Journeying Together

Life is a journey, we all have to work our way through it.   And so it is with Nazareth House Apostolate.  

Evidence is indicating that Ebola is on its way out of Sierra Leone.  As for NHA, we will step back and keep an eye on things before making any assessment of the situation.  Hurriedly resuming normal activity before safety is assured can be a fatal mistake to many. Prevention and Protection are the focus of NHA at this time. 

In the meantime, we are proud to announce that five large boxes of supplies have arrived from Taylorsville to Freetown and are presently making their way to Kabala.  We've been giving out rice to keep hungry families fed and providing work to laborers to ensure they can sustain their families with provisions.  NHA is preparing for the reopening of the NHA School once Ebola is completely cleared from the country.

James and Kadijah radiate strength and courage as they go about to do the work of NHA in Kabala.  It is important that we are there for them in prayer and support.  As many of you are digging into your pockets to give what you can to help in this crisis; we encourage you to actively engage others to give for the current and ongoing needs of NHA.  By doing so, you not only help out those we serve but the giver becomes a part of the unity and love within the family of Nazareth House Apostolate.  Remember our goal is to obtain 1000 donors giving $25 per month.  Reaching that target will enable us to do our work in the States at Simeon Skete and overseas in Sierra Leone, tending to each need as it happens.  Currently, with each emergency we must start a fundraiser and while we wait for the money to come in, the situation worsens.  The American population is rather large and 1000 people is not a huge number to involve in an organization.  Many people have 1000 or more friends on Facebook.   

$25 per month is a reasonable amount, some of us spend more than that on Lattes and Fast Food that simply add unhealthy weight to our bodies.  If we arrive at the goal of 1000 giving $25 it will allow us a dependable budget for all avenues of Nazareth House Apostolates work.

    

While we work to bring the Ebola Prevention, Care and Recovery to completion, I’m thinking of the journey.  

A journey made together, walking side by side from both sides of the Atlantic, with parts of NHA dipping their toes in the Pacific.   

There is a bond that transcends the physical yet pronounces the things of the heart and brings about unity.

  

In Nazareth House, together, we’re accomplishing that bond, that unity – a fete that many organizations  cannot lay claim.   

 

When you think of NHA, you think of the Skete and of Africa – namely Sierra Leone, but Nazareth House is made up of people all over the world. 

Fr. Gabriel Harty OP, visiting St. Simeon Skete from Ireland 

Katherine (Chico, CA) made needlepoint Pocket Crosses and sold them to raise money for NHA.
Here she is presenting Vicki with the proceeds. 

We started out by taking baby steps; 

and then we did a little running…

 

Sometimes the path became cold and slippery, 

sometimes the load is heavy.  

Sometimes the load is lighter. 

  

We’ve broken down, 

 

and got back up and started running again,

Awkward loads, rough roads – the journey continues.  

There have been times when we just have to rely on someone else to come and carry us further. 

 

There are narrow paths across water.

  

We’ve released our share of tears, 

but when the road is steep, 

someone always steps up to help shove us to the top.

 

Sometimes it seems we are running in circles 

but there is always  helping hands to reach out 

and keep us going, giving us a strong and  steady pull there

… together the NHA Family climbs the hill.   

And in doing so, we’ve been able to leap over huge obstacles, 

 

even though we’ve scraped our knees, twisted our ankles, 

Together we keep on pushing onward, more importantly we’ve kept on loving.  

 

 NHA will stay on the journey because the path we follow is LOVE 

Pray Love Walk – a – thon:  St. Augustine Anglican Church, Chico CA 

(“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for GOD IS LOVE.” 1 John 4:8)

Please send your tax deductible donations (remember small or large every donation helps) to:

Nazareth House Apostolate

185 Captains Cove Drive

Taylorsville, KY 40071

or through our website www.nazarethhouseap.org 

"Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together." James Cash Penney

rewrite of previous post 2011

The Jonah Fast 2015

On Monday, February 2, we begin another of our annual practices at St. Simeon Skete.  We observe the three day, Jonah Fast beginning at 12:01 AM EST on Monday, February 2nd and lasting until after Vespers on Wednesday, February 4th.  

Icon housed at St. Simeon Skete

The Jonah Fast, commemorates the three days that Prophet Jonah spent in the belly of the beast -the whale. It also commemorates the repentance of the people of Nineveh and is sometimes called the “Nineveh Fast”. It begins the Monday after Septuagesima – which is two weeks before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. 

While the normal service schedule will be adhered to at the St. Simeon Skete, the faithful will observe the fast by refraining from food (and drink if they wish) from midnight until Vespers (or sunset) during these three days. If, for health reasons you are unable to do without all food during the day, we encourage you to at least refrain from something i.e. meat, fish, and dairy products during the fasting period. At the skete, fasting is considered abstaining from an otherwise normal activity for the purpose of spiritual pursuit.  Usually people abstain from food, but may also abstain from other activities – in example – refraining from the media i.e. news, etc.  

This is a special fast at St. Simeon Skete because life at the skete embodies the experience of being in the belly of the beast where one must live in the “darkness” of faith.  – where one seeks answers; but is turned back to live with the questions that make the answers possible; where every good answer simply makes the question vibrate all the more.  Just as supply cannot be separated from its source; the answer cannot be separated from its question – nor the question from the answer. 

Whether you participate in the fast or not, now is a good time to prepare yourself for the upcoming Lent.  The days peel off quickly and without preparation your Lent can easily slip by with no gains within.  A good choice of preparation is to read the Book of Jonah as a prelude of the forty days of Lent.  It is a beautiful story of repentance and fasting.  

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.

Jeremiah 36:9 In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fasting before the LORD was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah.

Daniel 9:3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Joel 1:14 Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

Jonah 3:7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.

The Bigger Picture

NHA Student

As Ebola looms tall, shadowing over Sierra Leone, it compels us to zero in on the disease and the horrific devastation that those who come in contact with it experience.    Facebook, Google, Unicef - many are doing all they can to get help to where it is needed.  Its a slow go.  Funds aren't released quickly or sufficiently, miscommunication,  delays, diversions,  red-tape - all represent obstructions hindering action in the war against ebola.  People of the world have and are giving, its a matter of using that money efficiently and properly to put Ebola down for good.  NHA is praying for those whose job it is to see to it that everything is coordinated, purchased, covered and used properly from the funding received. It is a difficult task.   This means that Ebola Caregivers need to be paid the salaries promised,  people in Quarantine need to be provided for,  Hospital Supplies must be distributed to where they are designated.  Right now, there is a lot of administrative debris hampering the flow of successful implementation.  There is no one entity to point a finger at, its a combination of obstacles.    The trouble is, these hinderances prevent those in need from receiving what is required to simply survive.

Child so weak from hunger, he just decided to nap on the fallen tree trunk 

There is that saying "You can't see the forest for the trees".  NHA has contended with one hurdle after another in our effort to get the Hospital Supply shipped to Sierra Leone.  With every barrier we jump over, another fence shows up - within the US and Sierra Leone.   Therefore it is time for us to step back and take a look at the Big Picture.

When you look at the big picture you see Ebola and its immediate victims but you also see the victims that aren't sick.   Sierra Leoneans are a friendly, loving people.  They normally greet each other with handshakes and hugs -but not since Ebola.   They are a social people, yet Ebola has forced them to hide into their homes, they are unable to go to their churches or mosques.   Employers are forced to close their businesses, schools are shut down.  Employment is scarce.  Food and Provision even scarcer.

NHA School Students helping distribute well water to those without 

The NHA Director and Headmaster of our school in Kabala, James Mansaray, reports that he can't keep up with the people who are hungry with no opportunities to find work or buy food.   He's been trying to give work to some of the laborers so they can provide for their families but more and more are simply asking for food.  "We need food."

NHA Students selling groundnuts and sugar to provide for their families.  

NHA has always been about the hand to hand contact of giving.  Its the way we do things.  When Jesus had his disciples feed the multitude he had them do it hand to hand.  He didn't have them deal with Governments,  Warehouses or through various Committees or Agencies.   He handed it to them. This is the one way NHA always makes the biggest impact, without fail.  The personal, intimate, face to face, heart to heart, smile to smile, eye to eye method of contact.  So as we step back to look at the broader picture, and until we have a clear picture of how to proceed,  we are responding by doing what we always do.  We pray.  And in those prayers we hear these words, "Do you love me? ...Feed my sheep." -John 21:17  

The degree of deterioration of health, strength and livelihood within the area NHA serves in Kabala due to hunger in the wake of the destructive path of ebola can no longer be ignored.   This morning NHA through the hands of James, distributed rice to 43 families!  

Some picked up at the compound and others he took it to them.  

Each person in this photo represents a separate family receiving rice. 

In one engaging simple action, the NHA Compound neighbors that came to fetch their bags of sustenance confirmed we ARE doing the right thing.  Before they would accept or touch the bags of rice - they stopped and gave glory and thanks to God for His provision.  

James said that it brought tears to his eyes.  Hungry as they were, God received thanks first, then they gathered bags of rice and went home to cook.   What's even more beautiful, is that this group of people praying together, thanking God together, are a mixture of Christians and Muslims.  Knowing there are differences between them but no divisions amongst them, they gave thanks to their Creator.   Oh! but if the rest of the world could have such unity under God.

Families walked away from the NHA Compound with their rice on their heads 

Tonight many families will be able to eat a real meal.  

Thank you all for the compassion and support and for being there for the people of Kabala.   God bless you all.    -Stay tuned... NHA has only begun its Ebola response. 

The Wait of Advent

Here we are, well into the Advent Season.  A time of preparation of our hearts, a purging of our habitual transgressions.  A time of expectation of His arrival, Our Saviour.

This anticipation, this Advent, is intensified in Sierra Leone.  As people of faith, we know we can do nothing on our own, it is our Creator that guides us through.  The villagers of Sierra Leone see this in reality in their everyday life and they have no doubt that their existence is sustained by the Almighty. Day after day, I see from those Sierra Leoneans (who are able to find an internet connection) posts on Facebook of thanksgiving to God for seeing them through the night and enabling them to see the sunrise another day.  In the midst of the current 'plague', I see  and hear from them, far more prayers of thanksgiving than petitions.  This has been going on before Ebola was a word in their vocabulary or a reality in their life and it will continue long after the disease disappears.  The villagers for the most part live off the land, they know the origin of what they receive to provide them sustenance.  So when their needs require hospital beds, medicine and supplies they have no choice but to wait for its arrival.

So as we contemplate the Season of Advent, Christmas and the New Year; as we wait in anticipation of the celebration of the meaning of Christmastide; lets bear witness to the waiting and anticipation of those in the Ebola Hotspots of West Africa who must wait and hope for that which saves them.

To give towards the NHA Shipment of Hospital Beds and Equipment desperately needed in Kabala, please CLICK HERE.  And while you are at it, won't you consider making a recurring monthly donation through this link as well?

Our NHA School in Kabala has been forced closed by the Ebola Outbreak.  All schools in Sierra Leone have been ordered closed by the Government.

Last week, James noticed some of our boy students playing along the road, getting into mischief - a very normal activity for little boys.

So James took them to the local Automobile Mechanics in the town and had them provide a little "vocational" studies.  The students loved it.

NHA has been hiring locals for odd jobs to stimulate the work force in the area.  So many shops and companies have had to shut down due to ebola.

We've suffered an outbreak of snakes taking refuge in the rocks around the school and compound.  James hired some laborers to remove the rocks in order to keep the area safe.  These husbands and sons worked very hard for us. We are very thankful for their help and they are happy to receive good pay to provide for their families.

#GivingTuesday: Its about Love

I was just asked if I have anything positive to report.  "Don't give me the negative, my day is bad enough, I want to hear the good news."  I can only respond to that demand by giving you Nazareth and by that I give you love.  That's what Nazareth House Apostolate is today, tomorrow, everyday.  It is love and it is relationship.  The recipient giving birth to the giver so that they both may shine.  An honest ongoing relationship of the two blessing each other.  The love of NHA shows in this video.

Nazareth House Apostolate is not wrapped up in a neat little package; or decorated all fancy - a feast for the eyes.    We don't glitter and sparkle.

We are real and many times we are messy and dirty, spilled out on the floor, broken and troubled.

Things go wrong, things get fixed, things go wrong again - its life.  Yet in the midst of that we make life happen and in our living life - we shine!

And through it all we smile because

we know that God is deeper and more real than any of our pain or troubles.   We are not alone.  God sees, God hears, God knows, God loves...

Today is #GivingTuesday, please consider giving a donation to Nazareth House Apostolate 

 Tomorrow, another crisis may rise.   Jesus didn't teach to run away from, ignore,  or hide from life's miseries.  He taught us how to go through them.  One foot in front of the other.

"Let's do this thing, okay?" 

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

you can also set up an ongoing monthly gift at the above link.  Thank you.