Pax Turkana: An Update from Missionary Michael Pagedas

Shortly before I left for Kilimanjaro, I was contacted by Alex Goodwin, Communications Director for the OCMC. He and OCMC Executive Director Fr. Martin Ritsi had planned an extended visit to Kenya and Tanzania in order to film a new video for the OCMC and further assess future mission prospects for that field, and they wanted to know if Maria and I would be interested in traveling with them to Kenya and being part of this! The experience would take me to a part of Kenya that I had wanted to visit anyway--Turkana, in the northwest part of the country. The OCMC began sending short-term mission teams to this region only a few years ago, and Orthodoxy has already gained a strong foothold there. I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to rest after climbing Kilimanjaro, but I also knew that I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

Maria and I were greeted at the Lodwar airport (a dusty landing strip in the desert with a small covered waiting area serving as the main gate) by Fr. Martin, Alex, and Rob Orr, the cameraman who would be documenting our visit. We strapped our bags on top of the Land Rover (there wasn’t enough room for them inside) and started our 3+ hour journey into the desert. Fr. Martin mentioned that the last time he made this journey, the vehicle he was in got stuck in the sand three times. Fortunately, with the combination of our amazing driver and rugged Land Rover, we didn’t get stuck once.

Our first destination was the village of Loupwala. Loupwala has been visited before by OCMC teams, but it was my first time there or anywhere like it. It was the Africa that I had seen before in National Geographic magazines and on Public Television when I was growing up.


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The Turkana are nomadic pastoralists and rely mostly on their goats, camels, and donkeys not just as a source of milk and meat but also as currency for things such as bride-price negotiations and dowries. Not many crops are grown, but they do eat maize, beans, and ugali (maize porridge). During our brief stay, we had nothing but boiled cabbage and ugali--all of which we had brought with us from Lodwar. The Turkana also make use of a fruit that I had never heard of or seen anywhere else. It is called yangole in Turkana, and it is pretty much a fibrous pulp on the outside of a large inedible pit. The pulp can be ground off with stones and mixed in with flour or it can be chewed right off the pit [I tried the latter and can understand how the Turkana can easily wear down their teeth].

The Turkana dress very traditionally in the villages but not quite as much in the larger cities like Lodwar. Girls and women wear sarongs that range in color from purple to red to orange, and even bright green. Many of the women and girls wear their hair in a way that looks like a mohawk of small braids. The men also wear wraps, some covering the whole body, some just from the waist down, and less traditional shirts. Additionally, some of the older men or distinguished members of the tribe, such as shamans, wear hats decorated with ostrich feathers. One night, we all watched a movie about the life of Jesus that had been translated into the Turkana language. I was sitting toward the back, and one of the tribal elders was sitting right in the middle toward the front. Throughout the movie, I enjoyed watching the silhouette of a lone ostrich quill waving back and forth, brushing the faces of the actors on the screen. Both men and women wear beaded necklaces and bracelets. Many of the women wear a high-collared, brightly-colored beaded necklace that I can imagine takes a long time to make.


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The video shoot began almost immediately after we arrived. Fr. Martin, Alex, and Rob started interviewing individuals who had become or were in the process of becoming baptized. Maria and I interviewed some of the women and children about medical issues with the help of one of the Turkana priests, Fr. Moses, who speaks English, Turkana, and Swahili fluently. We spent the night sleeping in a boma (thorn enclosure) of another priest, Fr. Zachariah, who himself was originally from Loupwala. A few of the people in our group had tents, but I braved the elements, sleeping only on a mat and having a loose mosquito net resting on top of me. It was the first time I had ever gone hard core camping, and I enjoyed looking up at a clear night sky illuminated by stars, knowing that I was about as far away from the nearest city as I could be.

The next day, we visited a well that had been installed by the OCMC only a few years ago. The well was about a 10 minute walk from our campsite, but I learned that before the well was put in, people would have to walk up to 13 kilometers (each way) to get water that wasn’t necessarily very safe to drink. This well made getting cleaner water a lot easier for the people of Loupwala.

Later, we were honored with a celebration. The community members greeted us with traditional singing and dancing. As we arrived, a group of women, doing what I could only describe as a tightly-packed line dance, moved toward us while singing, blowing whistles, and waving around what I later found out were cow tails. Some younger people then sang and danced for us, and then we all joined in the fun. I especially enjoyed the high vertical jumping dance (if you’ve ever seen movies of Maasai dancing, it is exactly the same).

That afternoon, we walked for about an hour and a half to our next stop--a village called Nacabousan. To reach Nacabousan, we had to cross the Kerio River. The Kerio River, Fr. Martin explained, was usually bone dry in this area, but that every time he had visited, it was always flowing. This time was no different. Lightning flashes in the distance the previous night forewarned us that this would probably be the case. The river was only two or three feet deep at its deepest point, but the water was moving at a good clip. I had not anticipated this, and was concerned about 1) getting completely drenched and dirty, and 2) getting valuable possessions wet, namely my iPod. Before we crossed, I decided to give my valuables to Maria, who is much taller than me and who had a nicer backpack. That decision paid off. As I neared the opposite bank, I discovered (too late) that there was a sharp, slippery rise that wasn’t visible through the chocolate-colored water. As I went to my knees, I decided that I had nothing to lose and went all the way in. It was a decision that paid off because I felt much cooler against the mid-afternoon sun. Despite the fact that everything I was wearing was completely drenched and now a light brown color, I felt better and my iPod was safe.

On Sunday morning, we celebrated liturgy in the bush, just outside the village of Nacabousan. The altar table was built on the spot using sticks, palm leaves, and a small blackboard. The congregation sat in the shade of a large acacia--much needed because even at 9AM, the sun was already starting to beat down on us. I was surprised to see that there were matins and liturgy books translated into Turkana. The Turkana are a part of the same language group as the Maasai (different from the Bantu-based Swahili that I’m used to hearing), and I immediately noticed a similarity to the Maasai language when I first heard the Turkana speak. As with Swahili, it didn’t matter if I couldn’t understand every word that was being said during the liturgy. I still knew what was going on. Even with aggressive flies buzzing around, which are ever-present in the desert, I was lost in the experience. This was the first time an Orthodox liturgy had ever been held in Nacabousan. I began to wonder if St. Paul or the other early Apostles had similar experiences on their missionary journeys.

The liturgy was immediately followed by a mass baptism. 110 men, women, and children were baptized in the Kerio River. What was a curse for me on the way over had become a blessing. There was plenty of water for full-immersion baptisms! While several children splashed and swam nearby, a line of people from the river bank went into the water where Fr. Martin baptized them one at a time--again, like experiencing the early church but in the 21st century. The first one baptized was the head village elder from Nacabousan, named Salale. He and Fr. Martin had developed a strong relationship over the past few years, and I could tell that Salale’s conversion and baptism were monumental for himself, Fr. Martin, and the entire village of Nacabousan. There were at least 200-300 people watching from higher up on the river bank. Many of them went into hysterics at seeing their friends being immersed (some of them very reluctantly) in the river. We all went back to the “survival” altar that had been constructed for the liturgy and concluded the service. Watching dozens of people walk around the altar table together toward the end of the baptism was something I’ll probably never see again but won’t soon forget.

After the video shoot, we all returned to Lodwar where we met up with a short-term OCMC teaching team that had arrived the day before. Fr. Martin, Alex, and Rob stayed with the group for a couple of days before moving on to the shoot in Tanzania, but Maria and I stayed behind in Lodwar with the team for the duration of their teaching mission. They had each prepared different lessons to present Turkana faithful who had come from Lodwar and surrounding villages (including from over 3 hours away in Loupwala!). Fr. Moses, Fr. Zachariah, and Fr. Vladimir (who is a Turkana priest based in Lodwar) translated for the team and at the same time taught their people about church topics such as the Creed, death & resurrection, the Sacraments, and icons. I was even allowed to do a health education session. Based on a session I once gave back in 2008 during a short-term mission in Tanzania, I asked the group of about 70 “youth” to divide up into groups and come up with their own songs, dances, or sketches that highlighted major health concerns in East Africa, such as AIDS and malaria. The Turkana, like many other cultures in Africa, have a strong oral tradition that is passed along through songs and storytelling. Why not tap into that and use it for health promotion? I gave them 20 minutes to prepare, but they only needed 10. All of the groups did an amazing job, and I told them that I would put all of the videos I took of their presentations on the internet so that people all over the world could see how the Turkana use storytelling not only to pass along history but to teach others the importance of promoting good health behaviors.

Our visit happened to be in the middle of a paralyzing famine that affected the horn of Africa and spilled over into northern Kenya. Crops were failing and there was a severe food shortage. The Turkana, being pastoralists, were especially hard-hit when their livestock began to die off. People were literally starving to death. I had done a blog entry early on about African stereotypes, and I mentioned that a common misperception is that most Africans are starving and impoverished. I followed that up by mentioning that this was more of an exception to the rule--overall, they may eat much less food, but that doesn’t mean they are starving. Also, “poverty” is a relative term. If most of the people who live around you don’t have a lot of material possessions, that doesn’t necessarily make them poor. In fact, I regard most of my friends here as being richer on many levels. That said, whenever a disaster such as a famine happens, it throws what was once a delicate balance into complete disarray. Tribes like the Turkana, who can live comfortably on a basic diet and without a lot of possessions really feel the effect when the food or water supply is thrown out of whack.

I had no idea how bad the situation really was until after I got back to Bukoba. While waiting at the Lodwar “airport” for the plane back to Nairobi, I met a BBC journalist and cameraman who had just been to the same region we had. They told me that a piece they had just filmed would be airing a couple of days later and that I would be able to see it online.

Here is a link to that report: http://www.vimeo.com/27583238

Finding out about the severity of the famine after the fact made me appreciate my time with the Turkana all the more. I would have never guessed from the celebrations and fellowship we shared that they were in the middle of a major crisis. Please remember the Turkana, especially the newly-baptized, in your prayers.

Thank you to my support team!

Michael
m.pagedas@ocmc.org

[Video from my Turkana experiences can be found on the OCMC website or my YouTube channel, username: mpagedas]

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak at Holy Theophany Orthodox Church in Colorado Springs, CO

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Colorado Springs, CO
11/19/2011

Holy Theophany Orthodox Church
2770 North Chestnut St
Colorado Springs, Colorado
United States
80907


OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be at Holy Theophany Orthodox Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado on 11/19/2011. Please contact Fr. Anthony Karbo by phone at 719-473-9238 or by e-mail at frkarbo@theophany.org for more information.

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak at St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose, CA.

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak at St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose, CA.

11/12/2011

St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church
6430 Bose Lane
San Jose, California
United States
95120

OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be at St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose, California on 11/12/2011. Please contact Fr. Gregory Koo by phone at 408-268-3214 or by e-mail at stbasilschurch@sbcglobal.net for more information.

Sharing in Ministry by Using Skype: An Update from Christina Semon

Margo Kelley, OCMC Assistant Missionary Coordinator, offered me an opportunity to shake hands digitally over Skype with the parish family of St. Christopher Hellenic Orthodox Church and their parish priest, Rev. Fr. George Tsahakis. My first contact with this parish was from my previous ministry at the Protection of the Theotokos Family Center (PTFC). We received beautifully hand-knitted shawls for the struggling mothers from the St. Christopher’s Philoptochos Society through the visiting 2009 OCMC Mission Team. Now two years later, God has brought us together so that we can support each other in our ministries.

I have been organizing a knitting group held once a week with the teenage girls at the halfway house in Orhei in the Republic of Moldova. For each meeting, I prepared a topic to discuss so that we use our time in a constructive way. One of my goals is to build faith in these girls. The Prayer Shawl Ministry has reached out to support others in prayer through clothing the naked. Here in Orhei, adoption of this ministry can set a foundation for these girls to pray while knitting, and to knit with a more targeted purpose.

The parish of St. Christopher was equipped with all the tools necessary to perform the Skype call. We were in the narthex of the church for the meeting because they are using a temporary office space until they build their church. We had a good internet connection and webcam capabilities that brought a whole other dimension to the call. In the time span of fifteen minutes, I shared my current ministry and enjoyed a general period of questions and answers. This was such a meaningful time together to express the impact of the far-reaching Prayer Shawl Ministry and the gratitude of those who are touched by it.

This first parish Skype call also made a significant impact on me as a missionary. As I am the only OCMC Missionary in Moldova, one of my weaknesses is in battling the thoughts of loneliness. To fight these thoughts of loneliness, time and time again God shows mercy and provides people and activities to witness to me that I am not alone. God has blessed me to meet many parishes so that we could continue the work of Holy Spirit together. For me, the support team has been a tremendous part of my ministry and I will encourage other parishes to use their technology to connect with me in the ministry in a real way.

I am calling out to parish priests, OCMC Ambassadors, and faithful to make this type of internet meeting a future possibility. My Skype name is christinasemonocmc. Please email me to arrange the scheduling of our Skype call so that we, too, may greet one another face-to-face and beyond any distance.

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Gillette, WY

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Gillette, WY

11/3/2011

Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church
122 South Gillette Ave
Gillette, Wyoming
United States
82716-3702


OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Gillette, Wyoming on 11/03/2011. Please contact Fr. James Thayer by phone at 307-682-2328 or by e-mail at frjamesthayer@bresnan.net for more information.

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Gillette, WY

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Gillette, WY

11/3/2011

Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church
122 South Gillette Ave
Gillette, Wyoming
United States
82716-3702


OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Gillette, Wyoming on 11/03/2011. Please contact Fr. James Thayer by phone at 307-682-2328 or by e-mail at frjamesthayer@bresnan.net for more information.

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Chicago, IL

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Chicago, IL
10/30/2011

St. Constantine and Helen Cathedral
5410 N Newland Ave
Chicago, Illinois
United States
60656-2026


OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be at St. Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois on 10/30/2011. Please contact Fr. Vasile Muresan by phone at 773-774-1677 or by e-mail at f.frantz@ocmc.org for more information.

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

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Oak Ridge, TN

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Oak Ridge, TN
10/19/2011

St. Anne Orthodox Church
560 Oak Ridge Turnpike
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
United States
37830


OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be at St. Anne Orthodox Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on 10/19/2011. Please contact Fr. Stephen Freeman by phone at 865-482-0088 or by e-mail at stephenfree@comcast.net for more information.

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Houston, TX

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in Houston, TX
10/16/2011

St. Joseph Orthodox Church
10644 Hammerly Blvd
Houston, Texas
United States
77043


OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be at St. Joseph Orthodox Church in Houston, Texas on 10/16/2011. Please contact Fr. Joseph Huneycutt by phone at 713-973-7001 or by e-mail at office@saintjosephorthodox.org for more information.

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in McKinney, TX

OCMC Missionary Floyd Frantz to Speak in McKinney, TX

10/9/2011

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
708 S. Chestnut
McKinney, TX 75069-6503


OCMC Missionary Mr. Floyd Frantz will be speaking at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKinney, Texas on 10/09/2011. Please contact Fr. Seraphim Holland by phone at 972-529-2754 or by e-mail at seraphim@orthodox.net for more information.

An Update from Missionary Christina Semon

Dear Friends,

Glory to God for all things! My utmost appreciation for your prayers and support!

Your prayers have not been in vain as trials and struggles are prevalent in the missionary field. I have relocated to a new parish in the town called Orhei to better serve my youth ministry. Most of the youth were on summer vacation and those young people that were around had wonderful and exciting experiences at summer religious camps and pilgrimages. The Metropolia of Bucovia and Moldova of Romania invited us to participate in these spiritual events and one could see their love for their neighboring brothers and sisters.

Now that school has started in Orhei, the amount of activity for the body of the church will increase at the local parish church called Saint Basil. Through the blessing of Fr. Sergiu Aga, parish priest of St. Basil, I am currently developing an English program for all ages and a knitting activity with young ladies at the half-way house called “Toward Independence” run by Diaconia- the social outreach department of the Bessarabian Orthodox Church. We have already initiated these activities which are improving as time goes by and we are eager to provide more ways of feeding the souls of the youth.

It is true that ministry work can take time; but if you yourself don’t watch your soul, you can spiritually dry up. To avoid this danger, and better equip me as a missionary, I have enrolled in the Masters’ Program in the Theological Department at Alexander Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, Romania. This theological education can enable me to have credentials that will be of benefit in the mission field and life in general. Also, in the near future, we are looking forward to planting little seeds through inaugurating a catechism class for children and a church youth group to educate and build leadership within the youth of today.

I wish all of you a happy ecclesiastical new year and good strength in following Christ!

In Christ,

Christina Semon

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.

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.

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

Missionary Maria Roeber's First Sunday in Tanzania

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

OCMC Missionaries Need Your Prayers and Support

There are currently 23 Orthodox Christians from United States serving, or preparing to serve, as long-term OCMC missionaries in places like Alaska, Albania, Kenya, Japan, and Tanzania. These faithful servants offer a living witness to the Orthodox Faith and the hope, love, and salvation made possible through Christ to people who may have never heard the message of the Gospel. Please pray for our brothers and sisters who have answered the call to give two or more years of their life to the work of making disciples of all nations. Please remember them in your prayers and support their ministry efforts by visiting http://www.ocmc.org/donate and click “Support a Missionary”. Thank you in advance for making this vital work of the Church possible.