|
| |
Letters from Fr. Paul Healy in Kitui
These letters, written to the Dalkey
Outreach group, give a real insight into the day-to-day
issues facing the people of Kitui and the Diocese.
|
30th May 2007
|
|
From: Paul Healy
<paulfrancishealy@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: SUNDAY MORNING CUPPA
To: ptorpey@iol.ie |
Dear Terry, Clare and all the gang.
This is a strange day. I have just brought some
friends to the airport and have taken some time to
write this letter to you in the hope that it get to you
on time for the cuppa this morning.
I said Mass early to celebrate my anniversary (23 years
today) and I cannot figure out where the time has gone.
Can I be that long a priest????
My biggest news really is that I will be coming home
for a year in the next couple of months. Bishop
Kivuva, my next door neighbour, will be looking after
the Diocese until a new bishop is appointed by Rome.
The Nuncio however acknowledged that I needed some time
to get organised and get home before my course in
September. I will be studying a Masters in
Development Management at LSE in London for twelve
months and trying to discern where the Lord is leading
me now. My heart is in Africa but I need to
stand back a little and pray about it.
I spent a day last week with one of the church groups
running in the Diocese. We call them the
'Pediatric group'. All the children in the group
are living with HIV/AIDS and they are so beautiful.
They are being cared for by Aunts, Uncles, neighbours,
grandparents and other carers who have taken them in.
One of the problems that we have is how to disclose to
the child his/her status. It is a very difficult
situation for a child to understand and they need time
to be gradually aware of their condition. like
other situations, we never lie to the children and tell
them as much as they are able to understand should they
ask. .....At the meeting we discussed now to
support the carers in their caring and I also played
skipping with the children. They love to laugh
and I am the perfect speciman to laugh at when
skipping.
On Friday this week I spent some time with my friends
Dominick and Fr. Eoin. i brought them to visit
the children of the Street Children's programme.
The new group, who have been at the cnetre for the past
five months now have changed so much. All of them
are off drugs, glue and alcohol. They all look so much
more healthy and I am proud of where they have come to.
My friends were so moved to visit and I was delighted
that the children would show how lovely they are to
others. I really see the Lord there most of all.
The Diocese has reached the final stage of an agreement
between the Diocese of Kitui, Trocaire and the 'Friends
of Kitui' which is the umbrella group of partners that
we have in Ireland. I am hoping that these three
groups can work together for the good of our people and
that real progress can be made in capacity building,
development and service to the those in need. I
love Trocaire's attitude to developmnent and they have
journeyed for many years with the Diocese.
I am confident that with their assistance the umbrella
group, working so hard to support various projects and
parishes, will feel confident of its role and the
transparency of all activities in the DIocese.
This is what I long for and our Diocese, in its
strategic plan, wants the same.
Some projects have been slow to take off this year
because I have been so busy with other things.
One thing however that is constant is that school fees
are paid and chilren and young people go back to school
and college. This year there are many who need
support and I have spent most of what has been sent to
me on school and college fees. Happily however,
some will qualify this year. Felistus Ndiko will
finish Teacher training (Bernadette finished last
year). Filistus will be able to support her two
brothers who are awaiting the chance to get an
education. I am so excited that she has been
empowered so much. Richard has just gone to
university to do aq B.Com. We will pay his first
years fees and hope that he can get a loan after that.
We have supported him through two years of secondary
school as well. I will be sending a more detailed
report about that in my last letter to the group next
month.
Endau continues to grow and make progress. I am
really happy that the teacher and priest there have
tried their best over the past three years to make the
school successful. Our students will finish this
year as well and it will be good to see them go on to
other things. We have supported all the
activities of that school including salaries and yearly
items. I hope in time that other items can be
purshased. Fr. Charles, who is the parish priest
there, will be coming out this year and getting a new
appointment. He deserves a rest. I am not
sure who will be going instead but that will be up to
the new bishop/Administrator.
I should be home by the end of July and will look
forward to meeting some of the group then or later.
I will be sending a final report for the Dalkey group
at the end of next month to ensure that you know what
has been achieved here.
Some of you will know that Mary Clare and Carragh, my
two nieces who help too with the cuppa on Sunday, will
be coming out this way on the 22nd June, I am
really looking forward to showing them around. I
hope too that they will give a good report to you all
when they come back home.
Finally, may the Spirit of Pentecost, which changed
forever the way we are, enlighten your hearts and minds
so that you will know the length and breadth of God's
love for you and that you my see his face in the poor
and vulnerable.
God bless for now and happy Pentecost.
Kind regards
Fr. Paul
|
28th April 2004
|
|
From: paul healy <paulfrhealy@yahoo.com>
To: terencedunne@eircom.net
Cc: ptorpey@iol.ie |
28th April 2004
Hi Terry, Clare and all at home.
I have taken hours this morning to set
up a new e-mail address for myself. I may need
this in future and for the past 48 hours I have not
been able to access my email on the other address.
Things are slow here and very frustrating.
Last week Damaris, who is the Admin.
Secretary in the Health Department, began to have
labout pain and was brought to hospital. There
were complications and they decided to do a c
section. As she was being brought to theatre
the electricity went out (that happens almost every
day during the rains). The hospital does not
have a generator!!!! Don't ask me why.
Damaris's husband rushed to the
electricity office and pleaded with them to put on
the supply. By the time they had done this the
baby's lungs had been damaged and is now on the edge
of death.....I suppose that is the most frustrating
aspect of living here. The developing world has
a lot of stuff to get organised. Damaris call
me the next day.....she had not enough money to bring
the baby to Nairobi for special care. She was
crying her eyes out and I felt helpless really.
Just another person in need and you have to dig deep
and hear the story and do what you can.
On a lighter and happier note, it was
great to have Pat out recently to help with our
Development Department. There is need to
redesign this department as is has been riddled with
problem for many years. I think that our new
and younger staff can contribute a lot and there are
positive signs of energy and integrity among some of
these new managers. Pat is also helping with
the Strategic plan and I hope that it can be fully
promoted in the next month.
While Pat was here, we went to see a
women's group in Zombe. I had given this group
of women some money about 18 months ago and they had
shown they could use it wisely to build up their
lives. We were now going back to help them with
honey production and with a small soap industry.
It was fun to see their energy and willingness to
learn. We are investing in families in this way
and the husbands will hopefully help them in
increasing their financial capacity. Dalkey
should be proud of their investment in this venture
and I look forward to seeing good progress among that
group over the coming years.
We have just entered our short rainy
season. Most people do not normally expect any
real harvest from these rains and politicians use
this shortage of food to gain votes . You
cannot believe the gulf between the politicians and
the ordinary people. While most of the country
earns less that a euro a day, they pay themselves
over €5000 a month plus expenses. Is it no
wonder that so many are prone to corruption and can
only think of themselves. The elections are due
later this year and, on past experience, once more
there will be cheating and violence and
manipulation. The political elite own the
country and the constitution, and most of them
don't care about anything else but to survive, hold
on to power and suck the resources of the country
dry.
Anyway back to the rains. We are
actually having the best year in living memory
and there is little or no hunger at the moment.
The oldest missionaries cannot remember such a double
season of beautiful rain and harvest. It seems
now that the people will have a great harvest next
month and that there will be plenty of food until
next year. This means that the politicians will
have to find another way of bribing the people.
I don't doubt their skill in this area and we will
try to organise the people with civic education and
some understanding of the issues and the people
involved. We have just employed and new Justice
and Peace officer in the Diocese and we will work
with Trocaire to educate of people towards the
elections later this year. I have no great
hopes of getting any politicians with integrity but
maybe we can inch a bit closer to understanding the
issues.
That about it for now. All the
staff are going on retreat next week and the offices
will be closed. I will join the staff for some
of this and will spend the rest of the week catching
up.
May the Risen Christ be in your hearts
and fill you and energy and enthusiams for the
Kingdom. Life is so beautiful. May you
all feel its warmth this spring.
Kind regards,
Paul
|
February
22, 2007
|
|
From:
Paul Healy
Thome
Pastoral Centre
Kitui
To:
Terence Dunne
Cc:
Pat Torpey
Sent:
Thursday, February 22, 2007 7:16 PM
Subject:
Malaria.
Dear
Terry and all the gang,
I
hope that the Lenten season has started well for you and
that it will be a fruitful time of growth in your lives and
families. I hope and pray that all my plans for Lent
don't fail so badly as last year. Anyway there is
always the hope of resurrection and I hope that the spring
time in Ireland will remind you all of that fact.
This
afternoon Assumpta came to my office. I have known
her for the past six years and she is a dedicated and
wonderful mother and wife. She has, as many women in
Kenya do, borne most of the burden of family
responsibilities in health, education, sustenance etc.
etc. She has tried to invest the little she has so
that her children could go to school, have a future, be ok and
she has worked with the normal selflessness that you see in
mothers here (and elsewhere too).
Last
week her son attending university got malaria. With
no real funds for proper care and maybe with a little
youthful inattention over a week or so, the malaria increased
and the young man began to feel very bad. He called
his mother on the phone and complained of stomach aches and
bad headaches. She told him to come home. By the
time he got there he was losing his mind with cerebral
malaria. I think that he is permanently damaged and
will never be the same again. The other night he
stripped off all his clothes and ran away. This is so
frustrating and sad. He was her hope for the rest of
the family. He was the one to lead them out of
poverty and pay the school fees of the others. Now
the dreams are shattered and they must gather their
resources again and find a way of helping this boy. I
gave her €250 of Dalkey money for a CT scan and EEG.
I hope that is ok with you. The human stories can be too
much for me. You can try to keep on tract and avoid
hearing them sometimes. But people get into you and
their lives impact on yours and you are never the same
then. That maybe is what being here is all
about.....not just be the gung-ho solve the
problem type of missionary but rather be part of the
story, enter into lives and be transformed.
This
Lent I will be thinking a lot of the Trocaire theme of
Justice/equal rights for Women in the Developing
world. I love Trocaire. I love that they
try to give capacity to the people here and that they try
to enter more fully into the story. I use to love the
Lenten boxes at home and the images of strange faces from
other lands, faces not so strange now (at home or
elsewhere). I hope that you will all support the work
of Trocaire this lent.
Today
there is the image of a woman and her two children on the
front page of the newspaper. Her husband was shot
dead as the most wanted man in Kenya. The woman must
now bear the burden and her children will have a tough time
in school today and tomorrow (Newspapers can be so
insensitive). The women here always seem to bear the
burden. Her man did many bad things, her children
will struggle to survive.
As
for myself, I am not long back from the US where I was
meeting partners in various Diocese. It was a
fruitful visit and I have got fat on American food.
That extra weight is always a blessing here but hopefully I
will lose some of the blessing during Lent!!!
I
haven't had much time for Endau or Zombe parishes since
Christmas but I will be addressing their issues in the next
couple of weeks. I will let you know of progress on
our interventions there and hopefully get someone to send
home some pictures.
In
the meantime, may the Lord bless you all and keep you well
during this lovely season. May you experience the
full joy of Easter in your hearts and the length and depth
of God's love always.
Kind
regards,
Fr.
Paul
|
Letter
from Fr. Paul Healy December 23 2006
|
|
From:
Paul Healy
Thome
Pastoral Centre
Kitui
To:
Terence Dunne
Saturday
23rd December 2006.
Christmas
is upon us at this stage and I haven’t even had time to
think about it so much.
For the past couple of weeks I have
been struggling with Malaria.
It is a most annoying sickness as you can do nothing
about it and it wears you down when you are not even
noticing. Then
all of a sudden you wake up one day and you hardly have the
energy to walk. I
have just got over the latest bout and am hoping that I can
avoid the mosquitoes for a while at least.
I
have been very busy of late trying to get our systems in
some sort of order. It
seems that there are problems with every aspect of Diocesan
life and the need to plan for the future in great.
I would like to hand over the Diocese to a local
bishop in the near future and I hope that the Diocese has
some sort of strategy for service to our people worked out
properly by then. This
takes a lot of time and consultation and I wish there were
more hours in the day.
The
rains this year have been so beautiful.
I know that you have been hearing of flooding in
most parts of Kenya. But
that usually means a blessing here.
All the fields are full of food and the people will
reap a great harvest by February.
This is the best rain that I have seen in my eight
years here and the older missionaries say that it is as
good as they have ever seen it.
It also means however that I have not had the
opportunity to visit many places.
The rains churn up the roads and it is almost
impossible to go anywhere except on the tar road to
Nairobi.
This
too is the time when the office is full of poor young
students looking for assistance with school fees. I hate that time and feel so frustrated at the
number of students that I cannot help.
I have had to be very selective and have spent as
much as I can. I need to keep some aside for the girls in
Endau and the orphans from the AIDS office.
Anyway I will do the best that I can.
Fr.
Charles from Endau has asked me to leave him in Endau
Parish for a while yet.
He was due for a change but he has been doing great
work there with your support.
We are building a mission (at long last) to replace
the little hut that I had built.
The church is growing there and the people need a
place to come to. We
are still supporting the school with salaries for the head
teacher and the watchman as well as the salary for the
catechist. This
is very worthwhile and allows us to keep the parish and
school programme going.
The fees that we collected this year were very
meagre because of the famine.
We will be building a new water tank in the new year
and that should give the students enough water for the
whole year around. At the moment there is plenty of water but
that will be gone by March/April.
Fr. Charles has also spent a lot of energy in the
preparation of the farm and, having been blest with great
rain this year, that will give him some extra capacity to
get through the next year.
I would love to see the parish in a position to
sustain itself but it seems a way off yet.
You
cannot imagine how much joy there will be in the churches
this Christmas. Every
family will give thanks for the rain and the food and for
life. There is
great joy in little things and we will forget all the other
problems for a while and give thanks for what we have.
The children here take your heart away and their
dancing will go on forever at Mass over the Christmas.
At new year most parishes will have an all night
celebration. I
will say Mass in the cathedral late on the 31st
but intend to go to bed at some stage.
I must be getting old.
Sadly
some bad news. One
of the girls we had been supporting seems to have gone off
the rails a bit. She
is being used by this guy and seems not to be able to take
advice from family or friends.
I feel really sad about this as her life will be a
mess in the future. Sometimes
you have to let people go their way and hope and pray that
their journey will not be too rough.
I believe that the Lord will continue to call her to
something greater but I hate to see the direction that she
is going in now. By
the way, her mother was very badly beaten by her husband a
couple of weeks ago…..she has asked me to support her to
find another place in live at her parents compound.
We will see.
I
always miss home at this time of year.
I miss the warmth of home (a different warmth from
here). In the
midst of winter it is nice to feel the warmth of the light
that guides us. I
pray that that light will guide you all and give you peace.
May you reflect the warmth of God’s love to one
another as you have to many people here over the past
number of years. May
you experience the joy of your giving to one another and
know that you are blest with immense inner riches.
Thanks
so much for your continued support and encouragement and I
look forward to a new year of peace, hope and harvest of
plenty.
God
bless and take care.
Paul
|
| Letter
from Fr. Paul Healy September 23 2006 |
|
From:
"Paul Healy"
To:
"Terence Dunne"
Subject:
Celebrating Mission
28th
October 2006.
|
Hi
Terry and greetings from Kenya. I am so sorry that
this is getting to you so late or too late. There is
a problem with my internet server and I am not able to send
any emails for the past six days. It is driving me
mad. I called them this morning and they assured me
that things would be ok by this evening (Saturday). I
am taking the chance to write now and hope that this can
reach you by this evening.
I
am at the moment at the Rift Valley taking a little break.
I have been up to my eyes with jubilee celebrations for the
past three months and last Sunday we celebrated our 50th
Anniversary as a Diocese.. Many of the former
missionaries of Kitui were there and over 15 people came
from Ireland for the event. I was thrilled that they
found the time to come and enjoy the fruit of their labour
for so many years. I have been privileged to
work alongside some of the men and women who have spent
lifetimes here and their courage and self giving are an
inspiration to me. The very first Kiltegan Priest
came to Kitui on the 1st October 1956. He was Fr.
Donagh Mc Donagh and he experience a terrible famine in the
area. The British Government at the time wanted to
move all the people of Kitui out of the area for good as it
was a land that was continually afflicted with drought.
The people were reluctant to go and so they tried to
replant all the grass that had died and plant more food for
the people in the hope that rains would come.
Thankfully, the heavens opened later that month and the the
people were able to get through the crisis. We still
continue with this cycle of drought and famine but are
looking for new ways to live on this land. This is my
greatest dream and I spend a lot of time and energy looking
at possible methods of living in harmony with such a harsh
and desert land.
Fr.
Mc Donagh came to the celebrations this last Sunday and the
people were so happy to see him and the other missionaries
who, despite age and other business travelled to support us
in our celebration.
At
the 50th Jubilee ceremony all the partners who have
journeyed with the Diocese of Kitui were mentioned and
prayed for and a light was brought up for each partner
representing the light of hope and faith that has been
shared with us in Kitui. Needless to say I was proud
when the Dalkey Parish Candle was brought up and I prayed
and gave thanks of the many who have support the
Parish of Endau and other projects in the Diocese over the
past five years. The cup of tea every last Sunday of
the month may seem a small thing but lives are changed by
such acts and many here have been empowered by your
generosity and self-giving.
Because
of the amount of time that I have spent in preparing for
the Jubilee, I have not had much time to give to Endau and
Zombe parishes. I have visited both places and our
plans for the next nine months will be sorted out in the
next couple of weeks. I will give you more updates on
the spending and the projects that can be completed this
year at a later date but be assured that we will get
organised soon.
Finally,
at the end of this Mission Month, can I say how humbled I
am by the support of Fr.John, Fr. Peter and the Sunday
Team. I know that there are great demands on the
parish for other projects and Fr. John has a big
responsibility to keep the parish going. That
make the support I receive all the more generous.
Kind
regards to all there. I hope that the coming winter
months will be gentle to you all.
P.S
I played Golf today for the first time in six weeks.
I hit a Zebra with one of my balls...... I have never
seen a Zebra on a golf course before. It was
beautiful.
God
bless and take care.
Paul
|
|
Letter
from Fr. Paul Healy September 23 2006 |
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:12 AM
Subject: Last Sunday in September - Coffee
morning in Dalkey
Hi Terry and all the gang in
Dalkey.
It seems just like yesterday
since I was home and fishing is West Cork. July
flew by but was so beautiful this year at home. I
hope that everyone appreciated the gift of a beautiful
summer.
Back in Kitui the food and
water shortage is the news of the day. We are still
leading the food distribution programme in the area and
feeding over 168,000 in Kitui District (we are the most
successful lead agent in Kenya in relation to food
distribution). We are also, with the help of Goal
and DCI (Dept. of Foreign Affairs Ireland) providing
water to the same regions. There is an outcry from
other people, schools, small communities, chiefs,
parishes etc. etc. to bring water to them as well
but we had to be selective with the resources that we
had. The next six weeks will be really bad on the
water front for most people and the food crisis will be
severe until February. We will be praying for good
rains at the end of October and hopefully they will last
beyond Christmas. GOAL's presence with us is new
and they have made a great impact in the water provision
for the most vulnerable. We are hoping that they
will journey with us next year as well in building wells,
subsurface dams, and possible bore-holes. There is
an Irish Engineer living on the compound with me and it
feels strange and lovely to have an Irish man around the
place.
Last week we sent 20 women on
a training course for bee keeping and honey production.
This is an exciting new venture for us in the Diocese and
we believe that it will empower women financially and
assist them is providing for their families into the
future. I will be looking for support to extend
this programme from different quarters as I know that it
such a simple way to help people. I love when
people are empowered to sustain themselves and the women
are very excited about the possibilities in the future.
We also sent a delegation of
10 people to Minneapolis/St Paul last week. They
were so excited to travel abroad and I worked very hard
with the group for a few days in preparing them for the
encounter with another culture. The main purpose of
the visit is to develop a partnership with the catholic
community in that Diocese and exchange culture, faith,
resources and our story with each other. I look forward
to hearing of their journey and experience next week.
In relation to Dalkey and the
partnership with Endau and Zombe, we are developing plans
for this year and how to use the resources that come in
the best possible way. We will continue to support
the girls school in Endau and the parish in their efforts
to become self-sustaining. We have just finished
building a new Kitchen in the school and I hope that
there will be a chance of getting some video of this for
Dalkey in the next couple of months. We are also
targeting some of the poorest girls for school fees and
this will continue as usual as well as buying materials,
machines and other necessary items for the school. There
has been no food in that area for the past couple of
years and hopefully this year the rains will be
sufficient. That will give us an opportunity of
asking more of the girls to pay their school fees and so
improve the possibility of sustaining the school locally.
I would also like to extend
the outreach to the neighbouring parish of Zombe.
Both Endau and Zombe are in an area or district called
Mwitika Division. This is to the East of Kitui and
the most arid of the areas in the Diocese. Zombe
parish also has great needs (girls school, orphan group,
centre to be completed, generator to be fixed, water pump
to be fixed etc. Last year I gave Sister there
about € 150 to help the women start a goat project.
I would like to see this expanded and encourage the women
of that area to diversify their family income projects.
Whatever happens, I will try
to ensure that Dalkey Parish knows what is going on and
can get monthly reports of the happenings of Kitui.
May I wish you every blessing at you begin the cup of tea
for this season. Your contributiion to Endau,
Orphans, young women, many school fees,
empowerment/education of catechists, and other project
over the past years has been incredible. May the
Lord bless you for all your efforts. Lives have been
changed.
Let me finish here for the
moment and thank you for continuing to support the Kitui
Diocese. If you have other questions about the
Diocese, you will find a lot of information on the web
site that has been set up by Pat Torpey. It is
still very new but is a great resource for us here and
very useful for accessing information on an ongoing
basis.
I am missing the Ryder Cup
this weekend. Would love to be at home for that.
God bless for now and take care.
Kind regards,
Paul Healy
|
| |
|
Christmas Letter from
Fr Paul Healy
January 2006
|
|
Administrators
Office
Diocese
of Kitui
P.O.
Box 119
Kitui
11th January 06
Dear
friends in Dalkey,
I write to wish you a happy new
year and every blessing on you and your families.
I suppose that some of you are working off some of
the excesses of the Season (not too much I know).
I have fond memories of Christmas Mass and Fr.
Meagher and all the other beautiful childhood memories of
Dalkey at Christmas.
This Christmas was a good experience
for me. As I
had no time for anything but work until the day after
Christmas, it is only later that I had time to reflect and
think about it.
After the Masses in the Cathedral on
Christmas day, I went to the St. John Eudes Rehabilitation
Centre for the afternoon.
This centre is our joy in Kitui.
Run on behalf the Diocese by the Sisters of Our Lady
of Charity, it has rescued over two hundred children from
the street and given many new hope and life.
There were about fifty Children at the
centre that day. They
love the Church and were so delighted to see me coming.
I felt honoured to be so cherished and accepted as
their father. Most
of these children have been abused on the streets,
especially the girls.
Many of them have no parents.
With the rising numbers of orphans due to HIV/AIDS,
more and more children are ending up on the street, a prey
to some really nasty people. The children end up addicted to all sorts of
behaviour and need serious counselling and care to get over
their experiences.
Two Dutch girls are helping in the
centre. They
are just out of college with all the energy and love that
young people bring to any place. They brought gifts that day for all the kids
and everyone had a new shirt or blouse or something.
I was really impressed and felt it as an Epiphany.
Maybe the wise are those who seek out the poor and
learn from their vulnerability.
This next year for all here is going
to be very harsh. The
rains that had started so well in November failed and there
is 100% crop failure.
People are already hungry and the missions are
beginning to feel the call of the most vulnerable.
There will be no food in this area until next May
and I don’t know what is going to happen. One old Missionary said to me that in his
forty years here, he had never seen it so bad.
I have just today met the minister for health and
asked her about the Governments response.
It will not be enough and it will be late in coming.
They are asking us (The Catholic Church) to
distribute the
food in the two districts and this will be a mammoth task.
I will also be asking some of the major donor
organisations for help in the next couple of weeks.
There will be many deaths and much grief before this
famine is over.
I feel so inadequate in the face of
such a crisis. My
faith takes a bashing and I must force myself to stay with
my prayer. I
am impatient for answers that will not come.
I don’t know who or what to be annoyed at.
Fr. Charles came to my office this
week. He is
the priest in Endau looking after the school that is being
supported by Dalkey. He
is also doing the building and extension work and working
to make the project sustain itself before Dalkey pull out.
The poor priest in worn out.
There is nothing but hunger in the place. The girls are not coming to school as they
have no food or money.
The people are not coming to church as they are too
weak to walk. Those
that are walking are migrating, looking for work anywhere.
Even children as young as six are seeking work from
anywhere. The
priest is as thin as a rake and needs some serious rest.
I am sending out someone else there this week to be
with him and to bring him some food and company.
We will probably end up paying a lot
of school fees for the girls this year.
We will have to go and search for the girls to come
back to school. It is worth it though.
It gives them a chance.
In the past week, I have had over
100 people in my office looking for school fees.
I had nothing to give them except my prayer.
I am trying to support as many as I can with little
bit here and there as well as a few orphans.
( we have over 10,000 orphans in the Diocese).
Family life is badly injured and the grandparents
are being asked to give what they do not have.
I met one grandmother this past week breastfeeding
her grand child. I
was amazed.
The picture is bleak and cannot be
hidden. I
cannot but be affected and challenged by this reality
around me. I
am part of it. I
am not separate. The
Body of Christ is broken and crying.
Please keep this part of the world
in your daily prayers.
Thank you for the work that you continue to do and
the hope that you offer to many by your simple cup of tea.
Lives are changed around simple things.
God bless for now.
Paul Healy
|
|
