Pa Foday improving

Last night or as James says it:  "Yester-night", I received this email from James, our director of operations in Sierra Leone:

Hello Mama,

Good day. It was such a long long day for me as usual. Today I ran down town to settle bank, check post, see Marianna, pay money to Seamstress, we owe them a little from last work on the uniforms so I settled that etc.   We still have 50 of the kids without new uniforms.  Hopefully for Christmas we can find a way to get more uniforms made, God willing and provisions met.

Pop (Pa Foday) moved to a single room with better facilities and cleaner but no electricity. 

Pastor (Pa) Foday looking handsome as ever and much healthier 

He using one of the solar lights you sent. Thanks for that.  

Two families from Kabala visited. 

How nice they were to come that far just to see Pa Foday. 

Later on my whole family came too. Kadijah, Roo, Baby Vicki and then Lucy joined us later on after her class.

Left to Right: Baby Vicki, Kadiatu (James sister), Lucy, Kadijah 

 Pa Foday so happy and you can tell from Pictures that he is coming back to life. 

Thanks for all your prayers and financial support. We love you All .

We talk more tomorrow. Getting few school supplies for NHA School in the morning. 

Kadijah is staying for  a week until I come back to help take care of Pop.

Love to Fr. Seraphim.  

How is Fr. Slavin, did his surgery go well?  Is he in pain?  

How is Denny and JoanE doing with all the deer meat piled all around them? 

Mama Vicki shared a Taste of Salone with those at Markwell's Deer Processing - grannat soup (Groundnut Soup).
Soon the Markwell's will share a bit of the products of their labors with James and the One Hut Family in Salone. 

We are looking forward to the jerky.  (click on this link to read previous posts on Deer Jerky: From Lawrenceburg to Kabala ) You know this, I guess.   Please thank everyone for helping us here, everywhere I look I see someone struggling more than rest.  We need so much help. 

I have attached the receipts for some of the hospital bills paid.  thank everyone for this.  Brima and I have paid these using the funds received from NHA and a bit sent from family. Brima has been helping so much for us and I am so thankful that you guys have added him to the Nazareth House Team here in Salone.  He is so helpful.  

Maybe more will come in the post this week.

love,

James

As James reports in his email, Pa Foday is improving and enjoying seeing his family and friends from Kabala.  He is anxious to get home and back to normal.  Thank you for your prayers and donations.  NHA may be a very small organization but it certainly spreads out to help many.  

Brima and James have been paying for the hospital bills of Pa Foday.  

120,000 leones equals $27.78

NHA has provided them $1000 so far for this purpose.  

3million leones equals $694.47

The receipts here total $866.70 and do not include his continued stay in the hospital 

60,000 equals $13.89

and recovery treatment or the cost of travel to Freetown and the return to Kabala.  

100,000 equals $23.15

The Ultrasound was extremely inexpensive compared to the cost of one in America.  The technology is not as advanced but proved to be an adequate diagnostic tool.

360,000 leones equals $83.34

Notice in the above photo that this receipt is for the supplies for surgery.  Brima had to obtain and provide even the surgeons rubber gloves.  This means the patients family must run around town and obtain the IV's, the medication and the tools before the operation can take place.

104,000 leones equals $24.07

Notice in the above receipt that pure water must be purchased - as the water from the tap is not purified.     We may complain about the healthcare provided to us in the West but it far exceeds that in 3rd World countries. 

We thank you for your ongoing prayers, love and support.  You are saving lives!  Pa Foday is just one of many that you are helping to provide a better life.  Thank you. 

Coffee Spilled...

I recently came across an article of Seraphim's, written many years ago about the time he spent in India.  He was invited to a Christian Ashram in the Himalayas for dialog on the enculturalization of prayer.  

 Written by Fr. Seraphim 

❖Coffee spilled into my lap as I heard, "Oh, I'm sorry, please forgive me."  Grabbing a napkin, I assured the person who had bumped into me that it was okay.  As I refilled my cup, I was reminded of a day on a dusty street in New Delhi, India, and how I learned one of the great spiritual lessons of my life.  

Some years ago, I travelled to the Jeevan Dhara Ashram located in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.  I went to pray and spend time with the head of the ashram.  My cell looked out on the majestic peaks which were breathtakingly beautiful.  The air was fresh and scented with mountain flowers; it was a truly idyllic setting.  Each morning I would rise at 3 AM to pray the Divine Office, remaining in prayer as the sun ignited the majestic peaks with heavenly golden light. 

Jeevan Dhara Ashram in Himalayas (India)    ©2012 NHA, All Rights Reserved 

Then, with Jesus beads in my hands, I would take a prayer walk which would eventually lead me to the chapel of the Ashram.  My time in the mountain paradise seemed to blend into one continuous, ongoing prayer.  One day I was talking to a pilgrim who had just arrived from Germany.  As we discussed the beauty and calm of the ashram I said "It sure is easy to be holy in a place like this," and he said, "Yeh, it sure is," as we gazed on the valley below. 

Statue of sitting Christ in the Ashram Gardens, India                ©2012 NHA, All Rights Reserved 

A week later I made my way to New Delhi, where I spent my days walking the streets, silently praying the Jesus Prayer.  I was still swimming in the holiness of the ashram when a motorized rickshaw ran up on the walk, heading straight for me! As the driver was bearing down on me I thought, surely he wouldn't hit me on purpose! How wrong I was - I bounced off the front of the rickshaw.  I landed on the ground and yelled, "You idiot!" as he drove off waving his arms and blowing his horn.  Dusting myself off I said, "Oh well, forget it," and walked on, keeping careful eye open for ricks. 

Streets of Delhi, India (1980's)    ©2012 NHA, All Rights Reserved 

Suddenly the noise of the city faded as my thoughts turned inward to the space where God speaks to us beyond words and images.  A week before I had been in a Himalayan bliss, so "close" to God, so spiritual and saying, "It's easy to be holy in a place like this."  Now, the first time I"m with someone since then I get angry and call him an idiot! I suddenly realized it's easy to think you can be holy in a place like an ashram.   The test of holiness, however, is not being in an ashram, on a mountain, or in one's set times of prayer.  The real test is carried out in the marketplace where life bumps us literally and figuratively.  

Looking at this old photo, it proves that there was a time when Seraphim actually was young!  (Tall man, back roll, left)     ©2101 NHA

Back in the present, as I took another sip of coffee, I thought, the reason coffee was spilled on me was not because I was accidentally bumped but because there was coffee in the cup to begin with.  What's inside a person is what comes out when they are bumped.  We are to be filled with Christ so that when we  are bumped, out come forgiveness, understanding, encouragement, compassion, love and whatever the present moment demands. (Col. 1:27). ❖

During this Lenten Season, as we fast, prepare our hearts, deepening our prayer lives, and attempt to take our spiritual disciplines more seriously,  - its easy to think we are holy.  But its what we do when life knocks us around and we get jolted.    

We will get bumped.   What is inside?  What will come out?  anger? revenge? mean-spirited, hurtful words? jealousy?  If that is what is inside you, then that is what will come out.  

However, if forgiveness, love, words that offer redemption, ...if those are the things that are inside you - then that is what will be unleashed on whatever jars us out of our comfort zones.  May this Lenten Season be one in which the overflow within us is emptied of everything that isn't rooted in love. 

What a week for NHA.

There is much going on with NHA right now, the Compound is beginning to look finished from the outside 

and some of the rooms inside 

are becoming more and more livable.   

The well still is not done so fetching water is going to be a chore and baths will need to be taken in the stream.   

The well is a slow work, especially with no money to hire equipment, it is being done by hand.   There is much to be done yet to finish the compound.    

NHA has just this week sent the monthly teachers salaries and other needs money for July,  but we still have that last $12,000 to finish the Compound.    

Please share this with all that you know, encourage them to be a part of this great work and ask them for a donation. 

James is traveling back and forth the long day drive to and from Kabala, unloading and loading furniture in the small truck that he must use to move.   

As he jokingly said to me, this is my Uhaul!   James remembers the Uhaul that we used to move items from Louisville to Taylorsville when he was here to help us.   Unfortunately, he has no such service as that in Sierra Leone. 

While in Kabala, James is helping the construction workers in any manner he can to assist in completion of the project.   We can help James and the workers by providing the funding so that they can finish faster by purchasing equipment.  

Otherwise, its being worked on by back breaking labor and torn hands.   Let's help them out, let's try our best to raise the money they need. 

Back home at St. Simeon Skete, the Taylorsville Zoning Commission approved our permit to build Kellis - which are individual cells (like hermitages) centered around the Chapel.    

This is the Kelli (cell, hermitage) that will be built on the grounds of St. Simeon Skete

It was a pleasure to meet the board members of the  Zoning Commission and we are thankful for their approval.   

Seraphim is enduring another bout of malaria, not quite as severe as the near fatal attack last year, but this one is intense.  

Even so, he continues all of the Offices & Liturgies at the Skete daily, including the full Nazareth House Rosary as he walks the grounds.   

The way that the NHA Family works together, here in America 

and in Sierra Leone, 

wherever they are is amazing. 

 Anywhere  you look, someone is doing something 

to help out Nazareth House.   

 Thank you all, what a wonderful team we make - together - holding one another up - loving. 

Jesus your life of poverty is living in me:

Ps. 140:12. I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor.

Is. 25:4. For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress.

Ps. 10:14. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan... O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed.

Is 41:17. The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them Myself, as the God of Israel I will not forsake them.

Luke 6:20-21. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

James 2:5. Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

Deut. 26:12. When you have finished paying the complete tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and the widow, that they may eat in your towns, and be satisfied.

Lev. 19:19ff. Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.

Prov. 31:8ff. [Commandment to kings.] Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

Is. 58:66ff. Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Jer. 22:3. Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Luke 12:33. "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys."

Luke 3:11. And [John the Baptist] would answer and say to them, "Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise."

Mt. 5:42. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

Nazareth House Apostolate

www.nazarethhouseap.org

185  Captains Cove Drive

Taylorsville, KY 40071