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Memories from Fr. Cosmas of Gregoriou

By
Orthodox Missionary Fraternity
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On January 27, 30 years will have been completed since the unexpected departure for the Lord of the pioneer missionary priest Fr.Cosmas of Gregoriou, who with his unparalleled diligence watered the roots of the Orthodox Mission and made it grow deeper and settle in the land of Katanga, in Southern Congo.

From the very first moment, the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity stood by his side and published his letters regularly from the day he went to Africa in August 1975 to the end. We regularly sent him financial assistance and listened to his concerns.

To honor his sacred memory, we publish in our magazine one of his letters that dates back to 1985.

Kolwezi, September 24, 1985

Dear Doctor, rejoice in the Lord along with Mrs. Elli and your good associates.

As you know, in our area, AIDS has afflicted 10% of the population. About 60% suffer from venereal diseases, tuberculosis and so many other epidemic diseases, such as cholera, etc. Therefore, no matter how many measures one can take, one will not be able to escape the nets of the epidemics unless God protects him.

This week we are struggling to cope with a heavy workload in all fields. Yesterday I was in Likasi to serve our faithful there. From there, I sent Father Petros to Lubumbashi, along with other priests, to baptize about 80 children of Christians. I have sent you the two names you asked for. Apart from the heavy workload, we are confronted with temptations from the devil, who follows us in close pursuit in order to tire us and be able to move unhindered. The day before yesterday, while the boarding school children were on the way to the boarding school, they were attacked by tramps that threw stones at them and ripped apart their coats.

Within the precincts of Saint Nektarios church, which is located in the suburb, we began an effort to start a convent with seven girls as novice nuns. The girls are struggling, but Satan is furious and has launched a terrible war against us. These days, we are enclosing the monastery with a stone wall. It has been three days now that tramps have been hanging around the wall in the evening hours, as in the case of Lot when they were asking for the angels, and have been calling us names, because, according to them, these girls are supposed to be free to go with them and not be closed in like European chickens in a poultry farm, and other things like that.

Two days ago, the truck with the workers from the forest was late to come. So, at about 10 o’clock in the evening, on our way there with Fr. Cyril and two young men to see what was happening, we had a puncture. At that time, the one lad, Alexis, started to walk in the night, crossing 12 km of forest to get the spare wheel with another car and return. Fr. Cyril stayed inside the car, and the writer along with the other young man, Andreas, walked 7 kilometers in the forest to find the truck. I do not mention all this stuff about the forest for the adventure, but because such incidents comprise a part of our everyday life. What I want to emphasize here is the temptations of Satan. In both the first and the second youth that I sent to the premises of a company to make a phone call (if there was a telephone), a column of fire («Tshiyeye») appeared 3 times to the first and 4 to the second in order to scare them and intimidate them. They prayed the rosary and continued walking trembling. Scared though they were, they took up prayer again.

It was past midnight when I reached the area of temptations. There was a nearby village where live magicians, who do terrible things!

Such incidents that last for three to four days need to be dealt with promptly. Besides these, there are other urgent matters, like the orphans, the flock of faithful, conducting worship services, our missionary journeys, damage and machinery repairs, all issues that cannot be postponed, therefore, it is only natural that we are exhausted. That’s why over exhaust has become a permanent situation in our everyday reality.

Thank you for the two million drachmas that you sent us, one for the poor and one for the boarding school.

With love in Christ,
Archim. Cosmas

Energizing the Mission

By
Charalampos Metallides
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As a man of Overseas Mission, I have long wanted to write down a few thoughts of mine. It has been years since His Eminence Metropolitan of Kinshasa -with tears of anguish and pain accompanied by fervent prayer- started to knock on doors imploring assistance in a matter that is self-evident: the financial sustainability of the only Theological School that exists in Africa, in the city of Kinshasa. All this time his sole concern has been to keep it open, as this precious spiritual beehive, created in Central Congo by the grace of Christ, this unique spiritual center where young people are studying Orthodox Theology, is the future of the Black Continent and the pride of the Church.

The operating costs are unmanageable. Along with the region’s only Orthodox radio station, they exceed the amount of € 9,000 per month. Our anguish peaked when His Eminence Archbishop Nikiforos told us that the School and the station were on the verge of closure. Electric power in the area is available during the late evening and for only a few hours; as a result, the daily needs of the School can only be met with the help of oil generators, the use of which greatly increases the operational costs.

It is sad and at the same time humiliating for an Orthodox Mission after so many years of presence to be unable to maintain a Theological School whose teaching staff includes University Professors as well, and a radio station. We will end up as an example to be avoided and as the laughing stock of the other denominations. This is why, with the help of God, we have set a sacred goal : that of gathering our forces to get solar panels bought and built so that free electric power will be generated for the needs of our orthodox brothers.

In this project, which is of vital importance, we seek your support and make an earnest appeal to you for assistance.

Charalampos Metallidis
President of the Board

Incense Scent in the Heart of Africa

By
Catherine Alexandrou
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Where the sky smiles and the earth assents, there is a miracle unfolding in front of you, as Orthodoxy takes its first steady steps!

This time we are here in Southern Congo at the Holy Diocese of Katanga, whose see is in Kolwezi. Reaching this destination, you behold a small organized city: St. George’s Church, the episcopal office with the radio station, the hostels, the boarding school, the hall of events and seminars, the school building complex with Primary, Middle and High School, as well as warehouses, where the farm products of the Mission are stored.

His Eminence Meletios surrounded us with cordial hospitality throughout my stay along with Mrs. Angeliki Arnaouti, educator and secretary of the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity. Missionary Fr. Efthimios co-ordinated our program, attended to our needs, and at the same time oversaw all missionary work. Mrs. Theano, a formidable figure called «mother of the Mission», gave her tireless and cordial love daily, as she has been doing for 30 years now.

The Mission in Kolwezi began in 1972 from the late missionary Fr. Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos, the spiritual founder of our Fraternity. In 1973 he was succeeded by Father Amphilochios Tsoukos, who called over John, later Father Cosmas of Gregoriou, who, with his sacrificial love and offer, consolidated the edifice of the Mission. Behind St. George’s Church is the grave of the late Fr. Cosmas, to whom we bow, paying tribute! He fell asleep in the Lord on January 27, 1989, after a road accident.

Since 1989 his work has been continued by His Eminence Meletios, who has been rapidly increasing and enriching the legacy he has received. What he is particularly vigilant about is the spiritual training of the locals in the Orthodox Faith, transferring the spirit of the Athonite tradition into the liturgical life and instilling into them the experience of inner truth. For this reason, there are monthly seminars for priests, catechists and chanters, which are organized every year.

Today, 160 parishes and over 60,000 Orthodox Christians are under the supervisory jurisdiction of the Holy Metropolis of Katanga. Another concern of the Mission is the consolidation of monasticism, which is the reason for the creation of the Holy Apostles Monastery a few years ago. All this time Abbot Barnabas has been making superhuman efforts for its proper operation. There is also a convent, that of Saint Nektarios, with 5 nuns and their Abbess, Mother Markella. The native nuns also serve at the administration of the Mission Hospital.

By running our daily schedule, we arrived at the wonderful hospital, whose operation is perfect and exemplary. There, I was given a comfortable practice room to conduct daily ophthalmological tests to the residents of Kolwezi.

Our account at the end of the trip was full of rich experiences. I feel deeply touched by these people, whose life is filled with devoutness, joy and gratitude, for the gates of the Orthodox Mission were opened to them, and they were offered the treasure of Truth.

Waiting in the queue for pumping clear water

And now on the way back, I am thinking of our little homeland, Greece, where there is a tree planted like the one that produces incense. For the incense to spurt from the tree trunk as a distillate, the tree has to be carved in many spots, exuding the product with the finest fragrance all over the world, from East to West and from North to South! The more they wound this «tree», the more intensely the fragrance of Greek Orthodox culture is offered as a sacrifice to the peoples of this world!

Katerina Alexandrou
Ophthalmologist – Board Member

Thoughts on Mission

By
Fr. Porphyrios of Mount Olympus
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Traveling to Africa for the first time, I came across an unprecedented landscape… An awesome scenery of rare beauty and uniqueness was unwinding in front of me, but at the same time unknown and dangerous, perhaps because of the many diseases that plague the black continent.

It seems that varied and intense feelings are generated in people involved in Mission. The thoughts that follow are a testimony of the soul. I had the impression that I was going to help in the Mission, but finally, when I saw children smiling and eyes glittered with joy, I realized that the one who was finally being helped was me.

Many people are looking for diamonds and rubies in the earth, ignoring the fact that offering joy and hope to our fellow human being is the most precious thing in the world. It is worth knowing to offer ourselves unconditionally, without limitations, barriers and borders.

The children are the future and the hope of the world, they are our children and have equal rights in life. We do not have the right to remain indifferent to their suffering and cry and overlook their anguish, especially when this becomes a struggle for survival. All together we can work the miracle and change their everyday life. It is our duty, our obligation…

When I first beheld all this huge work, I felt it was immeasurable. Then I drew courage from a story that I was told by His Grace Father Agathonikos:

A little girl was on a beach trying to save all the starfish that had been washed ashore and eagerly threw them back into the water one by one to help them live. But there were millions of starfish out of the water. At some point, her grandfather approached her and told her that it was impossible to save all the starfish. Then she looked at the palm of her hand where she was holding a starfish and said, looking into her grandfather’s eyes: “But at least, I can save the one that I am holding”, and she gently tossed it back into the sea to live.

If all of us care about the «starfish» that fall on our way, then our world may slowly change … What Mission really needs most, though, is not the money as such, but human hearts with courage, a deep sense of honor, duty and self-sacrifice.

Let us turn our thoughts to the Crucified Jesus, whose sacrifice did not concern a single nation or a group of people but was addressed to the entire world, regardless of color and language. Besides, the commandment of the Lord is clear: «Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”.

Archimandrite Porphyrios
Chancellor of the H. M. of Arusha

Where God Really Wanted…

By
Fr. Polycarpos of Agia Anna
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Wherever one serves the Lord and the Church, it is there that he finds joy and rest. This is the law and the criterion. The distinguishing feature which makes the man truly attracted and renders him unable to resist this inconsolable power, this mystical calling which will not hesitate to ask for even the ultimate sacrifice. What our Lord in John’s Gospel mentions as the highest of all sacrifices: «Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”, (John 15:13). Therefore, it is until there that one has to walk…

Yes, even as far as there, in these dark paths of death, which, though, hide in them the Light and Peace of Christ. When one looks at the Crucified Christ, behind the real pain of our Lord, behind His full of blood face and His firmly shut eyelids, His bloodstained Most Holy Body, one can distinguish three things: the first is obvious and, of course, it is nothing else but the ultimate sacrifice on the Cross. The second is immediately visible after the first one, and it is the form of His Most Holy Body which, though nailed to the Holy Tree, with modesty and humility takes His last breath on earth, His arms open, ready to embrace man, His child, who at that moment becomes His enemy and puts Him up on the wood of the Cross, which until then was considered utterly dishonorable. This is how our Lord delivers His spirit. This is the reason why the Wood which takes His form is consecrated, and now becomes the overwhelming and noble trophy against the devil. Finally, behind all this, if one wants to look carefully, one will distinguish two great things: Peace and Rest. «This is the day of rest». Indeed, there is no other greater donation, other expectation, other ending than the rest which the fine iconographer depicts on the face of Crucified Jesus.

These three things, sacrifice love and rest of the soul, are the ultimate criteria for the choices we make in our life. Where one finds them, one should never let go of them but should keep them as something truly valuable, which will shine in front of them and help them go through the difficult times in life.

Ankilibe. Our few personal belongings have been loaded into the pirogue. I help our two guides, faithful lads of our coastal parish, to drop it into the water of the Indian Ocean. Golden blue sea! The wind, tired of blowing for so long, weak as well as aged but not forgotten companion of the South, comes and kisses the sail of the pirogue that we have already raised, and with as much strength has been left in it, blows it to the opposite shore. The burnt by the sun and the salt bodies of our two faithful guides, figures I had forgotten, are now passing again before my eyes, fighting with the sea, and driving the pirogue with the paddles where God really wanted …to the opposite shore.

Soalary. The opposite shore of the Bay of Toliara. It is late in the evening now, and all of us tired, disembark at the shore. We leave the pirogue on the beach and keep on walking. Anxiety reaches its highest point. We go through the village market. People can hardly remember you. Your feet are sinking in the sand, and now you are standing outside the hut of one of the catechumens. The voice comes out easily but your guts are burning inside of you as your anxiety is growing. «Where are you! I am the priest. «The father’s figure bashfully appears in the dark. He approaches me and greets me. He does not seem to have realized what is going on around him. He comes closer and embraces me. His arms tighten up around me. «Father, we did not expect to see you again.» We stayed up until late at night and we were talking. He was a father to seven children, one of whom, a little boy, had a hernia. Before I left, I had given him some money to have the child operated but I had also told him to pray for his child because God could heal it. The father, a simple-hearted man, said that during my absence, he had not forgotten my words and that his child had been cured without being operated. Simple, pure hearts, hearts that we, the people of the modern world, have denied and forgotten. People with simple faith; poor creatures that struggle really hard to support their children and family. However, it is these people who see the miracle. We have ceased to see the wonders of life. The miracle of God.

Now in the poor but so beautifully and warmly prepared hut, I can hear the sound of the waves of the Indian Ocean. The images seem to be rolling like a movie inside of you. The serene song of the sea. The children’s laughs. The catechetical sessions in the makeshift grass huts that are used as temporary churches. The sacred services underneath the «kili»trees, the traditional trees of the south. The people’s complaints. The poor mother who is trying to breastfeed her little toddler from her withered breasts and asks for a little money to buy rice, some medicine. The songs of our youth, our festivals, the confessions under the sun, the baptisms, the diseases, the dangers, the hands of the robber, our dead children, the tears, the pain, a whole life!

The sun is already rising and the bodies, dark figures, like the spirits of the people who you loved and who followed you to the distant land of ordeal, now come to life beside you, and you see them again struggle along with you so that you can reach where God really wanted!

Fr. Polycarpos of Hagia Anna

Our new church in Ibongo

By
Bishop Agathonikos of Arusha
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Dear Brothers in Christ,

Lately, in the blessed field of Mission and always by the grace of God, we have experienced many and great blessings which I wish to share with you because to a great extent, we owe their realization to you.

On July 30th, we conducted the service for the laying of the foundation stone of the Church dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior and to St. Porphyrios the Kapsokalyvite in the village of Ingagidugu, which is perched on a beautiful mountain at a height of 2,000 meters. For many years we were performing the Divine Liturgy in a grass hut, which has recently been burned down; the only thing that was not destroyed in the fire was the carton where the Holy Vessels were kept! Our sorrow for the destruction of the grass hut was replaced by relief thanks to the immediate response of your Fraternity and your wish to rebuild a stone church, which to us sounded like an answer to our prayers from Heaven. It seems that the Lord Himself is undertaking this work in His Almighty hands, and we are merely His laborers who minister to His plans.

In August, an important project was completed; that of the bore drilling next to the Church of St. John the Theologian in Ibongo. We found a subterranean river at a depth of 110 meters in an area where the land is totally barren and burned-up, and both humans and livestock were suffering from severe water scarcity for many years. On the Feast day of St. John the Theologian, that is to say, on September 26th, in the same village, we performed the church dedication as well as the first Divine Liturgy in the aforementioned church, whose construction was also funded by your revered Fraternity. A large number of faithful were gathered to venerate the Saint and render thanksgiving for the bore drilling and the beautiful church, which admittedly is the gem of the region. With one heart and one voice we prayed to the Merciful Lord for the repose of the soul of His servant Parthena, who did not live long enough to rejoice her own gift, the beauteous church that she herself donated. Undoubtedly, her tender soul from Heaven will be able to see it and will be filled with pride and joy.

We say in our homeland, «One swallow does not make a summer,» which is true, because Mission and the Evangelization of nations is not the work of man, but a mandate which was given to the whole of the Church. This is what I was thinking on the way to a remote area, where we were invited to talk about our Orthodox faith. It is an area four hours distance by car, south of our Mission Center in Iringa region, where the inhabitants heard about our Church and with genuine interest and thirst for God, asked us to visit them. It is strange for the human mind to understand the manifold ways in which the Divine Grace works!

It was there, in that distant village, Masenge, in the area of Dabanga in southern Tanzania that the people first heard about the Orthodox Church two thousand years after Christ! They were savoring our words like rain falling on a thirsty land. For four hours, they were incessantly inquiring about our holy faith, thus revealing an unquenchable thirst to learn everything. They asked us not to forget them and visit them again to prepare them to receive the Holy Baptism. I could not help thinking then, “Where are the laborers of the vineyard? Where are the new priests who will undertake the holy mission of spreading the Word of God and preaching the Gospel? Unfortunately, lately, we the Orthodox have been competing with each other in order to prove who is more Orthodox than the other. This has resulted in schisms, accusations, and divisions … and the blessed Mission field stays uncared for, unwatered and barren. Why, Oh Lord, should there be such decadence? When shall we wake up from our deep miserable sleep? Where is the youth of our Orthodoxy? Where have the zeal and the enthusiasm for the dissemination and the sharing of the Gospel of Christ gone? Why have they been lost?

In closing my article, with infinite gratitude and positive thinking I pray wholeheartedly to Him who said, « And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” (Matt. 10: 42), to give you your worthy salary and bless with His heavenly Grace your life and the works of your hands, and instill in the hearts of the Orthodox the zeal for Mission! Amen, may it be so!
With sincere gratitude

† Agathonikos of Arusha

Shipments of love for Kinshasa

By
Bishop Nikiforos of Kinshasa
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The Mission is a constant course towards the Kingdom of God. A liberating bugle call to the humankind that is tormented by heresies, pagan traditions, subordination of men to the ruler of this century, the devil. In this struggle, there are times that you feel the earth move under your feet and yourself sink, you feel that all the striving and the sacrifices of those who have struggled so far are going in vain. But then you see God’s hand grabbing hold of you, propping you up and crying aloud “Fear thou not; I have overcome the world.”

Few, very few people fight on the front line. They can be counted on the fingers of one hand. You take courage when you remember the struggle of the first missionary in the Congo, Fr. Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos. Lonesome, old, in fragile health, with severe headaches, he walked down the heart of Africa, accompanied by his also advanced in age niece, Sister Olga, proclaiming Christ. You can see him unafraid going into the houses of the sects and fearlessly telling them “you are wrong; if you want to be saved, come to Orthodoxy.” Recounting the history of the Orthodox Church from the time of Jesus until that day and emphasizing that we have changed nothing. Αs Christ taught us, as the Holy Apostles and their successors handed it down to us, so we accept and we believe and we preach…

This encourages us to go on. And then come to your ears the words of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania to his first partners in the resurrection of the Albanian Church: “God will not abandon us”. You see the hand of God raising you up and sustaining you and in it you see your brothers, those whom Father Chrysostomos named “remissionaries,” reaching out their hands, and you hear their voices resounding from the ends of the earth, from thousands of miles away: “Go forth, we are here for you.” This gives you courage; and then you kneel before the Crucifix and ask for forgiveness for your cowardice and you raise with new determination, new resolutions, new strength, feeling lonely no more.

This is what happened in late September and early October this year. Food supplies were running out, the seventy children in the boarding house of our Theological School would soon have nothing to eat and the schools were about to open but there was no money to pay the teachers. The construction work of our small hospital in a Kinshasa slum was progressing very slowly and we had to attend to its equipment, the number of patients was constantly growing but we could give them no aid for the purchase of drugs, for medical exams or for their hospitalization.

Moreover, the “Voice of Orthodoxy” radio station, the voice that goes into every home and offers the Orthodox teaching and catechism, was in danger of being silenced, for we could not afford to pay the petroleum for its operation. Fortunately this sorrow has been replaced by relief thanks to a voice from Thessaloniki: “we will fight along you as we have done before, we will become “Cyrenians.” A heartwarming rally of the youth of the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity and of people young and old, all sensitive to human suffering and interested in the propagation of the gospel, led to the gathering of food supplies and other stuff necessary for the continuation of the Mission in the heart of Africa. To this call responded Friends of the Mission from all over Greece: Athens, Veria, Naousa, Katerini…

  • Loading in Thessaloniki
  • Unloading in Kinshasa

A real miracle. A voice resounded: you are not alone, we, “remissionaries”, stand by your side. Not in words but in deeds. Take heart and move forward, all you ministering in the heart of Africa, in the Congo. Thus from the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity set off two containers to Kinshasa.

How could we not kneel down again and give thanks to the All-benevolent God, give glory to Him and ask Him in tears: “Protect, O Lord, all those who offered and helped for the shipment of these two containers; grant them your earthly and heavenly goods!”

This is the only thing but also the holiest one we can do for all of them, especially for the President, the members of the Fraternity, the partners and the donors of the Holy Diocese of Kinshasa, to whom we also owe a hearfelt “thanks” and a deep gratitude that naturally springs from each one of us, those assisting in our ministry work, our students, our poor and ailing natives.

From the Holy Metropolis

For God Loves a Cheerful Giver…

By
Bishop Panteleimon of Brazzaville & Gabon
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SAMSUNG CSC

Every man coming into this world has derived from God, since he is a creature of His love. Therefore, Orthodoxy, the true family of God, is the natural state for man. Seeking God is as natural as being thirsty and seeking water, or being hungry and seeking food.

Of course, we, Greeks, have had the blessing to be born in an Orthodox place, in a place “soaked” in immaculate Orthodoxy since the early apostolic times. It is not accidental the fact that Saint Lydia of Philippi, who got the holy baptism from the hands of Saint Paul in AD 49 in the Zygactes River in Eastern Macedonia, is the first European to embrace Christianity! Therefore, we have the privilege to be spiritually edified in the Church from our infancy.

However, in the contemporary missionary field things move the other way around. The inextinguishable attraction towards God that burns in the people’s souls becomes the magnet and the mystical voice that calls the Orthodox Church to the depths of tropical rainforests to articulate the word of salvation and preach the “Unknown God”, whom our brothers have been seeking for centuries. And because these people still preserve an honest intention, a simplistic way of thinking and a humble spirit, they accept the certainty of God’s existence much more naturally and spontaneously.

In our thought and heart we still keep alive the first encounter we had with the Orthodox Pygmies in the North of the Congo Republic six years ago. This is an ancient people living in the tropical forests, subsisting on what nature has to offer, heartily courteous and goodhearted. When I met them, they didn’t speak about problems or future plans. Their language lacks a future tense; there is no “will” in their dialect. Using the present tense in their talks, they experience in practice the constant present of the liturgical time, without plans for tomorrow!

Being their bishop, I tried to gradually delve into the Pygmy mindset and, in awe I realize that God has well prepared the ground in the people’s souls. Their daily life, even before they came to know the Church and be illumined by the Holy Spirit, professed this inquiry. The Pygmies worshipped, among others, the “unknown Creator of the world”, God, whom in their unique dialect they call “Kumba.” According to their worldview, the creation has always been sacred as a Kumba’s creature. Nobody can be rude against it. Nature gives everyone as much as they need to survive. For them it is a great faux pas to destroy the forest. You can only take whatever you need, nothing more. The baptism of the first Pygmy in the Oubangui River was the dawning of the Orthodox Mission in the northern Congo Republic. Just like Saint Lydia’s baptism on the banks of the river Zygactes.

All these prepared the ground for them to seek Orthodoxy on their own. They tirelessly looked for the Creator, they sought and they found. His providence unreservedly declares that the people of the jungle, the short Pygmies, are our true brothers who embrace the Church and along with us confess and worship the resurrected Christ.

It rests with our own love and decision to reveal to them the face of God with words of life and deeds of love, both spiritual and material. For centuries the Lord has blessed us to trumpet His orthodox faith to the world. Let’s not turn our back on the Lord’s commandment: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” As another Simon of Cyrene, it is your help that lifts the Cross which Christ carries all the way into the jungle, so that the propagation of the gospel in those rugged regions of Earth will be carried on and Christ will be resurrected in the hearts of our brothers. “For God loves a cheerful giver” (II Cor. 9:7).

† Panteleimon of Brazzaville & Gabon

The only meal of the day

By
Bishop Makarios of Nairobi
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Dear friends of the Mission,

Sitting in my office and planning the daily schedule, I suddenly noticed someone come in. It was the person in charge of the kitchen for the little children who we offer breakfast and lunch daily. He stood in front of me and courteously as well as shyly said to me: «Your Eminence, we have entered a new week, today is Wednesday and you have not yet given us the money for the food program. I ask for your advice so that I can explain the situation to the food suppliers and know what to do with the preparation of breakfast and meals.

We are talking about the food program that covers the feeding costs for the 350 children of the St. Clement Kindergarten and Elementary school, which is located in the area of our Metropolis. It is easy for anyone to understand how difficult as well as embarrassing my position was.

Unfortunately, that was not the first time such a thing was happening, since there is no permanent and solid support in this program, as our Metropolis has so many other similar programs to fund in our various orphanages and schools.

In no case shall we leave these children hungry no matter how slender our means are due to the global economic crisis, which has affected us in recent years in all the fields of our missionary activity. We have faith in the love, mercy and infinite condescension of our Lord, which are always revealed in similar cases.

We are grateful to all those who come to our assistance and support us, especially in the field of education, with sponsorships regarding these little children, all of whom come from poor families or are orphaned. This is why we make an earnest appeal to you to invite all the kind-hearted people who are willing to support our food program for these children, who under other circumstances would starve to death. Bear in mind that this food we offer is the only meal of the day. We know that at night they will sleep hungry! This is why we try to find ways and means so that in the afternoon when they are leaving, to be given a sandwich for supper.

For the time being, we humbly request that you support us with the amount of five thousand euro.

We would like to thank you in advance and express our deep gratitude to you all.

With warm missionary greetings and fervent wishes,
† Makarios of Nairobi

Read the new Christmas issue of the “Orthodox Mission” magazine

By
Orthodox Missionary Fraternity
-

  • What are the activities of our Indonesian Orthodox priests?
  • How does the Mission propagate in the Muslim-majority Eastern Tanzania?
  • What did our Fraternity members experience in the Southern Congolese Mission?
  • Who was Fr. Cosmas of Gregoriou, who worked for the Mission in Zaire?

Find these and many more news and reports from the Orthodox Missions in Africa, Asia and Latin America only in the new issue of the “Orthodox Mission” magazine.

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