Wednesday, September 28, 2011
OCMC Representative Kenneth Kidd to Speak in Macon, GA.
OCMC Representative Kenneth Kidd to Speak in Macon, GA.
10/30/2011
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church
859 1st St
Macon, Georgia
United States
31201
OCMC Representative Mr. Kenneth Kidd will be speaking at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Macon, Georgia on 10/30/2011 following the Divine Liturgy. Please contact Fr. John Stefero by phone at 478-621-0744 or by e-mail at holycrossofmacon@ymail.com for more information.
10/30/2011
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church
859 1st St
Macon, Georgia
United States
31201
OCMC Representative Mr. Kenneth Kidd will be speaking at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Macon, Georgia on 10/30/2011 following the Divine Liturgy. Please contact Fr. John Stefero by phone at 478-621-0744 or by e-mail at holycrossofmacon@ymail.com for more information.
OCMC Representative Kenneth Kidd to Speak in Macon, GA.
OCMC Representative Kenneth Kidd to Speak in Macon, GA.
10/29/2011
St. Innocent Orthodox Church
7301 Rivoli Rd
Macon, Georgia
United States
31210-0307
OCMC Representative Mr. Kenneth Kidd will be speakin at St. Innocent Orthodox Church in Macon, Georgia on 10/29/2011. Mr. Kidd will be leading a short retreat beginning at 4:00 pm, followed by Great Vespers at 6:00 pm. Please contact Fr. Theophan Buck by phone at 478-994-1648 or by e-mail at info@st-innocent.org for more information.
10/29/2011
St. Innocent Orthodox Church
7301 Rivoli Rd
Macon, Georgia
United States
31210-0307
OCMC Representative Mr. Kenneth Kidd will be speakin at St. Innocent Orthodox Church in Macon, Georgia on 10/29/2011. Mr. Kidd will be leading a short retreat beginning at 4:00 pm, followed by Great Vespers at 6:00 pm. Please contact Fr. Theophan Buck by phone at 478-994-1648 or by e-mail at info@st-innocent.org for more information.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The Beauty of Simplictity: 2011 OCMC Healthcare Team to Uganda
By Catherine Furry
I wish I could capture in words what it felt like to look into the eyes of the children who carried in their younger siblings to receive malaria treatment, the dehydrated baby separated from her young mother who was hospitalized with AIDS complications, the elderly grandparents suffering from chronic pain from years of intense physical labor to feed their families . . . and know that we were at least making a little bit of difference. I wish I could share with you the experience of handing out prescriptions in paper bags from our makeshift pharmacy on the bed of a pickup truck that we set up next to a little mud-wall, dirt-floor, straw-roof church (my favorite church ever!) and the grateful smile and "webale" (thank you) in return. To show up at a church in the morning and see a crowd of people already waiting for us, some of whom had walked miles and miles barefoot to get there, was a humbling experience.
The need that remains both in Uganda and world-wide is still great, but each interaction with the people we did encounter was an opportunity for us not only to serve and practice being witnesses of Christ’s love, but also to learn from the people with whom we interacted and build relationships. I think one of the biggest things I learned was the beauty of simplicity. Our operation wasn’t high tech -- we set up our clinics in the local Orthodox churches (though open to all faiths), used school benches to perform exams, and filled prescriptions on cardboard boxes – but we were still able to offer a little something of what we could give to several thousand people, and they received it with joy and gratitude, opening their hearts and homes to us. The love with which they welcomed us will always stay with me, and I’ve definitely come home inspired to continue serving both near my US home and hopefully abroad again.
I wish I could capture in words what it felt like to look into the eyes of the children who carried in their younger siblings to receive malaria treatment, the dehydrated baby separated from her young mother who was hospitalized with AIDS complications, the elderly grandparents suffering from chronic pain from years of intense physical labor to feed their families . . . and know that we were at least making a little bit of difference. I wish I could share with you the experience of handing out prescriptions in paper bags from our makeshift pharmacy on the bed of a pickup truck that we set up next to a little mud-wall, dirt-floor, straw-roof church (my favorite church ever!) and the grateful smile and "webale" (thank you) in return. To show up at a church in the morning and see a crowd of people already waiting for us, some of whom had walked miles and miles barefoot to get there, was a humbling experience.
The need that remains both in Uganda and world-wide is still great, but each interaction with the people we did encounter was an opportunity for us not only to serve and practice being witnesses of Christ’s love, but also to learn from the people with whom we interacted and build relationships. I think one of the biggest things I learned was the beauty of simplicity. Our operation wasn’t high tech -- we set up our clinics in the local Orthodox churches (though open to all faiths), used school benches to perform exams, and filled prescriptions on cardboard boxes – but we were still able to offer a little something of what we could give to several thousand people, and they received it with joy and gratitude, opening their hearts and homes to us. The love with which they welcomed us will always stay with me, and I’ve definitely come home inspired to continue serving both near my US home and hopefully abroad again.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
September/October SAMP Spotlight: Fr. Frumentios Taubata
September/October SAMP Spotlight: Fr. Frumentios Taubata
Fr. Frumentios Taubata serves in South Africa, serving the community in Attredgeville.
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.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
A Day in the Life (You Can't Make this Stuff Up): An Update from Missionary James Hargrave
I have recently been at our yearly Archdiocesan youth seminar. This is a three-week event bringing together young people (aged roughly 15 - 65) from a particular vicarage (aka deanery) of the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza for fellowship, shared liturgical life, participation in the sacramental life of the Church, education on a variety of topics including agriculture, health, etc. and two weeks of Christian education provided by teachers from the Finnish Orthodox Mission and from OCMC.
Caring for 100+ young people and ten foreigners, on a bare hillside in rural Africa, with minimal infrastructure (providing them with food and shelter, making sure that they are comfortable enough to keep going, looking after healthcare needs) is no joke. It's serious business. It's very tough. It's exhausting, frustrating, difficult, terrifying... and exhilarating. Things are going very, very, very, very well.
Archdiocesan leadership is working very hard to plan and manage the seminar well. But as hard as we try to plan, plans fail. And some of the best things are totally unplanned. I'd like to tell you about something that happened yesterday.
Yesterday was the Team's afternoon off. An excursion for the team was arranged through a local tour company and I had the privilege of joining them. Our first stop was a mountain on the Kamachuma Plateau, where we climbed to the top to visit some caves and see a spectacular view stretching to Rwanda.
On the way up the mountain, our guide took a wrong turn and asked directions from a local coffee farmer. The farmer guided us back to the path and, as we were departing, asked who we were. We told him.
This elderly farmer followed behind us, up a steep rocky slope, all the way to the top of the mountain. He caught up with us in the caves wearing clothes in tatters, barefoot with thickly calloused feet. I exchanged greetings with him, and told him a bit more about the Team and about the youth seminar over the hills in Ibale.
"I am an Orthodox Christian," the old peasant told me. "I am a catechist."
This coffee farmer was brought to Christ in 1977 by Father Sosthenes Kiyonga, one of the early missionary priests in this area. His name is Apolinario, and he has been a catechist for seventeen years in the parish area led by Father Ignatios Simba, a compatriot of Father Kiyonga and another lion of the faith. Apolinario invited the Team to his house to meet his wife Maria, and some of their children and grandchildren. He led a short prayer service, and then the Team sang the "Lord have mercy" of the Holy Cross in Finnish, Greek, English and Kiswahili. Apolinario and Maria took all of our names, and promised to remember us in their daily prayers. We took their names and the names of their children and grandchildren, with the same commitment to prayer.
Father Kiyonga passed away several years ago. One of his sons, Anastasios Kiyonga, is the church musician for the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza and is one of the leaders at our youth seminar. His work has been very helpful and valuable to the Team this year and in past years.
Some of you may have heard a certain missionary say, "You can't make this stuff up!" You really can't. The Team's work has been very valuable. We have been working very hard to help them see our life here in ways that make sense to them, that are neither overly bewildering nor overly protective. One of the weaknesses of this sort of event is that it is indeed an event. The Team is not witnessing the ordinary life of the Church because the Team's very presence among us is extraordinary. But then, there on the mountain, God sent our guide on the wrong path so that we could share in the everyday life, just for a moment, of a rural Orthodox Christian peasant family who have born witness to, and participated in, the historic missionary life of our Church.
Caring for 100+ young people and ten foreigners, on a bare hillside in rural Africa, with minimal infrastructure (providing them with food and shelter, making sure that they are comfortable enough to keep going, looking after healthcare needs) is no joke. It's serious business. It's very tough. It's exhausting, frustrating, difficult, terrifying... and exhilarating. Things are going very, very, very, very well.
Archdiocesan leadership is working very hard to plan and manage the seminar well. But as hard as we try to plan, plans fail. And some of the best things are totally unplanned. I'd like to tell you about something that happened yesterday.
Yesterday was the Team's afternoon off. An excursion for the team was arranged through a local tour company and I had the privilege of joining them. Our first stop was a mountain on the Kamachuma Plateau, where we climbed to the top to visit some caves and see a spectacular view stretching to Rwanda.
On the way up the mountain, our guide took a wrong turn and asked directions from a local coffee farmer. The farmer guided us back to the path and, as we were departing, asked who we were. We told him.
This elderly farmer followed behind us, up a steep rocky slope, all the way to the top of the mountain. He caught up with us in the caves wearing clothes in tatters, barefoot with thickly calloused feet. I exchanged greetings with him, and told him a bit more about the Team and about the youth seminar over the hills in Ibale.
"I am an Orthodox Christian," the old peasant told me. "I am a catechist."
This coffee farmer was brought to Christ in 1977 by Father Sosthenes Kiyonga, one of the early missionary priests in this area. His name is Apolinario, and he has been a catechist for seventeen years in the parish area led by Father Ignatios Simba, a compatriot of Father Kiyonga and another lion of the faith. Apolinario invited the Team to his house to meet his wife Maria, and some of their children and grandchildren. He led a short prayer service, and then the Team sang the "Lord have mercy" of the Holy Cross in Finnish, Greek, English and Kiswahili. Apolinario and Maria took all of our names, and promised to remember us in their daily prayers. We took their names and the names of their children and grandchildren, with the same commitment to prayer.
Father Kiyonga passed away several years ago. One of his sons, Anastasios Kiyonga, is the church musician for the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza and is one of the leaders at our youth seminar. His work has been very helpful and valuable to the Team this year and in past years.
Some of you may have heard a certain missionary say, "You can't make this stuff up!" You really can't. The Team's work has been very valuable. We have been working very hard to help them see our life here in ways that make sense to them, that are neither overly bewildering nor overly protective. One of the weaknesses of this sort of event is that it is indeed an event. The Team is not witnessing the ordinary life of the Church because the Team's very presence among us is extraordinary. But then, there on the mountain, God sent our guide on the wrong path so that we could share in the everyday life, just for a moment, of a rural Orthodox Christian peasant family who have born witness to, and participated in, the historic missionary life of our Church.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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