Dear missionary friends, rejoice in the Lord! First of all, I would like to thank you for your continuous support for the work of our Holy Metropolis, which, with the grace of God and the blessing of our Most Reverend Prefect, Pope and Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria, we are carrying out in far-off Madagascar. The struggle continues, despite all the difficulties we face, both financial and in human resources. But how can we stop such a work, when the Grace of the Holy Spirit goes ahead and opens the way for us to evangelize souls of immortals? When people, living remotely in isolated villages, leave toil and hardship by walking for hours to reach us and beg us to go and indoctrinate them to know the true God and join the body of the church?
Fishermen of souls
Once we went to a village, 1,300 km away from the missionary centre, for baptisms. The journey was a long one and therefore special preparation with all the necessary things was needed, because in such excursions of many days mistakes and omissions are not forgiven. On the way to a very remote village, we stopped for lunch at the little shops along the way. Our presence and appearance piqued the curiosity of the people. Soon enough people gathered around us and the explanation began… and catechism. After giving them several books of our Church, we departed with the promise to go back to this village again. We revisited it and then established a good parish.
Flood of temptations
In the mission field, surprises come one after the other. God gives us pleasant moments, but also tests us with many temptations, labors and difficulties. In the past year we have had many rains and cyclones. In the town of Tulear the river dam broke and the whole river spilled into the town. A large part was flooded and the water in some places exceeded one metre. The damage was too much and thousands of people were left on the streets without basic necessities. Among them were two priests, Our Church did not remain indifferent to the drama of these people. With rich clothing as well as with food, it helped as much as it could for these flooded people. As for the two priests, the rest of our Holy Metropolis cut from their salaries and collected a quite satisfactory amount and helped the two priests to buy several things from what was destroyed. A Holy Church of our Metropolis in this Tsongobory area was filled with water and many items were destroyed. Likewise two other temples; in the Vatolatsaka and Besely areas, the strong winds blew the whole church apart and the temples became inoperable. The priests celebrated Mass outside in the open air. All three of these temples were renovated and after completing the equipment that had been destroyed, they can now function again.
Young Christians and priests
In the last few months, with the grace of God and the efforts of the priests and catechists, several baptisms have taken place in various villages. Fr. Theodosius, Archimandrite of the Holy Metropolis of Ierissos and Mount Athos, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Theoklitos, visited us again this year and together with local priests, they celebrated several baptisms in villages where there were catechumens. We thank both Fr. Theodosius for offering his services to our Metropolis for several years and His Eminence Theokletos for granting him almost two months of leave.
Last November, with the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Theodore, two young men who serve in our Holy Metropolis were ordained. The new ordinands were graduates of our Theological Seminary and will fill a few of the many vacancies facing our parishes. The Theological Seminary is functioning but with many difficulties due to the financial problem that we too have been facing lately.
Economic deadlocks
The crisis is becoming more and more noticeable as time goes by. We are trying to save money and reduce costs as much as possible. In accordance with the advice of our Patriarch, our Holy Metropolis is also trying to create some small work so that it can have income from within the country. Dear brothers and friends of the Mission,
lately we have been going through critical moments. The crisis in Greece and Cyprus has had a significant impact on us. We have reduced our expenses, travel and also our workforce. We have reached the point where we cannot cover the necessary expenses, as well as the salaries of the workers in the mission.
Interruption of programmes
We have already stopped giving the children their morning drink since we took office until now.. The poor children were also deprived of this simple breakfast, because we could not afford to buy biscuits, and so these poor children became poorer, because they go to school and to the jobs they work on hunger. I remind you that about 800 children a day were having breakfast at the mission site, but during school holidays it was over 1200-1300 children a day. The door of the mission is now closed to these barefoot, ragged and belly-swollen poor children, who came from as far as 3 km away.
The same happened with the distribution of food to 130 families every Monday. We are unable to buy food (rice, lentils, beans, corn flour, etc.) because we cannot afford it. This little food helped poor families get through the week so they were not forced to scavenge through the garbage to save the minimal food by selling what they could find, such as paper, nylon and anything they could sell.
Another great project that was stopped is the orphanage. As a building it is finished, but we need you to do a lot more work. The remaining cost of the work is 100,000-120,000 euros.
I am aware of the economic crisis and the situation in our country, but I appeal to our dear brothers and friends of the Mission to help us to continue the works of our Church in far-off Madagascar and your reward is great in heaven. For, according to the prophets,“The poor merciful lends to the poor.” (Proverbs 19:17).
Ignatius of Madagascar
