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Chapel of the Holy Spirit: “Building” Consensus

Posted on March 31, 2013 by in Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Features

by Fr. Basil Biberdorf

Photo credit: Elmer Aemmer, Kodiak Alaska Military History

An Orthodox church built in 1872 on Alaska’s Woody Island is currently inspiring Chapel members. The church utilizes the same simple rectangular footprint the Chapel is exploring but features a soaring roofline that draws attention upward.

Our chapel continues to work toward a plan for a building that is within our financial limits of what we could accomplish during coffee hour discussions, we decided to move to a building committee format. The committee, which is open to all Holy Trinity members, meets roughly weekly (usually Thursdays at the Chapel), for about two hours at a time. The goal has been to determine our needs in areas such as narthex layout, building aesthetic (including roofline), and altar size.

At our first meeting, to get a real sense of the size of our proposed narthex, we broke out the masking tape. Using that tape, we taped off a full-size floor plan in the Smith family’s garage. Within that we could see how large everything would be. Things (like bathrooms) that seemed too big or small on paper, looked reasonable when laid out on the garage floor. We could imagine a hallway lined with coat hooks on one side and a greeting table (to hold a guest book, candles, etc.) on the other. There was even room for our kitchen-in-a-closet, which could hold a sink, refrigerator, microwave, and coffee service, all hidden behind bi-fold doors.

Most importantly, it allowed us to see how much space remained for people to gather in the narthex. The narthex plays a vital role in several services, being the place where lityas, baptisms, chrismations, and betrothals are served. It’s also a place for the faithful to enter the church and prepare, however briefly, for worship. It is where the first-time visitor can take a moment to look around, adjusting to unfamiliar surroundings before going in further. However, in the plans under discussion, it will also serve a secondary (but still important) purpose as our Chapel’s hall. Thus, after services, we will gather there for fellowship and meals, and at other times for classes, meetings, and the like. We want to have enough space for people to be in the narthex for all of these different uses, and ensure that the secondary functions—food and fellowship—do not distract from its primary ones.

Then there’s the matter of church aesthetic. From the very beginning, we have desired a church building that looks like it “belongs” in our community, but with enough distinctiveness to be immediately recognizable as Orthodox. We sifted through numerous photos of historical churches, particularly those in the New World that would fit our criteria. The most popular one so far features a nave with high walls and a hip roof, crowned with a square cupola and three-bar cross, with gabled narthex and altar, as used in a church (now torn down) in Woody Island, Alaska, and similar to the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church in Kenai, Alaska, a National Historic Landmark since 1970. Right now, we are still waiting for drawings to visualize what we’re thinking, but these churches reveal our inspiration.

As always your prayers and financial support for the Chapel are coveted.

Fr. John’s March Keynote: Good News! Now!

Posted on March 4, 2013 by in Features

DSCF2107 - Version 2Around the time of Christ, Jewish women lived in anticipation, hoping that they might be privileged to give birth to the Messiah, the Redeemer long foretold by the prophets. As noted in last month’s Trisagion, the Feast of the Presentation originated in the Jewish custom to dedicate to God each first-born male who opened the womb, on the fortieth day after his birth. Each such son was consecrated to God, and was possibly the Messiah.

When the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she would be the one to conceive the Messiah, she is perplexed, however. In fact, she is afraid (Luke 1). She is not anticipating giving birth, much less giving birth to Christ. She is, after all, a Virgin, and has no intention to violate her vow to God: to remain in virginity all her life.

It is a paradoxical conversation to say the least. Be-cause our celebration falls concurrently with Lent, the paradox is heightened even more. During Lent we also remember another conversation between another woman, Eve, and another archangel, Lucifer. In that case, by twisting the truth, the archangel tempts Eve to betray her relationship with God. And she does so, interposing her own will in place of God’s. The result was sin, death and separation from God.

Photo Credit: Orthodox Church in America (oca.org)In this case, Gabriel offers the Virgin “good news,” (the meaning of “Annunciation” in Greek) that she will both be mother of the Messiah and the  Mother of God as well. Instead of her own will, her response is “be it unto me according to Thy word.”

Her answer in Latin, fiat, captures well the explicit-ness of her choice: “Let it be done!” She does not answer merely, “I’ve heard it,” but “May it be done in me!” How different from Eve! With Mary’s response, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:13) Instead of sin, obedience; instead of death, Life; instead of separation from God, communion with Him.

Hence, the backdrop of Lent: like Eve, we have disobeyed. We have inherited death. We have lost communion with God. Yet, as our celebration of the Incarnation commences once more, there is Good News to hear.

Like the Virgin, let us hear it. Like the Virgin, let us say, “Be it done”: God’s kingdom, God’s will, God’s life in us, right now.

Great Lent 2013: Be Ambitious to be Quiet

Posted on March 4, 2013 by in Features, Sunday School Scoop

by Dn. Mark Oleynik

To get my classmates (and me) quiet, an elementary teacher of mine often told us, “people have two ears and only one mouth so we should be twice as ready to listen than speak.” Scripture agrees in the claim that a quick ear and a cautious tongue are marks of real greatness. St. James cries to us: “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (1:19).

As we enter Great Lent—the season of solemnity and quietness—we are taught to not only abstain from foods, but that our fasting also involve our eyes, ears, feet, hands, and all the members of our bodies. Sometimes the lack of our favorite foods is the easier part of fasting while these other aspects prove to be more difficult. To meet these challenges perhaps we (both parents and children) can consider engaging more heartily in the study of quietness.

Josiah ReadingIn 1 Thessalonians 4:11 we read “study to be quiet.” This apostolic advice seems to be a strange ambition for us today. Most are not ambitious “to be quiet”—but rather to make the greatest possible noise in the world. Our society is often ready to hang the biggest medal around the neck of the person who has succeeded in causing commotion. But as followers of Christ, we should strive to live quietly; and peaceably in all godliness and honesty. Silence, to be sure, is not always golden, but it can be the prevailing tone and temper of life. The greatest powers, like the deepest rivers, make little noise. Our perfect example was Jesus before Herod: His silence was more eloquent than any words.

Another facet to quietness is to have the good sense to be “slow to speak.” Most words that have wounded, rankled, and broken hearts—the words that you would give anything to take back—were spoken in haste. It is the mark of a master to be able to hold one’s peace under such circumstances. “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit.” (1 Peter 3:10).

Finally, be ambitious to be quiet when you are tempted to speak evil of others. Much of the sorrow and darkness in our world is due to evil speaking, and most of that is due to a lack of sympathy. When we do speak our words should always be spoken in truth and with love otherwise we should ask God to help us be quiet. If we could perceive the secret struggles and difficulties and heartaches of one another it would not be possible for us to think and speak unkindly towards others.

Jesus frequently said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Our Lord knew that those to whom He spoke had ears; but He also knew that few people know how to use their ears. During this Lenten season let all of our families attempt to use our ears twice as much while becoming better students of quietness.

Chapel of the Holy Spirit: Meeting Those We Aim to Serve

Posted on March 4, 2013 by in Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Features

by Fr. Basil Biberdorf

The Chapel of the Holy Spirit is planning a family fun night on Sunday, March 10, from 5-7 p.m. at the Middlecreek Area Community Center (MACC) in Beaver Springs. During the two-hour event, we will have access to one of the basketball courts, plus the game room and other facilities. The event is open not only to the Chapel and the broader Snyder County community, but also to the families at Holy Trinity in State College.

The MACC usually closes at 5 p.m. on Sunday, so by extending the closing time by two hours, we are increasing access to a hub facility in our mission field. We want to encourage families to spend time together “on us”. There will be no fundraisers or captive-audience evangelism. Rather, we only want the opportunity to meet more of the people we aim to serve, to see them as children of God, and to make clear that our young Orthodox community desires to be fully a part of our neighborhood.

What can really help make the event a success is for some of the families from State College to join us in our service. A good turnout from the hosts is essential to the success of an event like this one, so
there are lots of people for our guests to meet and share in the fun.

In order to have a temple to bring those guests to, the Chapel is continuing work on a building design, with the intent to have our plan ready for broader approval by the end of this month. While specifics are still being hammered out, current proposals under discussion all offer a total of between 1,200 and 1,400 square feet of space—divided between narthex, nave, and altar—with options for expan-sion when the need arises. We are carefully weigh-ing our storage needs in view of the expected uses, making as much use of the space as we possibly can.

As always, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit needs your prayers for our efforts to build and to evangelize in Snyder County. Please consider adding the following to your prayer list: for the Chapel faithful, for our progress on the building project, for our proclamation in Snyder and Union counties, and for Conestoga Wood Specialties in their ongoing stand for life.

If you want to support our building project financially, you are invited to do that, too. Just mark your contribution “CHS—Building Fund” when you place it in the offering basket. Thank you.

Fr. John’s February Keynote: Mine Eyes Have Seen Thy Salvation

Posted on February 1, 2013 by in Features

DSCF2107 - Version 2When the Righteous Simeon takes the forty day old infant Jesus in his arms, he pronounces him the Christ: “A Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel” (cf. Luke 2:29-32). With these words, we conclude our forty day celebration of God’s revelation to us in His Son: as Man, as Trinity, as Messiah. Each aspect of His manifestation is essential for us to understand who Jesus is and thereby understand what He has come into the world to do. Jesus is not revealed to us as prophet, or teacher or rabbi; rather as Saviour, God-with-Us, Emmanuel, the Son of God, the Anointed-one, that is, the Christ.

Simeon’s blessing, the song that we sing daily at Vespers, is a thanksgiving that God allowed him to live long enough to see that day, i.e. the Coming of the Lord. Yet it is also an ominous prophecy—a warning—that the child was “appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that would be opposed” (Luke 2:34).

Meeting in TempleGod’s manifestation to us is at the same time both a joy and a warning. It is a joy because the prophecies of the Messiah’s coming have been fulfilled. It is a warning because the Messiah comes to set things right. And woe be to those who think they already are.

Our joy ends, therefore, on a somber note. It foreshadows the Cross and the pain of the Mother of God personally at her son’s crucifixion (Luke 2:35): Simeon could die in peace but Mary would follow her son to the Cross.

God has come in the flesh; this Jesus is God’s own Son, this is the Messiah, promised of old. We celebrate this trifold manifestation of Who He is. But now we look to the Cross; we await His Passion and His Resurrection. Only then will the purpose of His revealing to men be made clear, why He has come into the world.

Let us open our eyes to behold His purpose and like Simeon, bless God saying: “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation,” beholding Christ in our hearts, and in our lives, as the Elder did in his arms.      — Fr. John

When Conscience Calls Us to Act

Posted on February 1, 2013 by in Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Features

by Fr. Basil Biberdorf

The Chapel of the Holy Spirit was part of a combined delegation of Orthodox Christians from Central Pennsylvania to participate in last month's March for Life.

The Chapel of the Holy Spirit was part of a larger delegation of Orthodox Christians that travelled to Washington DC from Central Pennsylvania to participate in the March for Life.

A challenge arising from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”) is the determination from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that private companies are obligated to provide all contraceptives described by the Act. These include contraceptives that act, or have the potential to act, as abortifacients (i.e., they cause abortions). Some of these companies with leaders guided by Christian beliefs have responded with legal action. The most prominent of these is Hobby Lobby, a chain of arts and craft stores, but closer to home the law has also been challenged by Conestoga Wood Specialties based in East Earl, Pennsylvania.

Conestoga is of particular interest to the Chapel of the Holy Spirit because one of the two plants they operate in Snyder County is in Beavertown across the street from our Chapel’s lot. Conestoga’s corporate leaders are part of a Mennonite group that rejects abortifacient birth control and have chosen to omit such coverage for their employees as a matter of conscience. In early December, Conestoga announced their intent to oppose the HHS mandate and initiated legal action, hoping to avoid $95,000 per day in penalties. After an initial injunction, the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia ruled against Conestoga in January. Conestoga is appealing the decision.

What does this mean for us? For starters, as Orthodox Christians, it is not necessary for us to affirm Mennonite teaching in order to stand with opponents of this mandate on the basis of conscience. The mandate to pay for abortion-causing drugs is giving offense to the corporate leaders of Conestoga Wood Specialties just as it should to every Orthodox Christian, business owner or not. Indeed, even the priests who paid Judas for his betrayal knew that claiming Judas was the one who actually committed the act would not absolve them of their complicity (cf. Matthew 27:6).  It is impossible for us as Christians to believe that the only guilty ones are those who use the deadly drugs, and not also those who, under compulsion of the law, paid for them for that specific purpose.

What can we do? I have sent a letter on behalf of the Chapel of the Holy Spirit to Andrew Hahn, the president of Conestoga Wood Specialties, expressing our support for their decision to hold to their conscience and a willingness to help as we can. The Chapel now has a regular litany petition for those enterprises and individuals pursuing civil disobedience for the sake of upholding the sanctity of life, which is consistent with historic Christian practice. The early Christians, when ordered to sacrifice to the emperor as though he were a god, professed their loyalty to the empire but refused to worship any but the True God. Many became martyrs for their disobedience, but it was far better to disobey man than to disobey God. As Christ says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5).

I encourage each of you to join with the Chapel in praying for our neighbor, Conestoga Wood Specialties, particularly its leaders and its employees, that they would prevail in their fight to uphold the sanctity of life. We can please God, or we can please men, in this instance, and we know where our desire should be.

 

Fr. John’s January Keynote: Make it a “New” Year

Posted on January 7, 2013 by in Features

by Fr. John Reeves

DSCF2107 - Version 2Every New Year people make resolutions to change behavior. Most of the time it has to do with drinking or eating less, giving up smoking, starting a new exercise regime, or something similar in the field of self-improvement. Polls are taken, surveys are completed, and the results are typically the same. Whatever the resolution at the New Year, the resolve wanes and the old behavior soon reasserts itself.

The civil New Year coincides with the Church’s own call, not to resolution but to repentance in the Feast of our Lord’s Theophany at the River Jordan. It was the cry of John the Baptist—”Repent”—that stirred the consciences of Galileans and Judeans, Pharisees and fishermen. It prepared the way for Jesus’s revelation to the world as the Son of God at his baptism in the River Jordan, the worship of the Trinity made manifest.

To take a change in our behavior seriously, we need to move beyond resolution to repentance. Resolution is based upon our own willpower. Because we tend to lack that willpower, or the ability to sustain it for very long, we soon lapse back into the old conduct.

1396134_94718955Yet the call to repentance is far greater than another soon to be broken New Year’s resolution. Repentance is based first of all on a “change of mind” to quote the Greek. But this “change of mind” is not merely one of the intellect but a change in our hearts and souls as well. Our minds may reason that “x” is a bad habit, but unless we replace our love for “x” with a love for God, our behavior will not match what we’ve reasoned the good to be. In other words, to give up gluttony or lust means we must replace our idolatry of food or sensuality with love of God. To give up any vice, we must do the same. This is the basis of repentance.

We must love God more than any thing. In so doing, our heart, strength, mind, and soul are then oriented in the same direction. And God provides the grace lacking in us by nature to accomplish that which God alone can accomplish in us. New Year’s resolutions tend to fail because we refuse to give up our love for a certain behavior, even though we might have reasoned that it is bad for us. We consequently do not rely on God’s help to amend our conduct. Repentance is that ongoing process of striving to love God above all else with our behavior changing as a consequence of that love, both our love for Him and His, for us.

So, will it be New Year’s resolutions or a new year of repentance and ultimate joy?

Theophany: When Christ Who is Our Life Shall Appear

Posted on January 1, 2013 by in Features

by Fr. John Reeves

In the space of twelve days, we celebrate the whole of God’s manifestation to the world: Who He is and who He calls us to be. God revealed Himself in the flesh as a young babe—God and man—in Bethlehem: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

At the River Jordan, God now reveals Himself to the world as Father, Son and Holy Spirit: “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And the Spirit, in the form of a dove confirms the certainty of that word. (cf. John 1:31)

These are the two key doctrines of our Orthodox faith: Jesus is fully God and fully man. And God is triune: One God, three persons. Taken together, the Incarnation and the Trinity reveal Christ’s will for us, that we might be one with Him, as He and His Father have been for all eternity. St. Paul speaks of this, pointing to the Second Coming “when Christ Who is our Life shall appear, then shall [we] also appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4). This is the whole goal, the entire hope of our Christian life, to become like Christ, living in Him and He in us.

Blessing homes anew each Theophany, consecrates once more our whole existence in preparation for Christ’s second appearing, His coming again: worshipping the Holy Trinity “Who has saved us.”

More Cheer in the New Year

Posted on December 8, 2012 by in Features

by Fr. John Reeves

At our annual meeting in November, I spoke of the many opportunities which await us over the next few years: to build the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Snyder County; to make far reaching decisions to accommodate the continuing growth of Holy Trinity in State College; and to continue to develop new ministries to reach more people in Christ’s name, at home and abroad.

The one way each and every member of the parish can and does respond to these opportunities is through sacrificial giving by means of the general offering and special appeals. Approximately 90 percent of every general offering dollar stays in the parish (roughly 10% goes to support the Archdiocese and the OCA.) In addition, every dime of of special appeal offerings goes to the various ministries we support in and outside of the parish: Matthew 25, Penn State OCF, and the Dn. Jason Scholarship to name but a few.

Our 2013 budget forecasts a modest increase of 6.7% in expenses. To meet this, each of us needs to consider his personal stewardship commitment for the coming year. We won’t ask for pledge cards, and we certainly don’t have dues. But God does love a cheerful giver, and a cheerful giver gives generously.

So pray about the proportion of your income you will cheerfully, not grudgingly, give to the parish’s general offering in the New Year. Set it aside and offer it the first day of every week or month in the parish collection. God has so many more opportunities for us in the future. Our regular offerings are our way to thank Him for the many opportunities to serve Him He has already provided us, and to prepare us for the many more which await us.

Missionary Maria Roeber: 18-Month Update

Posted on November 15, 2012 by in Features

Copyright: facebook.comFuraha na amani! Joy and Peace!

I can’t believe how quickly time is flying by. Back in June, I wrote to you and promised to update you on our first month with a fully functioning health centre. Here, it is November already! Where does the time go? Please forgive me.

I’d like to give you a brief summary of what’s been going on the past several months, and then I will write a couple of other more detailed updates about specific ministries we’re engaged in right now.

First, on July 1, we opened the health centre with our newly hired staff. Our team includes physicians, nurses, a pharmacist, a lab technician, administrative/accounting staff, as well as security and housekeeping personnel. The medical work we do is primary care, and exclusively on an outpatient basis. However, the health centre also ends up treating emergent cases when people come to us.  There is no such thing as an “appointment” here—people are seen on a “first come, first served” basis, unless of course there’s a case that needs to take priority. The most frequent complaints are respiratory—coughs, colds, flu, etc., and then malaria, gastrointestinal complaints like diarrhea and worms, and skin problems ranging from fungal infections to allergic reactions. Urinary tract infections are also common. We do a fair amount of wound care, especially foot and leg wounds that people from the surrounding villages don’t get treated as quickly as they should.

We’re working toward improving our diagnostic capabilities; there’s an x-ray department, ultrasound equipment, and an EKG machine in the health centre but so far, just the EKG machine is being used. One of the things I am learning to appreciate is just how much work goes into maintaining equipment and supplies in order to use technology in medicine. We also need to provide continuing education and training to our current staff so they can utilize the donated equipment we have. Right now we’re seeing about 15-20 patients per day, five days a week.

One of the challenges we face is that the health centre was built in a rural location, up on a hill about a 15-minute drive away from the center of town. There’s no public transportation available, so patients have to hire a motorcycle or a taxi to reach us, and the cost of private transportation is prohibitive. What we find is that many of our patients come from the surrounding local village, or are patients who have sought care elsewhere first and are willing to spend the money to reach us and seek additional help. It’s rewarding to be able to help those people, even though our patient volume isn’t high. We are optimistic that, as our diagnostic capabilities improve and word gets out that we are providing good care, more patients will seek us out.

In addition to my work with the health centre, the last several months have been really busy with short-term volunteer teams from the US and Greece.  OCMC sent a teaching team in July and a healthcare team in October. A medical team from a parish in the United States was here in September and, as I write this update, we have a medical team here from Greece. In early December we will receive another teaching team from OCMC.

The local Church relies heavily on missionaries to help prepare for and care for short-term teams. Hosting a team involves everything from organizing schedules and purchasing supplies, to handling and accounting of all of the finances for a team. That doesn’t sound too demanding when you’re in the US, but in Tanzania, going shopping doesn’t mean going to a grocery store. It takes me four hours to shop for five days’ worth of food for 8 people. Our teams have ranged in size from 6 people to 17 people at a time. While it is a lot of work, I have also been very grateful for the eagerness of these team members to come here and support the Church, and to share their gifts and talents and knowledge with their brothers and sisters. Personally, I also really benefit from having visitors here.

Probably the most difficult thing for me in the past year-and-half has been the lack of social support here—so, I really treasure the time I get to chat with people from home and to speak my own language. It’s also wonderful to be able to pray and worship with people in English, and I’ve been grateful for the presence of American Orthodox priests who have participated in the teams. They are a huge comfort to missionaries in the field!

Another thing I have been working toward is getting my Tanzanian nursing license. When I arrived in Tanzania, I couldn’t apply for a license right away because the health centre wasn’t registered yet, and as a foreign nurse I have to be associated with a specific medical facility in order to practice. Then, once we received registration for the health centre in March, I realized that it would be risky to apply for a license in Tanzania before my license from the US was renewed. My concern was that I would pay the $250 fee to get a Tanzanian license and that the Ministry of Health would issue a Tanzanian license that would only be valid until my US license expired—which would have been in June. So, I decided to wait until I got that straightened out.

Renewing my license in the US was complicated this year, since the process requires the submission of fingerprints for a background check. I ended up being able to get official fingerprinting done  while visiting Germany and sent the paperwork home to the US via my folks. Once I got my US license renewed, I submitted my paperwork here in Tanzania. A very good friend who is a nurse in the US graciously offered to help me get the verification of my license from the nursing board in DC, and a former nursing professor from Penn State helped me secure verification of my educational training. One unexpected delay has been that the paperwork from the US has to be mailed to Tanzania, and can’t be sent by email. Mail from the US generally takes about three weeks to get here, so I am eager to call the Tanzanian Nursing Board this week to check on my status. Once I have a Tanzanian license, I will be ready to start working directly with patients in the health centre, and I have even been invited to do some volunteer work at the local government hospital in their maternity ward. I’m extremely excited about that, and have really missed taking care of patients.

Finally, as odd as it sounds, I now have just four-and-a-half months left in my term of service here. I’ve been doing a lot of soulsearching about what is next for me, and have been praying for guidance and discernment. In the next several weeks, I will be making decisions about whether I will return to the US to continue my education or will consider extending my service here in Tanzania for another year or two. It’s not an easy decision, and I would really appreciate your prayers as I consider the next steps in my life.

For many missionaries it takes about 18 months to start to settle into their role in a foreign country, and I believe that has happened for me. I am not an expert in Kiswahili or in Tanzanian culture, but I am no longer a tourist. I have bonded with people and am invested in the work going on here, so contemplating going back to the US is really difficult. On the other hand, I feel a definite calling to become a nurse-midwife, and possibly a family nurse-practitioner. It has become clear to me that what people really need here, especially in rural areas, is a primary care practitioner who can care for people throughout their lifespan. As a labor and delivery nurse, my skill set is extremely specialized and I can see that I need to broaden my knowledge base in order to effectively care for the people who ask for my help. Right now I am looking into different options for continuing my education, and I will be talking with the missionary department at OCMC to see what options I have so that I can continue to work as a missionary but also get the education I feel I need. Please keep me in your prayers, and I will be updating you in the coming months about my plans for the future.

Thank you so much for your interest in the mission work here in Tanzania. So many of you have contacted me privately to ask how things are going, and I am really sorry that it has taken me so long to update you as a group. At various times as a missionary, we become overwhelmed; it’s not just that things are busy, but that it can be daunting to try to communicate what life is like. I appreciate your patience with me and I want you to know that I really do want to keep you informed.

As I said, now that I’ve given you a summary of the past few months I will write again about some of the specific teams we’ve hosted. Until then, thank you as always for your prayers and support. I couldn’t do this work without you, and I am so grateful that God has provided me with such a faithful and enthusiastic group of people to join in this ministry with me! God bless you!

Love in Christ,
Maria

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