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.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Lenten Mission Trip: Sierra Leone, Day One.


During our recent trip to Sierra Leone, we started our first day in Freetown in the usual way.
James and Fr. Seraphim began their day sipping their favorite "Goatlip Tea"
and I started the day out
with a leggy critter in the shower.
Later that morning, we went into the city
to stock St. Laurence House
with some fresh fruit
and vegetables.
The colorful markets in Freetown are great and I love the people.
The people are so friendly and eager to have fun.
When she saw my camera,
this particular lady asked me to take her picture.
She said that she needed a husband and if I took her picture she would get one.
A good man would see her hard at work at the market and seek her out for marriage.
So ...here is her picture, I hope her future husband is looking at this blog. She is definitely a hard worker and a lot of fun.
We chatted with the women in the market for a bit,
when another lady said
"Take my picture, I need TWO husbands!"
After picking out, bargaining (talk talk) and paying for the produce,
it was time to go get Roo from school.

Roo's school is on top of a road that had a steep incline.
An ice cream vender was struggling to push his cart to the top of the hill so that he could catch the children as they came out of school.
I ran over to help him and was surprised at how heavy the cart was.
Together we both struggled to get the cart to the top of the hill just in time for the school's release.
Just as we get it to the top, here comes Emily and Kadijah with Roo and Jillian (Our neighbor, Maranda's little boy).
Once we collected Roo, we went further into the city to pick up more supplies.
Fr. Seraphim noticed a man down on his luck
and gave him a few leones to help him out.


Monday, April 5, 2010

Emmaus Day picnic


This year for Emmaus Day, some of the Kentucky NHA chapter members journeyed to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky.
As the normal tradition, we enjoyed a picnic on the grounds,
this year in front of the Retreat Center.
We enjoyed the traditional menu of fish, herbs, spring onions and colored eggs.
The grounds were beautiful
and the Spring flowers
were in full bloom.
For more information about the NHA tradition
of Emmaus Day/Sham el Nessim
read our blog post from the past.

Goats & Chickens & Roo, Oh my!


On this particular night in Kabala, I wanted to check on some livestock that had been given to villagers as gifts through Nazareth House via One Love Foundation.

The recipients of these gifts
lived a good distance down the road

which enabled us to enjoy a nice Evening walk along the way.
Upon reaching the house, the family eagerly came out to greet us.
They proudly showed us their gifts - the goats and chickens.
They were very happy and thankful to have received such fine livestock. The chickens were happily pecking on the floor of the steps
as they listened to the radio.
As we gathered the fowl
and goats
for a group photo,
we found out something
we didn't know about Roo.
He is terribly afraid of goats! What a Freetown city boy he is!
This is something he will have to overcome very quickly. I am sure the move to Kabala will take care of that.