Last month, as the deadline was nearing for us to raise the final "needs" money for this recent mission to Sierra Leone, I received an email from Maria Stianchie. She, too, has been struggling through her organization One Love Foundation, to minister to and provide needs for the poor in Sierra Leone. She had read our NHA blog and couldn't allow us to make the journey without being fully equipped to provide "on the ground needs". She sent us a most generous contribution through One Love Foundation to the NHA work in Sierra Leone. Not only that, but $200 of the gift was collected by the students of Amy Burkey's 7th grade students of Penn-Kidder School in Pennsylvania. This collection was to provide mosquito bed netting to help prevent malaria from reaching several children. The classroom designated these funds to NHA to get these nets. We did, and with Maria's donation along with several of yours, we were able to provide nets for ALL of the families of our students at Kabala School, as well as many families in Freetown and outlying areas. This was done in honor of Mohammad, the child of Foray, the building contractor of our school. Little Mohammed died while his father was away building our school.
One Love Foundation is caring for and helping to provide for an orpahange. St. Mary's Orphanage is located in Waterloo, just on the outskirts of Freetown. NHA has established a relationship with this orphanage and visited the St. Mary's Orphanage during our recent mission. You can see the photos of these beautiful children by cutting and pasting the following web album address to your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/nha.prayer/ChildrenOfSierraLeone#
One Love Foundation is in process of filling a container to ship to Fr. Sandy for the orphanage and other projects. It will be ready to ship very soon.
I received the following email from Maria and wanted to share it with you. Please pray for her, One Love Foundation, Fr. Sandy and the work they are doing in Sierra Leone. We are all in this together:
Dear Vicki,
As I end my day which began loading items into a storage unit filled with items for the poor of Sierra Leone, never imagining how I could possibly sort through all the donated items, then felt warmed by the wonderful little surprises ... a stranger who heard about our project and sent 900 blessed rosary beads, a delivery of a microwave (as Fr. James Sandy tells us the "lads" call it a magic pot that cooks real fast......mattresses,medical supplies,clothing,shoes,religious items,each box filled with caring and love,love,love.......it reminds me of Nazareth House and all those that support it......the love that walks with Fr. Seraphim, Vicki, James, Kadijah.....a love that knows no boundaries.....can I ever thank you enough for the gift of visiting our children, ....of delivering the bed nets we so desperately wanted to reach those that need it the most...did we tell you that we love you and the work you do. Such a beautiful light in this beautiful world. Let your light keep shining for all the world to see.
And on that note..... God Bless You All and good night. Please pray for our shipment which will hopefully sail Oct. 24....Newark to Freetown, God willing.
One World , One Heart, One Love........ thank you for a beautiful end to a beautiful day.....Maria