that all of us experience on this African land. Burundi is the most difficult country, and in this extremely difficult period for Greece, we are trying to develop the missionary, social and humanitarian work which has been assigned to us by the reverend Head of the Church of Alexandria.
Who knows God’s plans though? We can only be praying:
“Direct the works of our hands to Your will, and guide us to do those things gratifying to you, so that through us, the unworthy, Your all-holy name is glorified…”
Savvas of Burundi & Rwanda
