Dear friends of the Mission, Rejoice and rejoice in the resurrection joy! And now, when the Resurrection bells are still ringing in our ears, but always… We sit down to write to you and share with you our feelings about the trials our Malawian brethren are going through at this time, due to the extreme weather that has hit the country this year. This year’s Easter came immediately after the devastating passage of a huge natural disaster that hit the country and left its mark on so many homes. Following that incredible and devastating rainfall came many and varied alternate attempts to erase the scars and heal the wounds… The dead are many. The homeless many more and the demolished homes countless.
In general, the sadness is great, but the mobilisation that followed is also moving… Various individuals, organizations, as well as the Brotherhood of the Orthodox Foreign Mission, which is always present in our social emergencies, helped in the management of the tragedy, each in their own way and to the best of their abilities. Many are engaged in rebuilding in demolished schools. Others are supporting and caring for the bereaved, hosting or transferring them to relatives. Our own small mission could not stand idly by in all this grief. There are so many needs in each of our parishes and so few possibilities to take care of all those who ask us for help that we reach dead ends when we have to distribute a few goods to many people in need… We have seen that blankets are a precious and necessary commodity for the indigenous and homeless, as the evening humidity is too much compared to the heat of the day, but, especially now that the southern winter is approaching, they are essential to get through the night in the mud hut. Our blankets have become sought after!
Our mission has decided to distribute 500 blankets, which we are appealing in every direction to collect. Each blanket costs 12 euros. The more we collect, the better for our brothers and sisters. Surely, feeling the warmth, on cold winter evenings (July and August), they will also remember the donors and reflect prayers to the Most High God for them.
Yet, brothers, as difficult as it is to face the sudden death of your loved ones, to face the demolition of your home, to be left overnight orphaned or homeless, it is just as common here in Malawi to leave the pain behind and throw yourself into the daily struggle and fight for survival with all your might. So, despite all the biblical disasters that occurred and the various wounds that opened up in every home, the local parishes humbly went on with their program and so each parish went through Lent to the Resurrection of Lazarus and through the solemn entry into Jerusalem in Holy Week of the Passion. How much the solemn hymns of our Orthodox Church touch the souls of Africans! How our souls rejoice to see that each parish is doing its part and in small steps experiencing and feeling more and more each year the truths of our faith. And of course the joy of the Resurrection comes and redeems all of us who humbly joined in the Passion of our Lord. How the Resurrection fills us! We all experience it in the Church and let us not have enough words to express it. But you see how everyone rejoices, especially the new converts to our faith, who take the red egg and crack it and laugh. And how much joy there is in that Easter meal that each parish offers to all its parishioners, and they all get together and eat together and rejoice as in the early years of our Church with the loves. Thanks to the generous offer of a donor, this year a large truck brought sacks of flour to each parish and everyone ate and was full and happy and exchanged the resurrection greeting with each other. And thanks to the same donor, eggs were given by the hundreds, which the natives learned to dye in their own way and crack them and exclaim “Kristu Auka” and respond “Zona di Auka“.
Brethren, our emotions are as mixed as the events that surround us! They are thus bound up with the joyful with the sad and the joyful with the sad. But believe us this daily pain is also our salvation. It is this pain that brings us back from our slips and deviations from the desirable and redemptive path to our Creator through our fellow man. It is through privations and afflictions that each of our well-appointed ship is launched for the journey of eternity for which we were created.
Because, however much security a well-lived and untroubled life may inspire, it is still a part of the eternal life that has been created for us and that through His Passion, Sacrifice and Resurrection our Lord Jesus Christ taught us and showed us that He exists and is waiting for us… This goal, brothers and sisters, I wish from the bottom of my heart that all of us may achieve it, working with all our strength to soothe the suffering of our fellow man, to merit to come closer to Him whom we so believe and love. Amen! Rejoice, brothers and sisters, for Christ is truly risen!
Priest Hermolaus – Malawi
