Friends of the Mission, Hail in the Lord always. It has been twenty years since the Most Gracious God led me to the Mission. In 1996, the blessed Metropolitan of Kampala and All Uganda, Mr. Theodore Nankyama, came to Greece, gravely ill. When I went to see him, he begged me to come down with him to Uganda to help the Foreign Mission. I really lost it, because Mr. Theodore was everything to me. He had picked me up from a main street in Kampala where I was running around like a stray dog and took care of everything for me. “What am I to do now that he is ill?” thought I. I’ll go for a while and as soon as he’s well, I’ll come back to Greece.” Unfortunately, Mr. Theodore did not get well, but he slept in the Lord. At his funeral I saw something that shocked me. It was the orphaned, poor and stray children that the Despot had gathered near him. They all had one question: “Who will take care of us from now on?” Then I heard a voice inside me, saying, “I”; and indeed that day I decided to stay close to these children.
In the same year, 1997, the new Bishop of Kampala and All Uganda, Mr. Jonah, appointed me parish priest of the historic parish of Transfiguration in the village of Degeya. A historic parish because this was the first parish of the native Africans of the Orthodox Church. I wrote my first letter to Panagiotis Papadimitrakopoulos – eternal memory! In a few days I had received a substantial amount of money for the orphanage. From then until today the Brotherhood has not left my side. Many times it has helped us in soup kitchens, in rebuilding two elementary schools in the area and in educational adoption. Two children have studied up to university, we have built a health centre in memory of the late Panagiotis, we have acquired a mill, a tractor, and the church of Saints Constantine and Helen is being completed. We are very grateful to you! Fifteen children from the orphanage have been ordained priests, led by Father Paul Nzalambi, the new archpriestly commissioner of the Diocese of Kampala and All Uganda, and Hieromonk Father Prodromos, abbot of the first male monastery in Uganda. Six girls from the orphanage have become priestesses. Three girls have become nuns, led by Sister Mary, the abbess of the first female convent of St. Mary. In a few weeks, three more girls are leaving for Rhodes to try out for a nunnery and prepare for the foundation of a second women’s convent. Many teachers, teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, police officers, catechists and catechists…
We continue to wait for your contributions to keep the centres of supply open as much as we can. We wish you all the grace and blessing of the Lord and many happy missionary years.
π. John Kibuuka
