St. Simeon Skete, Taylorsville Kentucky USA

With St. Simeon, the God receiver, as our patron, the skete seeks to practice the ideals found in our Rule, The Thousand Day Nazareth. In simplicity and poverty, the skete embraces the struggle of inner life through the practice of the Prayer Rope.

See our website at www.nazarethhouseap.org

Donations should be addressed to: Nazareth House Apostolate, 185 Captains Cove Drive, Taylorsville, Kentucky 40071.

Important Notice: All writings, posts, graphics & photographs in this blog are the copyrighted property of (unless otherwise indicated) Nazareth House Media, a division of Nazareth House Apostolate and cannot be copied, printed or used without written permission from NHA Media, Taylorsville, KY.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Double the Hope, Sierra Leone

The following photographs and words are from an email that James sent to me today. He was excited about a successful outcome to a pregnancy, (to the second power!!). In Sierra Leone, infant mortality is one of the highest in the world, as well is the death of mothers during childbirth. Whenever I post stories such as this on this blog, I usually get a few comments asking "why don't they stop having so many kids?" My answer is always the same, each child is their hope...their hope that this child will be the one to change things, to make a difference in the world. And now, today, Dusu has double hope.

Here's the email:

Hey Mama,

These pictures show poor Dusu who had to walk several days, deep in labour pain, as she rushed to find the nearest medical facility, since there was none in her village.

To her surprise, the only nurse available was busy tending to a boy bleeding severely. She was asked to wait till the nurse finished with the hand sugery.
At the aid of the few women who accompained her from the village she gave birth to these twins.

I was in tears and could not believe
this wonderful miracle of God. Against all odds, Dusu has a healthy birth, on not one but two babies.
I was so thankful that mom and children were alright.
No clothes for these poor pretty kids,
neither food or.............

for Dusu who was crying for help.