With the blessing of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria, five more children from South Sudan were catechized and baptized. These children come from a country now plagued by a variety of suffering: civil war, refugees, famine, cholera epidemics and, most recently, an Ebola epidemic. In the midst of all this, survival is a great achievement. By their baptism today, these children are tacitly declaring, to the whole Western society of conformism and indifference to the Church of Christ, that life is not only about survival but goes beyond it, goes beyond the biological instinct, drawing strength and courage for life from the Source of life, which is none other than Christ himself. Their endurance in suffering and their witness in their baptism amply demonstrate their struggle for spiritual life, of which God has made me a witness and it is in this capacity that I bring you the facts.
Dear missionary friends, You and the members of the Orthodox Foreign Missionary Brotherhood are the companions of these children in this struggle. In the sicknesses, the labors, the anxieties, the dangers, you are with us, you make us not feel alone. May God bless you and grace you for all that you offer to the Foreign Mission. With love and appreciation in Christ
† Nubian Narcissus
