Beloved brethren, rejoice in the Lord. With the blessing of our Archbishop Joachim, we experienced Easter again this year in Malawi. Through the solemn and glorious services of Holy Week, we are happy to note that this Easter, the Resurrection joy touched and filled with light and hope many African hearts… Great is our joy that every day we see the newly founded parish of Resurrection being blessed and claiming spiritual joys… The gratitude of the parishioners is daily growing and manifesting itself and, as the Primary School has long been in operation, the number of children is increasing! This parish and the Primary School, next to the Church, is a pure confession of faith, as parents, passers-by and students are becoming more and more interested, asking to learn about our faith and increasingly understanding and perceiving the truth and uniqueness of Orthodoxy! For this reason, we take great care in curating our teaching program. Thus,
in addition to the official state program, our school also follows an Orthodox program suitable for slowly sowing the seed of Orthodoxy in the souls of both children and teachers.
Thus, a lending library with Orthodox books in English and in Chichewa was established at the school, from which students and teachers can borrow books. Classes begin every day with all students saying the trisagion and the symbol of our faith in both languages. Every Friday, the parish priest Fr. Nicodemus speaks to the entire school about our Orthodox faith for an hour. Also, once a month there is a Holy Mass and a Divine Liturgy, where the whole school participates. In this way some children grow up in the embrace of the Orthodox faith.
Our school in the state exams, out of 700,000 students, was ranked 20th in passing! This is a great miracle and blessing of Christ and Our Lady, considering that we opened just 2 years ago and so the grace and blessing of the Most High God is clearly shown. Perhaps this is the reason why some people hated us and tried to put a spell on us and generally tried to slander and slander us unjustly. However, this great success has had a great impact and everyone speaks highly of the Orthodox Church. We are really so encouraged by the Primary School of the Holy Resurrection Church that we are asking God and you to find a donor and build us a High School in the same town as the Primary School, in Blantyre. This will contribute to giving a complete education and formation, where the faith is offered to them properly and unadulterated. Dear brethren, we implore you, you who are always on our side, to listen to this noble desire of ours and become helpers to the best of your ability. This work is urgent, since the children who have reached the end of the 6th grade are in a hurry to continue their studies in a high school. We ask God to find a donor for the High School. Finally, we will not fail to thank the dear brethren who have offered our Mission the opportunity to drill 7 (seven) more wells, thus bringing the precious commodity of water close to our poor Malaysian brethren. We wish to all that the resurrection joy may accompany us daily and illuminate all kinds of difficulties we face. Amen.
π. Hermolaus Iatrou
