Dear brothers,
We received your letter and once again thank you for helping us so that we can continue our small missionary struggle. The day before yesterday I received the remittance of 17,000 euros which you were kind enough to send me for the drilling of five wells. We will now concentrate on this so that we can soon fulfil our promise, of which we will inform you in detail. Today the Orthodox community of Malawi is in mourning. We are all saddened because a very important and beloved member of our Church has passed away. Our newly converted Orthodox indigenous brother and catechist with a fervent missionary zeal, Paul, is no longer with us… His soul has gone to meet the Christ he so loved.
Paul was a model Orthodox Christian. For several years he properly indoctrinated his native brethren. He had a great desire to spread Orthodoxy in his country and regretted that not all Malawians were Orthodox, as in Greece! He was a little theologian! He attended for a year the seminars we gave; he was one of the first to come and he carefully took notes and every week he obtained and transmitted the Orthodox knowledge he drew from the weekly booklets we made available in English and in Chichewa. Among the many he catechized was Priest Ezekiel (the recently ordained priest), who was visibly moved and celebrated the funeral service with Priest Nicodemus. The deceased Paul loved the Orthodox prayer book very much and carried it with him all the time, feeling, as he said, that it was of equal value to the Bible. He marveled at the deep meanings that came out of the inspired prayers of the Evensong and other prayers of the night. He prayed with deep awareness; to him his “prayer book” was his best friend and he insisted and tried to teach and impart this experience to others. In the Diradi area, Paul was one of the first Christians to form a prayer group and to plead daily and “urgently” to God to grant them a Church, and indeed God heard their prayers, for a prominent plot of land was found and purchased in their area, but also a donor was found who would build the Church in the name of St. Anthony. So on the one hand Paul’s soul flew to heaven and on the other hand we begin to make his wish come true and so he will be proud from above and praise God for having heard his prayers. Our beloved Paul even in the last time God sent him his illness (tuberculosis) made us marvel how in the whole time, about 2 months, that we sent him to the hospital, he did not boast once; instead he praised! He had a peace and thanksgiving for everything. As he said: “God gave me the most important gift, right faith. He felt this and was deeply grateful in spite of all his material poverty. He breathed his last at the age of 51 in hospital, in the arms of his wife, a well-meaning convert Orthodox Christian. His soul reverently flew to the Plastis.
It is worth noting that his funeral service was attended by many natives, Orthodox, non-Orthodox and even Muslims, since he was loved by all. He had managed, with the love and peace that characterized him, to reconcile, unite and teach the love of Christ.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Paul deserved until the very last moment of his earthly presence to bring people to an encounter and contact with the Orthodox faith and tradition that he believed and loved so much. And we say this because too many non-Orthodox people gathered at his funeral were amazed, admired and impressed by the grandeur, depth and meanings of the psalms and prayers of the service. They were saying, “what beautiful words you have, who you are, where you are, come and catechize us…”. Wonderful God, who finds ways and calls us to Him. Eternal memory of our brother Paul.
