Tanzania and James: St John the Theologian 2011 Update

Dear friends,

Tupendane.
Let us love one another.
- 1 John 4:7

Greetings from Mwanza on this feast of the Holy Apostle John. It's a sunny September, the trees on my hillside are in blossom, and the lake is very blue.

I recently had business in Kenya, and returned to Mwanza on the seventeenth of September- the very date that I first moved to this city, one year ago. Time does fly.

It's been a good year. The learning curve has been every bit as steep as expected, and of course it will take a lifetime to adjust fully. But I'm happy to be where I am.

In about ten days, we plan to receive a medical team from OCMC. The team will be conducting clinics in rural and urban areas around Mwanza Region. Logistics are every bit as complex as you might imagine, and I'm grateful to be working together with my missionary colleagues Maria Roeber, Felice Stewart and Michael Pagedas as we prepare to care for the visitors.

Time flies indeed. My first term of service as an OCMC missionary will conclude early next year, and so I am working on plans to visit North America- I'd likely be on the continent from the beginning of February until just after Pascha.

And I want to see you! Yes, each of you- or at least as many folks as I can in ten short weeks. My goal in visiting will of course be to spend a little time at home in Gainesville with family and friends, and also to touch base with as many people in my support network as is possible. I'd like to see you in person, catch up on your life, (meet your new babies!!) and talk with you face-to-face about the work that God is doing in Western Tanzania thanks to your prayers, encouragement, and generosity.

So, if you'd like me to visit, please be in touch. When I met many of you in the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010, I was inspired and instructed by the way that you and your communities are bearing witness to the Resurrection and proclaiming the glory of God in your local context. I look forward very much to coming back and getting another glimpse.

It is obvious to me that your prayers are with me, as God sustains me here. The challenges are good and healthy, but they are challenges indeed, and I am borne through them by strength that is not my own. Thank you.

Thank you also for your encouraging communication, and for your consistent generosity. I am here because of you.

By your prayers in Christ,

James Hargrave

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.

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

Tanzania and James - Mid-Pentecost 2011 Update

Dear Friends,

Kristo amefufuka! Christ is risen!

Greetings from Bukoba in northwest Tanzania, where I have spent the past week visiting with fellow missionaries and Archdiocesan leadership. Bukoba is the headquarters of Kagera Region, a brilliant green area with hills, mountains, and rocky cliffs cascading down into Lake Victoria. As I sit here listening to songbirds, I am only a ten-minute walk from the lakeside. Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the sinking of the MV Bukoba, a passenger ship that went down nearby to the loss of more than eight hundred lives. It's a time of mourning and remembrance for the town.

Things are going well. On the Sunday of the Paralytic, I joined the Archdiocesan leadership to survey a community called Ibale, far up in the hills of Muleba District just south of here. Ibale looks essentially like a bare hillside with a church, a clergy home, and a view of hills and valleys dotted with homesteads and banana plantations. But it is central to a number of other communities, and so we have chosen it as the site for this year's youth seminar.

Every year the seminar is conducted in a different region of the Archdiocese of Mwanza, and every year we are joined by volunteers from the Finnish Orthodox Mission and from OCMC in North America, who assist in conducting the Christian education program. This year we hope to host up to two hundred students... yes, on a bare hillside. God willing, by the end of July there will be tents to house the students, staff and Team Members, kitchen and dining facilities, and temporary structures for classrooms. Already many details have come together since my initial visit in January, and it's exciting to see how much can be developed from apparently sparse resources.

On Friday, 20th May, I was invited to join Missionary Michael Pagedas on a visit to another rural community- this one called Rubale, in Bukoba Rural District, about a two-hour drive from town and site of Saint Sosthenes Secondary School. Although the school is only in its third year, already its students have made a big splash in National Examinations. I was impressed by the faculty and by the facilities - which are high-quality by local standards, but still face similar setbacks as other schools here... crowded dormitories, not enough desks for all the students, equipment shortages.

All secondary, post-secondary and graduate education in Tanzania uses English-language curriculum, so success in school depends heavily on ability to do academic work in English. Imagine if all North American high schools, colleges and universities conducted classes exclusively in Urdu (after English-only education through seventh grade) and you'll begin to get a sense of how great a challenge this is! So, at Archbishop JERONYMOS' request, the headmaster of St. Sosthenes and I are assessing the possibility for me to facilitate the school's English-language education. I am excited about the possibility.

These are only a few of many exciting things going on in our Archdiocese, but I'll mention only one more right now: Maria is coming! OCMC Missionary Maria Roeber hopes to arrive in Tanzania in early June, to begin learning local culture and Kiswahili language. She plans to be stationed in Bukoba, and is a maternity nurse from Georgetown University Hospital. Complications with birth are among the very biggest health issues locally, so once she has learned the language and culture well, Maria's professional abilities and calling will be of tremendous value. I've known Maria since 2008, and am eager to welcome her to Tanzania.

I miss you guys, and I miss my Florida! It recently hit me that Florida springtime has passed me by and I never saw a single azalea, camellia, phlox, dogwood or magnolia blossom. Lakeside Tanzania has probably the most perfect climate imaginable (Southern California is extreme by comparison), and it'd be hard for me to find anything to complain about here. But that doesn't mean I'm not just a little bit homesick...

Thank you for sending me here. Thank you for your financial support, for your friendship, for your correspondence and encouragement, and especially for your holy prayers. God is keeping and sustaining me because of you.

Amefufuka kweli! Truly he is risen!

By your prayers in Christ,

James Hargrave

Visit my webpage at http://jhargrave.ocmc.org.

Missionary Work in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza, Tanzania: An Update from OCMC Missionary James Hargrave

The temple tops a bare hill, crowded by many other peaks. Nearby is a small rectangular house of unbaked brick, with a thatch roof and fresh straw on the dirt floor.

It seems an isolated scene at first. But down this hollow, or over that ridge, are other small homes among banana groves and coffee fields. This is the village of Ibare, and the house is for the priest’s family. The church is called Holy Resurrection, and Divine Liturgy is about to start.

Lake Victoria isn’t quite visible from this hilltop, but that great inland sea is not far. Holy Resurrection is part of the Muleba deanery, south of Bukoba on Tanzania’s northwestern lakeshore. Uganda is only a few dozen kilometers beyond.

The nave slowly fills during Matins. At home in Mwanza I share chanting duties, but as a guest today I can rest my voice. I stand with the chanters who intone hymns in a rich harmony which, despite discernable Byzantine roots, is uniquely Swahili in style.

The congregation joins in with more familiar hymns, bringing texture to “My soul magnifies the Lord,” “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord,” and a local setting of Psalm 50 (51) “Have mercy on me, O God.”

At the Great Doxology the nave fills with voices. Men lean against the southwest walls behind me. To their left, women sit together on rush mats. In front of them in the northeast, the children press into a tight crowd, oblivious to the open floor all around.

This is not a typical Sunday morning in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza here in western Tanzania. It’s a special day, because a priest is present. Father Eleftherios pastors four other congregations as well as Ibare. On most Sundays he is elsewhere, and this community prays the Typika service.

Our Archdiocese, covering 400,000 square kilometers of western Tanzania, is about as big as California. The sixteen million people of this area belong to about sixty ethnic groups and speak as many distinct languages.

In such a region we have forty priests, 170 communities, and perhaps 40,000 faithful Orthodox Christians. We are responsible for eight of Tanzania’s twenty-six regions, but have congregations in only three. The bulk of the Orthodox Christian presence is clustered around the city of Bukoba, a stone’s throw from Uganda. Our faithful come mostly from only two ethnic groups. We are a small Church; but we are a growing Church.

In February OCMC Missionary Michael Pagedas visited the community of Bugabo to participate in a common occurrence—a mass baptism. Because families, communities and villages make decisions as a group, many of the newly illumined know very little about their new Christian faith beyond the fact that they have embraced it. Baptism is an important first step in becoming a disciple, but it must be followed by many steps more.

Abel, an Archdiocesan administrator, has brought me to Ibare in response to Christ’s call to make disciples. He and I are assessing the possibility of hosting a youth seminar here in July and August to be led by teachers from the Finnish Orthodox Mission and from OCMC. Each year this event is held in a different deanery of the Archdiocese, with the goal of helping local youth grow in the hope of the Resurrection.

Ibare is a good spot for the 2011 seminar because it is within a day’s walk from every community in the deanery. And it has resources. A clear stream runs through a banana orchard, providing water. The hilltop has some open space which is slightly flatter than the chasms and ridges surrounding it. We could set up one tent to house women, another for men, and conduct classes under trees. We’d have to truck in tiny stoves, sacks of charcoal, rice, beans, cups and plates to feed the two hundred or so expected participants. The OCMC/Finnish Team could stay at a guest house in Muleba, a forty-minute drive to the east.

Yes, our resources are spare. Even compared to other religious groups in the area, we are poor. Orthodox Christian faithful in western Tazania are almost all rural subsistence farmers with little cash income and even less access to formal education. Illiteracy prevents many young adults from participating even in opportunities like this seminar.

Back in Ibare, Abel and I watch the children line up for Holy Communion. They squeeze forward to the Chalice, the chest of each pressed against the shoulder blades of the one before. After Liturgy, they race outdoors to feast on little mangoes.

The adults have arranged something special for us. They seat us in the sunshine, on the only two chairs available, and dance. Traditional Haya dance is accompanied by a goatskin drum and by a singer whose verses punctuate refrains sung by the clapping and stamping crowd. On the dust of the dance floor, two or three people show their moves at a time. Everyone is involved—even babies sway on the backs of their leaping and twisting mothers.

The enthusiasm of this dance is visible throughout western Tanzanian society. Of course there are needs. We foreigners often think of obvious material issues, or else of spiritual needs vaguely defined by the concept of winning converts. But the greatest need is for communion. When asked what we foreigners can do to help local people often reply, “Just come be with us. Share in our lives.” This is the example of Christ our God, who did indeed heal the sick, feed the hungry, and preach of the Kingdom. Even more importantly, he took on human flesh and participated in our lives. Our salvation comes not by the teaching or by the healing alone, but by the Incarnation.

OCMC Missionary Mama Charita Stavrou likes to remind me that “We are here to do what God wants us to do.” If we show up, the Holy Spirit will guide us. The global Church is starting to listen.

OCMC has six long-term Missionaries working out our salvation in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza. OCMC Missionaries Felice Stewart, Michael Pagedas, Maria Roeber and Katie Wilcoxson are health care workers that have been asked by His Eminence Archbishop Jeronymos to minister to the bodies and spirits of people in the town of Bukoba, as well as elsewhere. We are joined regularly by short-term teams from Greece, Finland and OCMC.

Teams and missionaries come with a task or job description, but our deep role is communion: participation in the lives of our local sisters and brothers. We are supported in this work by the prayers, friendship, encouragement and material generosity of folks in North America and around the world. You are welcome to join in.

Tanzania and James - Three Hierarchs 2011 Update

Dear Friends,

Furaha na amani! Joy and peace!

And greetings once again from Mwanza. For two weeks this month I was privileged to visit Kenya, the country where I was raised from age three until age eighteen. It was a delight to visit with Mom & Dad in the Kerio Valley and taste some of our delicious Cheptebo mangoes. I was also able to see old friends and faculty at Rift Valley Academy, where I was a boarding student 5th - 12th grade. And it was a special joy to be in Nairobi at Archbishop Makarios III Seminary on the Feastday of St. Makarios the Great, where the Liturgy was celebrated by Archbishop Makarios of Kenya.

But it's also very, very good to be back home in Mwanza, in my new home! I've been away since signing the lease, and so I am just moving in this week. I'd like to tell you a bit about what house-hunting can look like in urban East Africa.

When I moved to Mwanza in September of 2010, I began looking for a place to live the same way I would have done in the States. I went to the part of town I wanted to live in and started walking around, chatting with people, looking at houses. In urban Tanzania you don't see "For Rent" signs the way you do in North America. But there are "agents" who know the local situation, and who will help connect you with a landlord... for a cut. Unfortunately, in this part of the world, white skin is seen as a sign of wealth, and so can attract possibly unscrupulous people. I would find that, by the time I actually looked at a house, there might be as many as five "agents" in on the deal, each expecting a cut of the profit. This means that I was being offered rather inflated housing prices.

And so it became necessary for me to conduct my housing search by proxy, with local leadership at the Archdiocese doing the initial work. It was a sad learning experience for me-- as a North American, I want very much to be self-reliant and not to have to depend on others. Learning to depend on local leadership is of course a very good thing, and local leadership is very dependable. But even they did not find the task easy.

Mwanza has a population of two million and rising, as it is one of the most rapidly growing cities in Africa. Although Tanzania is still about 85% rural, our country is undergoing intense urbanization, and cities are overflowing their resources with great speed. So there's a severe housing shortage. To find secure and adequate lodging near the Archdiocese office, with a trustworthy landlord, proved to be a time-consuming and difficult endeavor.

After many false starts and more than a few dashed hopes, in early December of 2010 my priest, "Father P", was introduced to a local property owner. "Mama F" lives on the hill just above our Archdiocese office, and below Father P's house. She and her husband were expanding their compound to include two small apartments within its walls. She had heard that Father P had an associate looking for a place to live. So Father P and I climbed the hill to investigate the new apartment and to meet Mama F. It was still under construction, but I was assured it would be finished by Christmas. The initial rent offered was reasonable, and so we started negotiations.

Mama F and her husband proved to be trustworthy and kind, and construction proceeded apace. Every time I visited the site, I saw progress, and Mama F seemed eager for me to get to know her family. And so by mid-Christmas, just before the New Year, Father P and I sat down with Mama F and her husband Bwana S to finalize negotiations and sign the rental agreement. In a PS to this email, I would like to tell you what this negotiation looked like.

So now I have a place to live! In the three years since our Church moved headquarters from Bukoba to Mwanza, we have been searching for property on which to build a Cathedral and other Archdiocesan facilities. We have only just concluded negotiations and outright purchased property... yes, after three years of searching. My own housing search has helped me to understand and identify with the issues our Archdiocese faces as we develop an infrastructure in Mwanza. And it has helped me to identify with urban Tanzanians, who face similar stresses as they try to make a go of life in the city.

I am grateful for your continued prayers, encouragement and financial participation. God is using you to care for me as I learn to see the world through Tanzanian eyes, and as I continue to study Kiswahili. Thank you for the many ways that you support my work here in Tanzania.

By your prayers in Christ,

James Hargrave




PS At the end of December 2010, I signed a rental agreement for lodging here in Mwanza. This is how it went:

In North America, my experience with rental agreements is quite businesslike and efficient. I look at the place, meet the landlord, fill out the application. The landlord does a background check, and then might invite me to sign the rental agreement and pay the first month's rent. I sign, write out a check, and get the keys in short order. While we might exchange short pleasantries, signing a rental agreement does not really involve a relationship. In fact, I might even be doing business with a "property manager" who works on the landlord's behalf.

Not so there on the hill in Mwanza. By the time we sat down to go over the rental agreement, I already had a relationship of several weeks with Mama F and her family. When Fr P arrived, we were invited to sit in the courtyard with Mama F and Bwana S. Their teenage daughter brought us sodas, and as the four of us sipped we talked about the weather, about sports, about the economy, about the recent electricity problems, and about many other things. Eventually, Bwana S asked a four-year-old daughter to bring out the rental agreement. She handed a copy to each one of us (written in Kiswahili of course), and together the four of us went over each point, with much tangential conversation around every piece of the rental agreement.

The young daughter then carried one copy of the rental agreement, with a pen, to each of us. I signed as the tenant, Mama F signed as the property owner, and Father P and Bwana S signed as witnesses. Bwana S then returned the signed rental agreement to an envelope, and proposed that we go look at the apartment.

So we did, and there was much conversation about the window screens, and the paint on the walls, and the neighborhood in general. We then went back to our seats in the courtyard and conversation began afresh-- about social problems, employment, water, the weather, the economy... I noticed that nobody ever disagreed with anyone else. Instead, if Bwana S said something that Fr P might not have the same opinion about, Fr P would look down and laugh a bit, and would then say "Yes, you are right. And also..." and would then proceed to offer his own point of view.

After another hour or so of visiting together, the three Tanzanians all-- seemingly at the same moment-- looked at one another and said, "Haya." ("Alrighty then.") This was the signal for me to pull out my money pouch and hand over rent for the entire year.

The largest denomination of Tanzanian currency is worth about $7.00 in US money. Most transactions are done using cash. Rent in Mwanza is much lower than in an equivalent North American city-- Atlanta, for example-- but still. Can you imagine paying an entire year's rent in five-dollar bills?

First I counted out the money, and then handed it to Bwana S. He counted it, and handed it to Father P. And Father P counted it, then handed it to Mama F who placed it all in an envelope after counting it herself. This took maybe twenty minutes, and then our negotiation was concluded. Now I have a real relationship with my landlady and her family, and know that here in my apartment I will be part of a small community in this neighborhood.

Tanzania and James - Advent 2010 Update

Dear Friends,

Mungu yupo! God is with us!

And greetings from Mwanza, Tanzania, where we are in the midst of a blistering summer... it gets as hot as 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 C). A welcome relief from the wintertime, which in July and August can plummet down to 65 (18 C). The small rains are upon us, which means occasional downpours and strong wind that on occasion can feel almost chilly. While I miss friends and family in North America, especially as we approach the celebration of Christ's Nativity, I don't envy the weather y'all are surviving right now.

It's also mango season, and the markets are piled high with mangos of all colors, shapes and sizes. At the office we make fresh mango juice every morning, and with apologies to my beloved Florida oranges, this stuff is the best.

One reason I've been slow to write since October is that so many things are ongoing-- I don't have "accomplishments" to report. But of course this is to be expected, and in this multitasking culture it sometimes feels like everything is ongoing, and nothing is ever quite finished. It just morphs into something new, and keeps moving right along. All the good things that began in September or earlier... are continuing. And it is very, very good to be here.

So I'd like to leave you with my yearly report for 2010, which also may be seen on my webpage.

I pray that your Advent concludes well, and that the fast-approaching Christmas season will be a joy for all of you.

Your love, prayers, friendship, communication and continued financial participation are a great encouragement to me. Thank you.

Mungu yupo! God is with us!

May Christ our God be continually born in our hearts,

James Hargrave

From OCF to OCMC

From OCF to OCMC


Involvement with the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) at the University of Florida led me to service as a long-term Orthodox Christian missionary in Tanzania, East Africa.

In the fall of 2005 I arrived in Gainesville, Florida as a graduate student in Linguistics and was welcomed warmly by fellow Orthodox Christian students. OCF was small at the time, but students were committed to one another and to Christ. Although we had few official functions we gathered frequently for informal prayer, fellowship, and book study. I found myself with a leadership role in these "unofficial" activities, and when our president graduated in 2007 I was asked to take on that post.

Gainesville is just down the road from St Augustine, Florida, where the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) is headquartered. So there was frequent contact between OCMC and OCF. OCMC Executive Director Fr. Martin Ritsi's kids were fellow Florida Gators, and our chaplain Fr. Ted Pisarchuk served on the OCMC board. So I quite naturally began to hear about possibilities for long-term missionary service.

As president of OCF at the University of Florida, I began to learn about leadership. I was surrounded by prayerful officers who took their role seriously and became great friends. Together with other nearby OCFs we organized a statewide retreat for Orthodox Christian college students and young adults which has since become a yearly event. At UF we continued to pray regularly for our campus and to develop a vision for the future.

We also started to bring in a regular speaker: Fr. David Rucker, who had just accepted a position as Associate Director of OCMC. And we received a new chaplain: Dn. James Nicholas, Assistant Director of OCMC's Missionary Department. Through Fr. David and Dn. James I learned more about Orthodox Christian missionary work and began seriously considering a vocation as a long-term missionary.

When our parish priest of blessed memory, Fr. Peter Kastaris, became suddenly ill at the beginning of Lent 2008, I was asked to call Fr. David to serve us during the emergency. He accepted this midnight call with grace and love as Fr. Peter suffered and died shortly before Holy Week. In the season leading up to Pascha, I saw Fr. David and the whole Rucker family doing true missionary work in our midst - loving us first, suffering together with us, bearing our burdens, and being available. Only after establishing this relationship of love and trust did Fr. David begin to work positive change and gently correct our errors.

It was thus through relationships with OCMC staff that I made the decision to apply for long-term missionary service, and those relationships were established in OCF. Now I am in Tanzania, and have been asked to assist the Holy Archdioces of Mwanza to develop a ministry for young adults. The positive experiences I had in OCF at UF are a major guidepost in this process. I am very excited by this opportunity to share here in East Africa the great gifts I received as part of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship there in the United States.

It is an extra blessing to have the prayers, encouragement, and even financial partnership of OCFs in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, California and British Columbia. When I was on the road raising support in the fall of 2009, my favorite moments were on university campuses with young faithful Orthodox Christians. I visited OCFs not because I thought students would give money, but because I simply love being with OCF. Surprisingly, some of my most consistent and generous support has come from people I met during OCF visits.

The most important tradition we established in OCF at UF was prayer. Three times weekly, a few students would gather for short midday prayers in the basement of the union building on campus. There were periods when "Midday Prayer" was the only thing OCF did, and when it might be attended by two people at most. But it was and continues to be the heart of Orthodox Christian spiritual life on the university campus. While other programs, events, etc succeeded or failed to whatever degree, the core of faithful consistent prayer is what sustained us and is what led, I firmly believe, to the tremendous growth OCF at UF experienced in the three years since my service as president. Even here in Tanzania, I know that every time I pause in the day to remember my God I am joined in this prayer by my fellow Orthodox Gators.

Missionary Candidate James Hargrave to speak in Tampa, FL

On June 14, 2009, immediately following Liturgy at St. John Greek Orthodox Church, 2418 Swann Ave, Tampa, FL, James will give a brief presentation on the work of the Orthodox Church in Tanzania, his role in that ministry, and how you can be involved. Divine Liturgy starts at 10:00am.