Nazareth House Apostolate Blog

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.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Bell's not a bell 'til you ring it ...

Last Summer, Jesús and his son,

installed the bell at St. Simeon Skete.

It is to be rung as a “call to prayer” prior to every Service at St. Simeon Skete.

One of the things I miss most in Sierra Leone is the “Adhan”, the Muslim Call to Prayer that rings from the minaret 5 times a day.

In the wee hours of the morning, hearing that wakes me from my sleep with a reminder to pray.

Sunrise at St. Simeon Skete

Archbishop Provence once said to me that “the first thing you do when you wake up is what holds your day,” “If prayer begins your day, then your day will be held by prayer. If checking the news, email or facebook is the first action you make after waking - then those things will hold your day.”

St. Simeon’s Skete’s “call to prayer” is not from a large bell, its not fancy, its simple and functional and in this way a perfect representation of life at the skete. It is enough.

Seraphim appointed Joanie Markwell as the Official Bell Ringer of St. Simeon Skete. Every Sunday, she rings the bell eleven times, five minutes before the Liturgy. The bell is rung eleven times in honor of the eleven patronal saints of the skete.

✞

Last week, Joanie celebrated her birthday and the small study group that meets on Wednesdays at the Holy Trinity Kellia presented Joanie with an Official Bell Ringer tee-shirt and hat.

This past Sunday, Joanie came dressed in her Sunday hat

but made sure to change into her “bell-ringing hat” while ringing the call to the Liturgy.

As the Lord's Supper was celebrated on Sexagesmia Sunday at St. Simeon Skete, little Vicki Ann Mansaray's life

was being dedicated to God by her doting grandfather, Pastor Foday

at his church in Kabala.

The family gathered together

for this special and very joyous event.

James and Kadijah are very pleased to have made the return to Kabala and are anxious to settle in and spread the work of NHA throughout Kabala and the outlying villages.

We have made some medical shipments to Sierra Leone for James to receive, however, they have not arrived as timely as hoped. In one of the boxes filled with medication is a small valentine gift for Roo and Vicki.

St. Mark's Parish in Portland, Oregon has also sent Valentines to the students of the NHA School in Kabala. Obviously, the boxes have not made it to their destination in time for Valentine's Day. And so this year's greetings may be more on African time (where they are event oriented rather than Chronos or sequential time). Love has no expiration dates and I’m sure St. Valentine would be the first to agree that the message of love should be everyday - love for God and love for all mankind.

"A bell's not a bell 'til you ring it,

A song's not a song 'til you sing it, Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay,

Love isn't love 'til you give it away. " - Oscar hammerstein II

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

As a Religious Organization with an outreach in Sierra Leone, Nazareth House Apostolate wants you to be familiar with the work and how we do that work. Others may do things differently and we applaud everyone that makes an effort to help those in need. There is so much suffering, it requires everyone to do their part in lending a hand.

The following is what we have found works best for NHA and those that we serve. Specifically we want to talk about shipments made overseas from Nazareth House Apostolate. We’ve been working in the war-torn West African Nation of Sierra Leone for well over ten years now. When we began, we had no clue how to help, we only knew there was a need that we refused to ignore. Through the years we’ve had many trial and errors but any disappointments have been far outweighed by the many accomplishments. Every time you help a child to go to bed at night with a few less hunger pains - you’ve made a difference. Every step (backward or forward) has been a learning experience and we are thankful, very thankful for it all.

Nazareth House Apostolate is a religious organization.

As the human body has many parts, so it is with Nazareth House Apostolate. (see previous post: click to read the NHA Blog: Many Parts, One Body)

The heart of Nazareth House Apostolate is St. Simeon Skete (prayer) from which all that we do begins, circulates and is pumped out. Our daily prayer rule “The Eleven” is the beating of that heart. Nazareth House Kabala in Sierra Leone (outreach), our field house in which the mission work is accomplished is that prayer being broadcasted into the world. The supporters and the beneficiaries are the food that supports the body enabling it to do its work.

Our work in Sierra Leone is all about love. Love as expressed in Matthew 25: 35-40.

During the war and soon after, it was necessary to ship as many supplies as possible. There simply wasn’t anything left or available. As the nation slowly began to heal, more and more merchants provided staples and shops began to re-open.

Today, you can find most anything in Freetown with the exception of good (safe) medications.

Some items are available at an exaggerated price, however, when you weigh the cost of shipping that item from the States, it remains more prudent to purchase it in country.

Kabala is known for its cloth and tailoring, and especially for the making of the "ronko" gown - (reference:click here to read wikipedia).

It is for this reason that we ship little to no clothing to Sierra Leone. Handmade clothing is available all over Kabala at a good price.

Even in Freetown, where prices are generally higher, you can find clothing in shops and on the streets at reasonably fair prices.

It is for these reasons that Nazareth House Apostolate prefers not to ship any article except the most needed items to Sierra Leone - namely medications.

By purchasing material from a cloth merchant and having a tailor sew the item, we have stimulated the economy; providing a sale for the merchant and income for the tailor. Rather than one child receiving an article of clothing to wear, we have touched three lives in a positive way - 1. the cloth merchant, 2. the tailor, 3. the person who receives the clothing - for much less than the cost of shipping.

Nazareth House Apostolate’s goal for a village is to become unneeded. This means that the village or town becomes self-sufficient and no longer requires our assistance. When a village reaches that goal, we can then move on to another. It is important that a town or village is not put into a position of becoming dependent on humanitarian aid.

The saying “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.

Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”.

Our goals are simple in Sierra Leone.

The farm in which Pa Foday labors tirelessly, provides vegetables for several, we want to expand it so that there is food for more...for eating as well as produce for marketing.

Education is one of the most important tools for a community's growth. We’ve built a very nice school building, servicing nearly 300 students.

It needs expansion to accommodate the ever growing enrollment. We are having to turn students away. This is not good.

Communication. There are no landlines in Kabala, only mobile towers. Internet accessibility is limited to the IP’s whims. NHA is working to strike a deal with satellite company to provide satellite capabilities. We are considering an internet cafe ran by a NHA Staff member with the proceeds benefiting the NHA School.

Water. We are very excited that we now have a permanent center of operations in Kabala - our NHA Compound. The water in Kabala, however is not very good.

Our well at the NHA Compound reached water but it is not able to be pumped into the house. We will need to hire more workers and equipment to finish this project. However, it is more than the NHA Compound that needs a water system rescue. There are many agencies that install and maintain water supplies, we will be speaking with them about the needs in Kabala.

While we press on with new projects and more needs we continue to provide humanitarian aid to those in need - rice to sustain families, medical fees for the sick as well as supplies for the clinics, benevolence to sustain, salaries for our teachers, aid to One Hut village as well as outer villages, operating and upkeep of the NHA School --- NHA is very active in Kabala. Plus, there are those we continue to maintain in Freetown. When James makes the monthly supply run to Freetown he sees to it that these people are not forgotten. NHA never drops and runs, we remember and check on the people and villages that we serve. Our monthly expenditure to provide these needs is $2,200. We currently are supported by 31 donors who give monthly ($25 or more), regularly (quarterly and annually). We also receive the one time, random, and gift (in honor or memory) contributions. So far we have been able to make the needs each month. This amazes us as most of the time we barely scrape by and come up with just enough, just in time. Sometimes we are late distributing but we have never failed to provide. The work in Sierra Leone is sustained solely by donations.

It is a difficult trip for James to make from Kabala into Freetown and back. We have brought to your attention the need for a vehicle of our own to help curb the dangers of rental car costs and “scares” (unsafe vehicles with unsafe drivers) on treacherous roads. This is another reason we limit the amount of shipping sent to Freetown for James to receive. If boxes come in and our left to sit, there is a good chance the contents will be stolen. Therefore, James must go to Freetown when notified of the arrival of a shipment. We try to time shipments to arrive when he makes his supply run so as not to endanger him any more than he already is by making the trip.

It is our hope that this writing clarifies our stand on shipments to Sierra Leone. We encounter tremendous needs in Sierra Leone, yet we ask that people resist the urge to donate items to this cause unless specifically requested and approved. In a nutshell, it’s actually prohibitively expensive to export goods from the United States to Sierra Leone. Rather, cash donations are preferred and greatly appreciated. This approach benefits the local economy (local skills, labor & materials) and assures your tax deductible donation goes directly to support needs and projects and reduces administration costs such as shipping.

Nazareth House Apostolate

185 Captains Cove Drive

Taylorsville, KY 40071

www.nazarethhouseap.org

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Travel Woes

James reports that on his way back to Freetown to pick up his family, he encountered yet another road accident. With the frequency that he must make these trips back and forth to pick up supplies, it is becoming more and more imperative that NHA purchase its own vehicle. The reliability and safety of renting cars is very risky at best.

The vehicle in front of James on the road to Freetown, loses control and flips into the weeds.

Like many things in Sierra Leone, renting a car in that country is a much different process than in the United States. On most occasions after you pay a hefty rental fee, the owner of the car insist that you use his driver as well.

James rushes to assist those in the vehicle

Unless you know who you are renting from very well, you are at the mercy of the driver as to his driving skills or the safety conditions of the car.

Finding a skilled, safe driver in Sierra Leone is a rare find. Finding a car that won't break down several times on your journey is just as rare.

This past week, when James recovered enough from his malaria and typhoid, he was able to find a decent car to bring the family home. With such precious cargo aboard,

Roo peeks at his tiny sister as she nurses during the ride home to Kabala. No laws in Sierra Leone
for seatbelts or child restraining seats. In fact very few cars have seatbelts.

we were delighted that they made it back to the Compound in Kabala without any mishaps.

The peaceful NHA Compound awaits the arrival of the family

Little Roo did present the family with a worrisome matter when he spiked a fever and sores popped up on his throat as they made their way home.

Though smiling, Roo looks rather thin and feverish.

I am happy to report he is improving and we are hoping the peace and quiet of Kabala will help him to heal more rapidly.

Once back home at the NHA Compound, Roo takes his medicine and vitamins.

Back home, Kadijah tidies up the grounds, sweeping away the litter that has accrued in front of the house.

And Vicki takes in some much needed rest after the long drive.

Several boxes of important medication are on their way across the Atlantic today. This means that upon their arrival through Lungi, James will yet again make the trip - relying on someone else's vehicle and driver - to Freetown and back. And when he returns to the NHA Compound, he will be making distribution of the medication to the area village clinics - again at the mercy of an unknown rented vehicle and driver.

For the past several years, the NHA Compound has been our focus of fundraising. Now that we have completed the compound we must turn our fundraising attention to some very important operational matters that allow NHA to perform its duties both in Sierra Leone and in America. We'll be discussing the further needs of NHA in posts to come, however today we want to reiterate the need for a NHA vehicle in Sierra Leone.

6 February 2010, James survived after being flipped several times in this car.

Two years ago, James was in a horrific accident.

(http://www.nazarethhouseap.org/2010/02/17/6th-february-2010-accident-report/)

He survived only by God's grace and mercy. On that day, a driver refused to slow down or listen to James' urgent pleas to drive safely. The taxi was filled with people, including a small baby which James held in his arms as the car flipped - over and over. The car stopped just inches away from rolling over a high cliff.

It was a serious warning for NHA, a warning that we must not rely on others many with puffed up attitudes, that have displayed time after time reckless behavior in poorly maintained vehicles. We must make supply trips to and from Freetown, our work demands it. However, paying good money to rent vehicles with drivers that put our staff in jeopardy is not prudent. James has informed us that there are good used certified cars out there beginning at $10,000. Anything older or less priced has more than likely been poorly maintained and driven very hard. He knows many good mechanics in Kabala that will help to maintain and service the vehicle. Having our own car won't keep us out the way of those crazy drivers as they travel the roads, but it will give us more control and ability to practice safety.