OCMC Seeks Volunteers

The Orthodox Christian Mission center located in St. Augustine, FL is seeking volunteers who are able to help with mailings, i.e., stuffing, labeling and sealing envelopes, folding letters, and possible bulk mail sorting all within the St. Augustine office. There is typically a 3-5 day advanced notice for requested volunteers. If you are interested in any of the above tasks and are local or able to get to the St. Augustine office, please contact Phyllis Skinner at 904-829-5132 x164 or by email at Phyllis@ocmc.org.

2011 Uganda Healthcare Team Pictures

Turkana Communion: A Video from Missionary Michael Pagedas

Gezuar Pashket! An Update from Missionary Anastasia Pamela Barksdale

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,

Pascha this year will mark my three year anniversary in Albania. As I reflected on this fact, I thought, how quickly time is passing as I am involved in the various ministries, ministries rich with the blessings of God’s grace and friends. My Christian Education and Field Work program with the students at the Seminary has grown considerably. For the first two years, my students’ work has included a teaching assignment at of one of the Kids’ Clubs or the Church in Tirana, under the direction of fellow missionaries, Nathan and Gabriela Hoppe. This year His Grace Bishop Nikola, Dean of the Resurrection of Christ Theological Academy, began to also send the students to local villages and churches in Durres and Kavaja. This has been an exciting challenge for me in many new ways. Saturday there are catechism programs at Shen Vlash for the village children and in Tirana at the Roma Community. Sunday there are catechism programs in Tirana, in Durres, in Kavajes and at a local village church, in Rushku, and Sunday evening in a home in a suburb of Durres, Shkozet. Just getting to the various locations is a bit of an adventure and has prompted me to seriously consider acquiring a car.

What has been really fulfilling has been identifying the needs of the six very different catechetical settings outside Tirana and trying to implement new strategies and methods for improving their programs. In conjunction with this effort, OCMC has approved funding for ministry relating to a new Catechetical Resource Center at the Seminary through my missionary support account. The catechism programs are funded partially by the Orthodox Church of Albania and partially from my support account, made up of donations from you, my prayer partners. Therefore, I want to account to you for the work we are doing and to keep you posted on our progress so that you can keep us in your prayers. Also, if you are a Facebook fan, I have been posting pictures from the various events on my Profile page and in my Cause: Pray with Missionary Anastasia Pamela Barksdale for the Orthodox Church in Albania. Thank you for your continued support of this vital and important ministry.

Recent Events:

This Spring, the Children’s Office offered to conduct an “Outreach” program in Durres for our catechism classes at the Saints Paul and Asti Church, located near the local boardwalk. My students joined with the Children’s Office staff and the Durres youth group to conduct a series of youth oriented activities to bring the “good news” about our catechism program to the general public, as well as the local Orthodox community. The number of new children actually joining our catechism classes, to-date, has been small, but the activity did enable my students to encounter the unchurched children of Durres, reorganize our program, establishing two classrooms and begin developing interactive activities with the Church’s youth group.

Last week, the first step of the Resource Center at Shen Vlash Monastery became a reality as 22 children gathered at 8:00 am on a Saturday morning in our new classroom space. Tomorrow my students and a group of volunteers will meet once again to paint a second room which will be for younger children. My goal is to establish “age appropriate” classrooms for children 5 to 9 years and 10 – 13 years.

One of the major complaints my students have about their teaching assignments is the “conditions” under which they must teach. So often there is no real classroom, maybe they teach in a living room, a field, a beach, or the narthex of the Church. Thus, I am trying to create a teaching lab; one which I hope will set a standard, and then we can talk about the things we can and cannot control in a learning environment. Often in Albania, new ideas or concepts are difficult to explain because of the lack of experience, which provides a reference for the students. Our first “new” classroom has been painted and shelves assembled and I have begun to equip it with visual aid tools like bulletin boards, white boards, and flannel boards; cd players to use in teaching songs and hymns and playing games. Several students have artistic abilities and are painting thematic pictures of Jesus with children. Learning to use visual aids and interactive materials is still a very new idea in Albania.

Our final stage will be to set up a room that will be our workshop space for conducting training, developing curriculum and lesson plans. Besides computer equipment and a data projector, we also plan to collect materials from all the various diocese ministries in Albania and have them available for reference. We would also like to develop a good collection of craft ideas, games, songs, etc. Having resource materials readily available comes slowly here, but it is something we are working at all the time.

In the hopes that some of my prayer partners in the States would want to help, I have set up a Wish List on Amazon.Com. You can access this list at the following link:

Pamela's Wish List

Permalink: http://amzn.com/w/3CO8T0CCGDK56

Please share the list with others. If just a few people send one or two items, we could improve our program very quickly. Fr. Luke Veronis is coming to Albania the end of May and promised to try to bring things with his Mission Institute team, but packages must arrive by May 25th. Father Luke's shipping address is 41 Noble St, Dudley, MA 01571. Otherwise, mail by slow boat to Albania to: Anastasia Pamela Barksdale, c/o Kisha Orthodhoskia, Rruge e Kavajes, 151 Mitropolia, Tirana, Albania. Please help if you are able.

OCMC Team Baptisms in Turkana

Tanzania and James: St Jacob of Alaska 2011 Update

Dear friends,

Furaha na amani! Joy and peace!

And greetings from Tanzanian winter. It's hovering around 18 degrees- 65 Fahrenheit- and although it's the dry season we have had some small rainshowers. I've been reading about the extreme heat waves in North America. If you're pitying me for having to endure Africa's supposedly harsh and unforgiving climate, don't!

Here in Mwanza we are making final preparations for receiving volunteers from the Finnish Orthodox Mission and OCMC who will participate in a rural youth seminar in Muleba District of Kagera Region. This is an annual event, taking place in a different deanery each year, and currently our major ministry with youth at an Archdiocesan level. Event planning in rural Tanzania is a little different from event planning in North America. It's been fun.

In June, I was pleased to welcome two newcomers to the Archdiocese of Mwanza. OCMC Missionary Maria Roeber, a maternity nurse from Georgetown, arrived last month after more than two years of preparation. Maria hopes to help the Archdiocese of Mwanza develop its health care ministry, possibly by working at Resurrection Hospital in Bukoba or through other means. She is also helping OCMC to develop regional long-term health-care strategy elsewhere in East Africa. Maria is currently stationed in Bukoba town for her time of language and culture acquisition, and I have thoroughly enjoyed catching up with her in the past two weeks.

Meg Engelbach, an Intercultural Studies/ Linguistics student at Biola University in Southern California, is serving a summer internship here in the Archdiocese of Mwanza. She is living with a local family in Mwanza city, sharing in their life and learning from them. Meg is also learning Kiswahili and using her experience to help improve language-learning materials to better address East African linguaculture. God willing, Meg's notes and suggestions will be of benefit to future OCMC missionaries as they learn language in this part of the world. I've enjoyed having Meg around, and am very impressed with her dedication and adaptability. It is my hope to continue to play a role in welcoming students and interns to share life with us here in Western Tanzania as they broaden their own experiences and make decisions about possible long-term missionary service in the future.

It's been a good winter, and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead. I am grateful to each of you for your prayers, encouragement, and long-term commitment to financial support. I am here because of you. Stay in touch!

By your prayers in Christ,

James Hargrave

My First Journey to Albania: An Update from Missionary Candidate Jeffrey Macdonald

In 2010, I visited Albania in order to meet with Archbishop Anastasios in the capital of Tirana, and to visit the Holy Resurrection Seminary in Durres. I had the privilege to travel in conjunction with a Missions class from Holy Cross and St. Vladimir's Seminaries taught by Fr. Luke Veronis, a former OCMC Missionary in Albania and author of the recent book, Go Forth: Stories of Mission and Resurrection in Albania.

Albania is along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, north of Greece. Albania became an independent country in 1912, following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. After World War II, Albania fell under communist rule until 1992. In 1967, the communist government outlawed religion, destroying or confiscating all religious buildings, and attempting to eliminate the Christian faith.

Prior to its conquest by the Turks, Albania was part of the Roman Empire. During this period, Albania’s port of Durres was an important link between Italy and the Roman road to Thessalonica and Constantinople. Christianity is thought to have come to Albania with the visit of St. Paul to Durres in the first century. By the end of the first century the Church in Durres had grown and had its own bishop, Asti, who was martyred under the Emperor Trajan.

Durres today contains extensive Roman ruins including a large amphitheater. I had the opportunity to visit this amphitheater with Nathan Hoppe, an OCMC Missionary in Albania, and to see the remains of two early Christian chapels built in its passageways to commemorate Christians who were martyred there.

I was also able to visit a site associated with another early Christian martyrdom when I visited Holy Resurrection Seminary built on a hill, overlooking Durres. The hill was the site of the Monastery of St. Vlash (Blaise). Tradition ascribes his martyrdom to this spot in the fourth century, which suggests that he is a different person than the well known St. Blaise of Sebaste, martyred in Armenia. The Church was an important pilgrimage site known for miraculous healings, and perhaps for this reason was the first church destroyed at the beginning of the anti-religious campaign of 1967. The church was rebuilt following the fall of communism in 1992, and the hill is now also the location of the Holy Resurrection Seminary and the Home of Hope for children. During my visit to the Seminary, I was able to meet with Bishop Nikola and some of the seminarians, and also to attend a large youth retreat held at the Seminary.

The Christian faith spread in Albania, as in the rest of the Roman world, following the end of the Roman persecutions in the fourth century. Unfortunately, much of the material heritage of Christianity in Albania was damaged or destroyed during the communist period, when approximately sixteen hundred Orthodox churches were destroyed. However, since the end of communism, the Orthodox Church in Albania, with the help of others, has rebuilt and repaired many of these damaged and destroyed buildings.

In contrast to historic Durres on the coastal plain, Tirana, the capital, is a more recent and much larger city surrounded by mountains. Here, I was able to visit an important exhibit of Albanian Christian manuscripts. These manuscripts had been confiscated by the communist government and were now being displayed to the Albanian public for the first time. Two of the manuscripts were Gospels from the sixth century. Their existence testifies to the tenacity of the Christian witness in Albania despite the many invasions that disrupted life in the Balkans through the Middle Ages and the Turkish conquest of the fifteenth century.

Unfortunately, many Christians abandoned their faith during the approximately four hundred years of Turkish rule. As a result, by the time of the communist takeover, only twenty percent of Albanians were still members of the Orthodox Church. Following this, the years of communist persecution largely reduced Albania to a secular country. However, following the end of communism in 1992, church life has been revived under the leadership of Archbishop Anastasios. He is a leading proponent of Orthodox missions, who, after serving in East Africa, has overseen the enormous work of rebuilding the Church in Albania after the fall of communism.

While in Tirana, I also met a number of the clergy and church workers, and had a chance to speak briefly about St. Herman of Alaska to the Orthodox Sisterhood. The two functioning Orthodox churches in Tirana were restored to the Church by the government. A new, larger, cathedral is now being built to replace the one that was destroyed.

Albania has a long heritage of Christian faith, but due to historical circumstances the majority of the country has been deprived of the knowledge of Christ for many years. However, now, by God’s mercy, the end of communism and the rebuilding of the Church in Albania have created an opportunity for the spread of the gospel. It was good to see how energetically this work has been begun, and we look forward to the possibility of being able to assist the Church there in its further growth.

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Uganda: by Team Member Penelope McClintock

Our first day of setting up a healthcare clinic in a small town in rural Uganda was a mild frenzy. Our small Team of eight Americans, consisting of two doctors, three nurses, and two students, was faced with the great challenge of providing basic medical care and medications to over one hundred Ugandans crowding around a church door and open window, which we turned into a makeshift doctor’s office and pharmacy. Amid the chaotic crowds waiting to receive their medicine, the piles of triage cards, and the constant chatter of mixed English and Lugandan (the major language spoken in the district of Sembabule), we managed to successfully treat and provide medication to children with intestinal worms, families stricken with malaria, babies with fevers, scalps balding due to ringworm, and women and men suffering from various STDs. Most patients received their prescriptions with enormous smiles, saying “Webale” (meaning “Thank you”), and would depart us with a shake of the hand in gratitude. It felt wonderful to provide these people with the medicine they needed, to eat with them, to discuss our lives together, and to connect over sharing a common faith although we live an entire ocean apart.

However, not every patient’s story was one of success that day. Of the hundreds of faces I met, the face of a teenage girl, simple and serene, held slightly crooked while she walked from the church on a crutch, stands out in my mind from that first clinic. We were able to diagnose the large infected wound in her shoulder as osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone and bone marrow. Without treatment, her infection was becoming progressively worse. Even though our Team offered her grandfather enough money to provide her transportation to a hospital, he refused to take her, and we had to leave the town that day knowing we could do nothing to help her. And yet, as our van made its way down the red dirt road away from the church, she smiled at us with the most grateful eyes, and waved us on our way.

Over the course of the next week, our Team vastly improved our efficiency in triage and prescription filling in the pharmacy. We would transform a stone church filled with wooden pews into a waiting area, examination area, shot area, wound care area, working pharmacy, and medication dispensary. Our Team worked together, along with the help of some wonderful translators and Ugandan Orthodox priests, to take what we learned from the chaos of the first clinic and turn it into a smooth and systematic operation.

However, riding down the bumpy road to our last clinic, none of us were prepared to be faced with our biggest challenge yet. The church we had to work with was not a large empty room filled with convenient wooden benches, but a dark tiny hut made of mud and straw. We had only a couple of benches to use for the doctors and pharmacy, and there was already a line of people eagerly awaiting our arrival. Because it was too dark inside the church for the doctors to see, we had to set up outside… and there were dark rainclouds forming in the distance. Although we were using boxes to make work tables, filling prescriptions in the back of a van, and grabbing the medicine and running inside the church every time we felt raindrops, we managed to see every single person who came to us that day. Just as the girl with osteomyelitis welcomed what little help we had for her, and did not pout at her misfortune but responded to us only with gratitude for what we could give her, I felt that our meager resources that day only made us more determined to run a successful clinic. Despite the simple setup, we provided the same quality of care and medicine, and we felt even deeper the spirit of the people we had come to help, experiencing life the way they do each day. This spirit, one of hospitality, gratitude, love, and delight in simplicity, is the most striking mark of the people in Uganda, and the most evident way that our Team was able to experience the work of the Holy Spirit in Africa.

The Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) organizes many different short-term Mission Teams. As a twenty-one year old nursing student, I joined a Healthcare Team based in Uganda. We spent two weeks setting up healthcare clinics and administering basic medications through the Orthodox Church in Uganda. This experience was incredibly humbling, and one that I will carry with me in both my spiritual and professional life as a nurse.

Missionary Maria Roeber's First Sunday in Tanzania

A Dormition of the Theotokos Greeting from the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC)

The staff, board and missionaries of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) pray that you, your loved ones, and your community have a blessed Dormition Feast. May the prayers of the Theotokos be with us all as we, inspired by her perfect obedience, strive to share the love of Christ with the world.

My First Journey to Albania: An Update from Missionary Candidate Jeffrey Macdonald

In 2010, I visited Albania in order to meet with Archbishop Anastasios in the capital of Tirana, and to visit the Holy Resurrection Seminary in Durres. I had the privilege to travel in conjunction with a Missions class from Holy Cross and St. Vladimir's Seminaries taught by Fr. Luke Veronis, a former OCMC Missionary in Albania and author of the recent book, Go Forth: Stories of Mission and Resurrection in Albania.

Albania is along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, north of Greece. Albania became an independent country in 1912, following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. After World War II, Albania fell under communist rule until 1992. In 1967, the communist government outlawed religion, destroying or confiscating all religious buildings, and attempting to eliminate the Christian faith.

Prior to its conquest by the Turks, Albania was part of the Roman Empire. During this period, Albania’s port of Durres was an important link between Italy and the Roman road to Thessalonica and Constantinople. Christianity is thought to have come to Albania with the visit of St. Paul to Durres in the first century. By the end of the first century the Church in Durres had grown and had its own bishop, Asti, who was martyred under the Emperor Trajan.

Durres today contains extensive Roman ruins including a large amphitheater. I had the opportunity to visit this amphitheater with Nathan Hoppe, an OCMC Missionary in Albania, and to see the remains of two early Christian chapels built in its passageways to commemorate Christians who were martyred there.

I was also able to visit a site associated with another early Christian martyrdom when I visited Holy Resurrection Seminary built on a hill, overlooking Durres. The hill was the site of the Monastery of St. Vlash (Blaise). Tradition ascribes his martyrdom to this spot in the fourth century, which suggests that he is a different person than the well known St. Blaise of Sebaste, martyred in Armenia. The Church was an important pilgrimage site known for miraculous healings, and perhaps for this reason was the first church destroyed at the beginning of the anti-religious campaign of 1967. The church was rebuilt following the fall of communism in 1992, and the hill is now also the location of the Holy Resurrection Seminary and the Home of Hope for children. During my visit to the Seminary, I was able to meet with Bishop Nikola and some of the seminarians, and also to attend a large youth retreat held at the Seminary.

The Christian faith spread in Albania, as in the rest of the Roman world, following the end of the Roman persecutions in the fourth century. Unfortunately, much of the material heritage of Christianity in Albania was damaged or destroyed during the communist period, when approximately sixteen hundred Orthodox churches were destroyed. However, since the end of communism, the Orthodox Church in Albania, with the help of others, has rebuilt and repaired many of these damaged and destroyed buildings.

In contrast to historic Durres on the coastal plain, Tirana, the capital, is a more recent and much larger city surrounded by mountains. Here, I was able to visit an important exhibit of Albanian Christian manuscripts. These manuscripts had been confiscated by the communist government and were now being displayed to the Albanian public for the first time. Two of the manuscripts were Gospels from the sixth century. Their existence testifies to the tenacity of the Christian witness in Albania despite the many invasions that disrupted life in the Balkans through the Middle Ages and the Turkish conquest of the fifteenth century.

Unfortunately, many Christians abandoned their faith during the approximately four hundred years of Turkish rule. As a result, by the time of the communist takeover, only twenty percent of Albanians were still members of the Orthodox Church. Following this, the years of communist persecution largely reduced Albania to a secular country. However, following the end of communism in 1992, church life has been revived under the leadership of Archbishop Anastasios. He is a leading proponent of Orthodox missions, who, after serving in East Africa, has overseen the enormous work of rebuilding the Church in Albania after the fall of communism.

While in Tirana, I also met a number of the clergy and church workers, and had a chance to speak briefly about St. Herman of Alaska to the Orthodox Sisterhood. The two functioning Orthodox churches in Tirana were restored to the Church by the government. A new, larger, cathedral is now being built to replace the one that was destroyed.

Albania has a long heritage of Christian faith, but due to historical circumstances the majority of the country has been deprived of the knowledge of Christ for many years. However, now, by God’s mercy, the end of communism and the rebuilding of the Church in Albania have created an opportunity for the spread of the gospel. It was good to see how energetically this work has been begun, and we look forward to the possibility of being able to assist the Church there in its further growth.

OCMC in Turkana

To Supporters of Katie Wilcoxson

Dear Supporters of Katie Wilcoxson,

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

On behalf of all our missionaries and staff, thank you so very much for your faithful financial support and prayers for Katie Wilcoxson, OCMC missionary to Tanzania. As you are aware, Katie was “tried by fire” from the beginning of her assignment, having to undergo an emergency appendectomy very soon after her arrival in Tanzania. During the months that followed, she experienced pain which defied diagnosis. On 21 April Katie returned to the USA on medical leave. We have worked diligently and long with her to provide good care for soul and body, hoping for clearance from our medical professionals for her to return to Tanzania to resume missionary service. Unfortunately, that clearance has not yet been given. Options and short-term alternative assignments were discussed with Katie, but on 29 July we received her letter of resignation, and we regretfully accepted it. She wrote these words in her final letter to her support team:

I'm sure this will come as a surprise for many of you, but I turned in my resignation with OCMC. Of course, that was a very difficult decision, but I know that it was the right one for me. I will miss my Tanzanian family and friends, but I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and your kindness and your support.

We are grateful for Katie’s willingness to serve our Lord through His Church in Africa, and for the offering of her skills and talents to this worthy ministry. We are very thankful for her faithful and loving family, for her life-giving parish in Cedar Park, Texas, and for her Archdiocese which so faithfully supported her. We are going to miss her. I know you will continue to pray with us for her health and welfare, knowing that God’s ultimate plans for her will continue to unfold in accordance with her salvation and His holy will. No doubt, the Lord has special plans for Katie.

According to OCMC policy and IRS regulations, any remaining balance of funds in Katie’s support account will be disbursed to other missionaries serving in Africa. Your donations will be well invested into the lives of current and future missionaries. OCMC has four other missionaries serving in Africa at this time, and more applicants and new missionary candidates are now being prepared for service. Thank you in advance on their behalf for helping to make this all possible.

We encourage you to consider transferring your pledge or designate future support to another OCMC missionary so we can continue our work in Africa. You may do so by using the enclosed form to indicate your intentions. Please keep Katie, OCMC, and all of our missionaries throughout the world in your prayers, as we continue to thank God for you.

Yours because of Christ,

Fr. David Rucker
Associate Director

Tanzanian Taxis: An Update from Missionary Katherine Wilcoxson

Hailing a taxi in Tanzania can be a bit tricky, mainly for two reasons: when you are trying to flag down a taxi, ninety-five percent of the time there is no sign on the car to show it is a taxi. Most of the time you are taking a chance hailing the cars that are driving past you. There are two kinds of cars in Bukoba: personal cars and cars being used as taxis. Four door economy size cars are most common in Bukoba. There is no certain color or sign on any car letting you know the car is a taxi--even if the taxi is in use there is still no way to tell! The only way you know for sure is if the car drives past you--then it probably wasn't a taxi.

The other reason hailing a taxi is tricky is because you must negotiate the price. It is a game you play with the driver, and the game goes something like this: You approach a group of men standing outside their cars. Usually the men are socializing or reading newspapers. As you get closer, the men start to whistle and yell, “Taxi! you need a taxi?” The drivers never argue with each other, so you pick one man and start the negotiations:

Driver: “Mambo” (How’s it going>)

Me: “Poa, Ninakwenda Posta” (Good, I must go to the post office.)

Driver: “Twende” (Let’s go!)

Me: “Shilingi ngapi” (How many shillings?)

Driver: Elfu mbili” (Two thousand shillings--that's about $1.33)

Me: “Mia tano” (One thousand shillings--that's about $0.66)

Driver: “Sawasawa” (Okay!)


Most of the time you and the driver agree on a price, but sometimes you don’t. When you don’t agree on a price it is important, as you would with any haggling, to be prepared to walk away. A few times I have had to walk back and agree to the price that the driver proposed, and that's a little embarrassing.

But it is also important to have a regular, trusted taxi driver for safety reasons. We don’t have to worry about this issue because we have Godfrey. Godfrey was a driver that was introduced to us by Fr. Spyridon. When we first met Godfrey he was wearing a fez. This is a hat usually wore by men of the Muslim faith. When we asked Godfrey about his faith, he said he was a Lutheran. Confused, we asked him why he wears a hat that is usually worn by only Muslim men. He said he just liked to wear the hat for fashion purposes. Godfrey is one of our best friends in Tanzania. He is always looking out for our best interests. When he saw me riding on motorcycle-taxis, he lovingly scolded me and reminded me that, while motorcycle taxis are cheaper, they are very also dangerous. When Godfrey arrives at our house, he always greets us with a jolly "Furaha na Amani." You cannot help but smile and feel happy when you are riding with Godfrey--and you don't have to negotiate the price.

Be Free,

kt

August SAMP Spotlight: Fr. Emmanuel Ssekyewa

August SAMP Spotlight: Fr. Emmanuel Ssekyewa

Fr. Emmanuel Ssekyewa serves in Uganda, at St.Nicholas Orthodox Church in Namagoma.

There are nearly 400 priests serving in 20 countries around the world who depend on support from OCMC's Support A Mission Priest Program. Please help us to provide this much needed assistance by making a gift to the SAMP Program at www.ocmc.org, and continue to pray for these faithful servants who minister to our brothers and sisters around the world.