It is with great pleasure that I contact you again to share with you the projects that are being carried out in our Diocese. They are the fruits of your loving heart and the contribution of our brothers here who voluntarily work hard in all our projects, in every field of our spiritual activities and our humanitarian work.
I am happy to tell you that we are slowly undertaking and carrying out some of our projects thanks to the support that we gladly receive from our brothers in Greece and the willingness of some devout brothers who voluntarily cooperate with us here in the Mission.
As a bishop, I was often confronted with situations that called for immediate action, and this was exactly the time when a miracle was performed. Help would come unexpectedly. As if God had arranged everything before us, and at the given moment, the response was immediate.
By the Grace God and with your kind support, the missionary work continues to move forward. Let me inform you that we have already carried out the foundation of our spiritual center, which will be the center of the Ecclesiastical ministry of the Diocese, and which we need so much, as a New Diocese. For this reason, I am making an earnest appeal to each one of you to show your kind heart and brotherly love and help us as much as possible so that we can continue this great missionary work in our Diocese.
As for our churches, the ones that already exist, we do our best to make them look as decent as possible and we also try to build new churches where the spiritual needs grow along with the flock. As for church equipment,, here in my country it is an issue. Everything comes from Greece. Everything is taken care of by the people who love and sacrifice for their fellow man and the Mission. We would like to express our deep gratitude to the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity of Thessaloniki, which supports our work through their members’ contribution and through the kind donations of known and unknown Mission friends and supporters.
Our schools will open again. One more time we will face the big white eyes of our children, who will be waiting for a notebook, a book, a room, a desk. And when we can give them what they want, we see their joy in their smile. We can also see the joy of these kids’ parents who know that through our Diocese, their children are given the opportunity to receive the basic education that is necessary in their daily life and will help them be self-sustained in the developing society.
The milk we will offer, the vitamin biscuits, the boxes of juice, are what will strengthen their health as well. If they have the physical strength, they will be able to walk a few kilometers to get to their Schools if they are far away, or go there by some means of transport if they have to pay. If not, then they remain where they are without any access to education.
This also applies to medical care. We cannot have medical centers and hospitals everywhere, but we can have branches in our Mission Centers, where the travelling diocesan doctor will offer valuable services and help. A pill, a vaccine for disease prevention is what we can mainly offer.
In the agricultural and livestock sector, which is in progress, we are slowly purchasing the necessary plots of land, private or parochial, where those working on them make a living, just as is the case with stock and poultry farming. However, we do have great needs in this field. For example, our simple farmers in the villages could have better crop production if they had easier access to water wells. Likewise, with the simple hoe, the poor village farmers will do less work than they could if they had even one tractor at their disposal. We still need your help and support. First, we need your prayers for our efforts to be facilitated by the Triune God and then, your financial support to improve our equipment on the farms and at work.
All this takes place under the watchful eye of our Father, His Beatitude Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa who rejoices in the spiritual progress and blesses our work. After all, from the fifty years since his Monastic priesthood, which he completes this year, thirty of them have been a sacrificial offering to whatever country he passed through and ministered as a priest and bishop, but also another twenty years have passed with him as helmsman and Primate of the Throne of the Alexandrian Missionary Church.
We would like to thank you all for your love and support. You all have our eternal gratitude We do not forget the benefits we have received from you. Our prayer is always one of praise to the Triune God, so that He may strengthen you mentally as well as physically.
† Silvester of Jinja and Eastern Uganda
