“In time, to be against the weather is as honorable as being alone… To be alone…”
–
Saints
Dear brethren in Christ, rejoice in the Lord always, It is a fact that the difficulties through which our country has been passing in recent years have had a serious impact on several areas of the apostolic work – as its expression has been consolidated in the vineyard of Africa over the last sixty years. But in spite of all the difficulties, we can say that we are walking by the grace of our Lord, who is with us every day in our difficulties, “living” and “in much evidence”, blessing and transforming our little efforts and our chants into a fruitful, fruitful and very fruitful seed. With the “holy words” of our brothers from all over the world we try to comfort the needs of our African brothers and even those belonging to “sensitive social groups”, such as people with special needs – the disabled – who often, for lack of basic transport and rations, cannot participate in social life with the same rights as the milkmen. And unfortunately in Africa, besides occupying a marginalized position in society, surviving in miserable conditions and through begging, they are marginalized by unimaginable social superstitions and superstitions, so that their physical toil is compounded by an unimaginable daily difficulty even in the simplest things.
In cooperation with IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities), an official charitable organization of the Holy Archdiocese of America, we received a number of wheelchairs and various other aids for people with special needs, which were sent to the Ministry of Education of the country for cases of students with mobility problems, and which unfortunately remained – many of them – in warehouses, because there is no budget for transporting them to the various schools of the country. Starting from people we found on the streets and from information from various sources we were able to distribute almost everything we had received… Let the emotion, gratitude and wishes of those who received it be an eternal testimony and prayer before the Throne of God for those who offered and participated in one way or another in this whole effort… Another donation for the repose of a deceased brother was used – in part – to support the families of people with special needs and to provide food for orphanages for abandoned children… It’s hard to describe many times such situations… But we will describe an incident, in order to understand what we said above about the difficulties of people with special needs, who constantly cry out before us “I have no man…” (John 5:7) : When it was learned that the Orthodox Church gives some financial aid to people with special needs, after a while and when we had already finished with those we had gathered that day, we saw a handicapped man running in on a wheelchair pushed by a big and sedentary man … We thought it was a relative of the disabled man.
but when he approached us, we saw that the man pushing the cart was… blind! And they had walked a long way together through the heavy traffic… The crippled man guided his blind brother, hoping for God’s mercy. which for the occasion was the small donation of our Church…
With the donation, sensitivity and understanding of the Missionary Association “Saint Oikumenios”, five mopeds were purchased for five priests serving more than two ecclesiastical communities, thus reducing travel expenses and providing the possibility for the various remote communities to function normally and not peripherally due to difficulties in moving the responsible priest. Acts of charity are secret acts of charity, according to “let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Mt 6:3) and are not church news, because they are closely connected with the life and being of the church. However, they are published from time to time as testimonies of love, as blossoms of charity, for the “fine calculation” of our weak brethren and “lest the ministry be bruised” (2 Cor. 6:3). Nevertheless, there are also testimonies of those who, in times of adversity – and in the stubbornness of those who, with scant ecclesiastical education and inexperienced faith, in hidden works and words, consider the cause of the Apostolic work “worn out” or unnecessary and discredit it unutterably – continue to hold Thermopylae, “never moving from the debt…”. The love of our Lord Jesus Christ to all of you, brothers.
† Cameroon Gregory
