In the region of Ecuador where we live, there are not four seasons like in Europe, but two major periods: the rainy season and the dry season. Usually the drought lasts longer, so people and animals suffer. It follows that here, then, our country’s data does not exist. For example, in Greece, when you get thirsty, it goes without saying to turn on the tap to drink clean water and, when you get dirty or hot, to press a single button and plenty of water will come out for washing… But in most of Africa, and especially here on the plateaus of Rift Valley, the impoverished Iriga region of central Tanzania, all this is an “unattainable dream”! It is a dream for thousands of children to run to the well near their village to wash and quench their thirst. The vision of having a water system in their homes seems, at least for the next fifty years, very utopian! It is with deep gratitude and emotion that I am writing these lines at this moment, because with the financial support of the Brotherhood of the Orthodox Foreign Mission we have carried out two boreholes in two brutal areas where people are really suffering. Thank God, we found clear and abundant water at a depth of over 100 meters! It’s very sad to see the wet eyes and chapped lips of young children now in the dry season, but the wildlife is still suffering. Elephants, antelopes and giraffes approach residential areas, overcoming their sense of fear to find some water to drink, because they are burning with thirst!
In this corner of the earth, where the Grace of God and the love of our Patriarch has sent us, there is a great need for medical care for our brothers and sisters. Many and strange diseases afflict young children and adults and the need for medical centres is urgent. With our humble means and with timid steps, we have started a clinic at our missionary centre of Kidamali Iriga, where crowds of patients come from the surrounding areas. It turns out that it should be organized under the form of a polyclinic, with various specialties, because the diseases of the people are varied and the health care of the state is rudimentary. The cost of running our clinic, at the moment, amounts to 2.000 € per month. Yet we started with a hand on our hearts and hope in your love! But the love of Christ is always present. One day we were baptizing a group of people, among them was a little girl with some massive pimples full of pus on her head, which, immediately after the baptism, disappeared!
During July, we also held a seminar for clergy candidates, selected from our existing catechists, trying to instill in them the love for the Tradition of our Holy Church and the Priesthood. Our faithful are completely ignorant of our faith and we must teach them the most obvious things. I also want to inform you that we have laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Church of St. John the Theologian in the village of Ibongo, which your Brotherhood provided for us, in memory of our sister Virgin. It is a very important thing for our Church to offer truth and love to our suffering brother everywhere! We are not here to preach Christ distant and indifferent to the daily needs of suffering people, but to witness that Christ is present, beside the needs of his little children, whom we Christians call our brothers and sisters, but many times we are complacently drugged in our long solemn services and the spiritual “unlearning” of our otherwise orthodox experiences. Africa needs hands and hearts that love with works, not with words and theories, for “the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Mt 9:37). With immense gratitude and love of Christ
† Arusas Agathonikos
