Dear brothers and sisters, “my joy and my crown” as the great Apostle of the Gentiles Paul writes,
My heart is full of feelings of praise and thanksgiving to the Holy God, the true God, who has merited us in His infinite mercy, to know and, though undeservedly, to serve with the highest rank of the Priesthood, that of Orthodox Bishop, and even in the Foreign Mission of our Church in the continent of the future of Orthodoxy, Africa.
But let me open my heart wide before our Lord and give Him a big, big thank you for giving me an extension of my life “a time of repentance”, as our Church calls it, as He gave then in the Old Testament to Hezekiah, the King of the Jews.
Yes, my brothers. I believe that I was not worthy and ready to enter “into the glory of His saints” because “the soul’s soul is not of the marriage, and the bonds of the angels are cast out,” as the prayer before Holy Communion says.
Glory, therefore, and thanksgiving to the Infinite Love of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
However, my dear readers and contributors of the prestigious Foreign Mission magazine, I must confess that, while I had health problems, with the grace of Christ and the intercession of St. Panteleimon, I decided to go to my Province, in Malawi, to prepare my things and to receive the prefabricated, in Greece, prefabricated, in two containers, the little Church of St. Panteleimon.
At this point I would like to reiterate my thanks to the President Mr.Charalambos Metallidis and the members of the Board of Directors of the Orthodox Foreign Missionary Brotherhood, because they approved, despite the financial difficulties that existed, the costs of transporting the Church from Thessaloniki to Malawi. It was a long trip, a lot of expenses for two containers. It should be noted that Malawi has no sea! Of course, one family contributed, and we were grateful to them as well.
So my brothers, my health being affected, the crown came into the body and the crown and things became very difficult.
I was in danger. But the embassy of St. Panteleimon did not abandon me.
What do you say, then, my blessed supporters? Should not the project be completed and the chapel of the Saint be placed at its destination, namely, at the headquarters of the Holy Diocese?
I think you will agree with this in practice, offering what you can in this difficult period for all of us.
The base is already being prepared, in order to place the chapel. And it’s not just these expenses. The customs, the tax office, the transport from the port of Beira in Mozambique, the craftsmen from Greece who will install it with the helpers from Malawi and many other things have to be paid.
To conclude this humble article I would like to ask your Love to continue your support for our struggle, especially through your prayers, and God will open the ways and increase the fruitfulness.
We have many fronts to fight on. But above all, the Bishop is the Spiritual Father of clergy and laity.
We are dealing, my brethren, with souls for whose sake Christ died. Of course, as you know, we need to be close to them and to their material needs. At the moment there is an outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Our pastoral care is quite focused on this issue.
But it is true, my brothers and sisters, that the costs of running a province in Africa and offering work are enormous.
Your support, your contribution through the Orthodox Foreign Missionary Brotherhood is invaluable. We thank you and are grateful to you.
And we wish from the bottom of our hearts that the God of Love, Mercy and Merit, may claim you to “preside over good works”, so that your faith may be “acted upon with love”.
We wish and pray that God will bless you and sanctify you with His Grace and that He will merit for you His eternal good things that He has prepared for those who love Him and His Image, man.
† Malawi Photios
