On My Way

This morning together with my classmate, Fr. Emil Furtak, we will begin our week-long pilgrimage to the holy relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati in Turin Cathedral and Saint Gemma Galgani in Lucca city.

We have been there already once in August 2005. This time I feel deep need to thank Pier Giorgio and Gemma for their intercession and protection over us in Kiabakari, surrendering my Sisters, parochial workers, staff of our institutions, the mission, our health center, pre-school, primary school and our dreams and challenges to their continuous protection and intercession.

I will pray also for all of my esteemed readers and all intentions dear to your hearts. Please, pray for our safe journey to Italy and back. God willing, we will be back on Saturday in Kraków. The detailed report will follow then.

God bless us all!

In His Heart

What an incredible encounter it was. Having an unique opportunity to pay visit to His Eminence Franciszek Cardinal Macharski, Archbishop Emeritus of Kraków, in his simple residence in the compound of "Ecce Homo" Shrine under care of Albertine Sisters, to celebrate the Holy Mass together, to have a long and lovely chat over a cup of coffee and a cake.

Polish President Bronisław Komorowski and H.E. Cardinal Macharski (more on this story here)

In my twenty six years of priesthood it was the very first time that I was a main celebrant in the Mass with His Eminence participating. A genuinely overwhelming honor.

Cardinal Francis seemed to be happy that I paid him a visit after a couple of years since my last one. Inspite of his fatigue due to his age, he was very generous to spend so much time with me (more than an hour), asking questions and offering witty remarks. He has not lost his cute sense of humor. So great to see him in such a great form and spirits.

I loved one detail in particular. His Eminence wore today a light blue clerical shirt (today is very hot in Kraków, over 30 C) with Kraków City emblem on his breast pocket. Apparently, our city is deep in his heart. And in his seclusion and silence of 'Ecce Homo' shrine, he prays for the city and all the people. He has all of us in his fatherly heart. Such a great man! He loves his city, he loves his people and cares for us. And in return, we love him!

Kraków City Logo

Special Day

Feeling blessed and honored to have the opportunity to visit His Eminence Franciszek Cardinal Macharski today at his residence at 'Ecce Homo' Shrine in Krakow and to celebrate Holy Mass with him at 11.00 am. He is my bishop who accepted me to the major seminary in Krakow, formated me and led through all steps until ordination to diaconate and priesthood. He is the one who sent me to my first and second parishes in our Archdiocese. He is the one who sent me to Tanzania as a Fidei Donum missionary and took care of me throughout the years. Respect and filial love to this remarkable Man of God, now Archbishop Emeritus of Krakow, 87 years old. Please, pray with me for him!

Africa

Just recently I met in Kraków with dr Jadzia Żyłka, the doctor in charge of Kiabakari health center in 2008-2010. She had a surprise gift for me - a new album of Leszek Możdżer - 'Polska' - an autographed copy! What a gem. Thank you, Jadzia, for your consideration and for taking pains to get this copy to artists. I appreciate it very very much.

Here is the proof:

And the circled track in the album - 'Africa' - is this one. Enjoy!

I Met An Angel

If there is one single God's creature that made my work of sowing a Word of God about Divine Mercy in Kiabakari in the hearts and souls of wonderful people of Puławy in Archdiocese of Lublin in Eastern Poland on last Sunday much easier and pleasant - it must have been the Angel of God in human form - Reverend Sister Irmina Syroka, the organist, cantor and choir master of Divine Mercy Parish in Puławy.

Sister Irmina in my humble opinion has the most sacred voice I have ever heard in my life. As if the Angel from heaven sang using her charisms and talents. I would easily placed her in the top spot in my personal ranking of all cantors and organ players in the whole world.

Bad enough, when I asked her about her recordings, Cds, DVDs - there were none. Such a humble and simple person full of Holy Spirit. I searched the internet and came up with few pictures and few YouTube videos with horrible quality which does not do justice to the purity and magnificence of Sister's voice.

Nevertheless, meet the Angel of God in the form of Sister Irmina Syroka of Benedictine Sisters congregation from Puławy Divine Mercy Parish.

If you happen to pass Puławy, make sure you participate in the Mass in that beautiful church.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your generous outpouring of Your special charisms in gifts in Christ's Church. Thank you for Sister Irmina and her humble apostolate of praising the Lord with her voice and organ playing.

I envy with holy envy parishioners of that parish who have such a gem on daily basis. What a different quality experience of Sacred Liturgy it is led by such a grand person.

Sister Irmina in the middle sitting

Sister Irmina sitting in the middle

Mission Awareness Sunday in Chochołów

It was a great Sunday in Chochołów parish. Wonderful location, beautiful church painstakingly being restored by my classmate and parish priest of Chochołów, Fr. Stanisław Syc. Three Holy Masses and three homilies, wonderful hospitality of highlanders. Could not ask for more blessings! Special thanks to Tomek Woźniak, who drove me there and picked me up again yesterday evening to drive me back to Kraków.

My YouTube Channel

Welcome to my updated YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/VOR822

Combined with the upcoming Kiabakari Mission official website www.kiabakari.com and SoundCloud profile https://soundcloud.com/wojciech-koscielniak YouTube channel will provide extra video media material for viewing and understanding better Kiabakari, the mission, the vision, the people and what Kiabakari is all about.

Welcome!

The Short Documentary On Kiabakari Mission History 1991-2014

I am proud to present to all my friends and readers our newest effort to record the history of Kiabakari mission. This is a short documentary, 17 minutes long, highlighting the main events and milestones on our way as we journey along in quest of fulfilling the Lord's Will in Kiabakari, in particular - completing the Divine Mercy vision in Kiabakari, embracing the whole person - spiritually, physically and intellectually. The video presents the current state of affairs in Kiabakari as of April 2014. It pinpoints also the main challenges we are facing and the priorities which need immediate attention and solutions.

Gratitude to Mr. Aldimilablis Novatus Mchele, my friend and filmmaker, who put together all pieces in one video presentation. Thanks to Mr Mitchell also for voice narration.

Hope you enjoy the documentary. I do hope it will help you to understand better Lord's Ways in Kiabakari. And I really do hope this will make you say a prayer for us and even give us a hand by contributing towards the completion of our goal. God bless us all!

My SoundCloud Account Goes Unlimited!

With almost seventy tracks and growing, I have decided to go pro and unlimited in my SoundCloud account (https://soundcloud.com/wojciech-koscielniak). This will enable me to post gradually more sounds and tracks from Kiabakari and elsewhere. You may also send me your sounds and tracks related to Kiabakari and Tanzania at large. Please, note the widgets on the right hand side bar of this blog:

You can go directly to my SoundCloud account right there. You may also post your tracks and sound by using the DropBox as seen below the upper widget. Hope it helps to connect the blog and my readers with sounds of Kiabakari and Tanzania! Enjoy and have fun!

Priority 2014

Arrived to home town of Kraków last Thursday night for the long awaited vacation intertwined with the quest of securing some help for the completion of our primary school in Kiabakari, medical checkups, visitations of people and places dear to my heart and so forth.

I am very grateful to my colleagues who invited me for mission awareness Sunday, with preaching and fundraisings for the cause. I am grateful also to Miss Agata Krupa, volunteer of Foundation Kiabakari for the design of the info leaflet I will be distributing in the parishes and places wherever I will happen to be. Gratitude to Fr. Roman Zapała who volunteered to cover the expenses of the printing of the publication and to Wydawnictwo Platan in Kryspinów, near Kraków, for offering to print it immediately and for the costs of the materials used only. Thank you so much, you people of immense heart for the mission's cause in Kiabakari. God bless you much! I do hope this little publication will help people I will meet in my quest to know better Kiabakari, Foundation Kiabakari, what we do, what is needed there and so forth.

Here it is - the little leaflet, my little companion on the road from May to August. May God grant special convincing powers to all readers of this publication to move their hearts to join our cause and help to push it forward. It is in Polish language, understandably, and here it is shown front and back on one page for better viewing.

Nobody

You've Got To Move It, Move It!

Revival of the parochial family in Kiabakari in the Year of Family includes holistic revival of various apostolic groups and movements. Among those - vocation groups (altar servers and non-altar servers), youth groups and associations.

Our altar servers decided to get rid of laziness and started regular training before any serious attempts to check their skills with other football youth teams in Kiabakari and the area. Luckily, we have several sets of football jerseys, so their internal test matches can be played in full 'combat' attire. The older boys jerseys came to us through courtesy of our former German volunteers - Denise and Thomas. The younger boys jerseys I got years back, even before I was transferred to Musoma Cathedral in 2002. The pictures below I took before their training matches a couple of weeks ago. The little ones played in small teams on small pitch.

Girls' vocation groups is not forgotten either. I have just finished laying out of the netball court with professional goal posts, traced the lines and checked on the stock of netball jerseys. We have plenty of netballs courtesy of Australia, seven sets of netball jerseys. Some of them will go to our primary school, the rest will stay with parochial girls' teams. 

We plan to have a all-parochial tournament in football and netball starting in September with the climax and finale on the Feast of the Holy Family on December 28 this year.

Lent Retreat

The eight day long parochial retreat in Kiabakari is over. It has been a time of healing and spiritual renewal, in particular on family level. The retreat master - Rev. Fr. Baptist Mapunda from the Congregation of Missionaries of Africa and his pastoral team of lay preachers - have done a marvelous job. Those days flew in a blink of an eye. And now it is up to us to continue cooperation with Holy Spirit grace and light to make sure the renewal is genuine and lasting, the healing process is  complete and the fruit of the retreat is multiple and permanent. 

I am very grateful to Father Mapunda, Mama Anna Maria and Mr Luka for their total commitment to the task of leading us in the spiritual desert. They did not spare themselves. And I am very happy that the faithful took this opportunity and used it for their benefit, attending in their hundreds the retreat both in the parochial church and in the outstations.

Please, for the genuine conversion and total renewal of each and every one of us here in Kiabakari! Happy and blessed Lent to all!

3x4

It appears that this year will be divided in three distinctive periods of four months each. The first four months which are currently underway are fully packed with pastoral, spiritual and re-organizational work in Kiabakari. Frankly saying, I am a bit relieved we (Foundation Kiabakari) did not get funding for developing projects this year as it would put my plans for this year in jeopardy. Of course, I will always place the common good and interest ahead of my personal plans, yet, deep in my heart I was somehow happy when we did not secured the funds for our two projects for this year, no matter how important they were to my community in Kiabakari. I was personally worried that if we get the funding that I won't be able to travel this year and do some important things which need my attention. The lack of funding meant that my travel plans for this year, including very important Congress on Divine Mercy in Colombia, would go through. So, I cannot complain, but rather, enjoy this opportunity to have some holidays and do some other things.

There has been a lot going on at the moment in my life and in Kiabakari. That is why I chose to keep silent a bit and withdraw from the public domain to focus on issues here. The Year of Family demands new, fresh and original approach and full commitment to the pastoral work in Kiabakari. Rediscovering ourselves as God's and human family, so rich in talents and charisms. I enjoy renewed formation efforts with my altar servers, vocation groups, apostolic movements in the parish, Small Christian Communities, outstations, preparations of Sunday and daily homiletic reflections, interacting with my people on various levels, in particular in the parochial office. I look forward to the annual parochial lenten eight day retreat which starts this coming Sunday and will be led by Fr. Baptist Regina Mapunda, White Father and his retreat team. I look forward to this year Divine Mercy celebrations  focused on the canonization of Blessed John Paul II, the Apostle of Divine Mercy.

This grassroots level pastoral and spiritual commitment is interwoven with managerial duties I have here in Kiabakari, restructuring of the staff and work program in our health center, enjoying the new pre-school life in new reality and grateful to God for the successful registration of the pre-school and primary school. We have sat together as stakeholders of the education in Kiabakari to think about the best possible environment for our standard four students who will sit for the first time in the history of our parish for the standard four national exams later this year. We have devised lunch for them in school and extra activities - tuition - so all in the class can perform to the best of their ability and achieve good results, thus, bringing our school a due acclaim and recognition.

At the end of April I will travel to Poland and to Europe in general. Lot of things to do and lot of people to see. Things to finalize, to decide, to take new directions and accomplish. Among them - finding resources to push forward construction and completion of the primary school. I will have to build at least one classroom this year so our standard four students can have a place to study next year as we have completed and furnished four classrooms only so far. On the other hand - the completion and firing up of the new website of Foundation Kiabakari and the main website of Kiabakari (we are close to complete technical stuff and start filling the spaces with text and images).

This second period of four months away from Kiabakari will include also my participation in WACOM 2014 in Bogota Colombia in August. Looking forward to this experience and the opportunity of sharing with the world what we do here in Kiabakari and Tanzania to spread the message and spirituality of Divine Mercy.

Upon my return to Tanzania at the end of August, the third period of this year will be filled with the construction of the new classrooms in the primary school, competitions on artistic and sports level in the parish in preparation of the finale of the Year of Family (Feast of Holy Family on December 28). We will have competitions in choirs, drama, poems, drawing and painting, storytelling, dancing etc. We will have netball and soccer league starting in September. There are several couples who come to my office and state their intention to bless their marriages on that feast. Surely, the picture I get is very encouraging and I am positively sure those last four months will be the wonderful time of celebration of our unity and togetherness as God's and human family.

All the plans and hopes I immerse in the Ocean of Divine Mercy so the Lord's Will be done, not ours. Having said so, I ask all of you for your kind prayers. Let it happen! Stay blessed! Praying for all of you and all your intentions in this holy time of Lent.

The Year of Family plan sounds quite interesting!

Looking Forward To WACOM 2014

A very good morning indeed. I have just succeeded to register myself online for WACOM 2014 (World Apostolic Congress On Mercy) which will take place in Bogota, Colombia in August this year (check the news on Facebook and YouTube). I was blessed to attend the previous two Congresses - in Lateran Basilica in Rome and in Łagiewniki-Kraków. And I am very happy and grateful to Merciful Lord and people of good will who enabled me to get ready for the third Congress. I will participate in this important event as the national coordinator of WACOM in Tanzania.

I am deeply grateful to my friends who found a good connection and airfare at Swiss and those who helped me with partial payment for my air ticket to Europe and then to Colombia. I am deeply grateful to His Excellency Bishop Michael Msonganzila who supported the journey with remaining two thirds of the airfare and gave his blessing for the endeavor.

I am deeply grateful to Almighty and Merciful Lord for the chance to give testimony to the world about the Divine Mercy devotion and spirituality in this part of the universe. I am looking forward to reconnect with Divine Mercy Apostles from various countries whom I met in the previous two Congresses.

I commend the spiritual preparations for the Congress and the Congress itself to your kind and generous prayers, my dear readers. May Lord's Will be done in all of us and in everything we undertake in His name. God bless us all in this holy time of Lent!

Official website of WACOM Colombia - registration online

Successful registration

Sweet Little Curious Fellow

Yesterday's Sunday Gospel read:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.” (Mt 6)

This passage brought a fond and fresh memory of a recent event. 

In the final couple of days of the visit of my friends from Poland last month (this also explains why I kept away from the blog for so long), one of them, Peter, ventured out around my house to try to get some decent macro shots, trying out my macro gear - Canon 100m f2.8 L lens on Canon Eos 5d mark II and Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX. 

With his permission, I present one of the great shots he was lucky to take. This sweet little curious fellow on the rock actually is the size of the half of the fingernail! Yet his gorgeous presence makes me speechless at the masterpiece of God's creation.  The splendor of God's creation does not mean only birds or flowers. Little curious spiders are the part of this splendor also if you dare to have a closer look at their regal attire.

Eighteen Years

Look carefully at this picture below:

It was taken right after the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass in 1996. Late President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere and myself were standing at the corner of the not-finished-yet shrine of Divine Mercy (it was dedicated on July 3, 1997) and we were talking about the situation of the education in Tanzania and in Mara region area in particular. Mwalimu was very adamant about the need of providing the quality education at grassroots levels, especially in our areas. He was giving me his moral support in the realization of this dream.

I was showing Mwalimu the future development of the parish, where the planned institution were going to be located and the picture caught the moment where I was talking about the future primary school in Kiabakari. We were looking in the direction where now there is in fact the not-finished-yet building of the primary school.

I am praying to Mwalimu now, believing strongly that he is in heaven, to pray for us, so that after eighteen long years since that day where we talked about the importance of education in Kiabakari, this dream comes true this year. Please, pray with me to Mwalimu!

Anticipation

The next few weeks will be filled to the brim with anticipation of results of projects accepted by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the development scheme of Polish Aid 2014. It will be known in the near future if any of our Foundation Kiabakari submitted projects will go through. I am not going to be a prophet of any kind. Just praying to God for His Will to be fulfilled as He himself knows how much we need them in this particular point of development of Kiabakari.

I know the amount of work that went into the preparation of the projects, how well they are founded and grounded in reality, how much the local community in our village and district at large needs them.

It is up to the special commission to decide if our reasoning finds its favorable decision.

To me, either way will not make my year much different. If we get the funding, it will be easier to me to complete those projects. If not, it will be up to me to find alternative sources of funding.

I will not reveal in extenso what kind of projects we sent for funding to the Ministry. I can only say that the primary school project which includes the finishing of the remaining three classrooms and computer room with extension multipurpose service building - is absolutely crucial to me. I have to do it this year.  My standard four students will sit for the national exam this year, as you know from my previous posts. For this I need a registration of the school.

As I struggle to get the registration of our pre- and primary school, one of the conditions for the full registration is the completion of the infrastructure and the basic school equipment. The Tanzanian government during the latest inspection estimated that our school project is 81% done (thanks to the pre-school project funded by Polish Aid 2013 and the Small Grant in 2007 which financed construction of foundations, walls, windows and doors of the present primary school). The lacking 19% is crucial.

That is why in prayerful anticipation I will wait for the verdict of the commission. This will tell me how my year will look like. Will it be relatively easy climb towards the important goal with funding from Polish Aid 2014 or it will be a difficult one with me going around the world again in hope of securing the necessary funding? Time will tell. I can only ask humbly the Lord to consider granting me the easier way...

All I ask of you, my esteemed readers, is to pray to God with me in anticipation of things to come. May His will be done.

2 Out Of 3

After two days of celebrations of Mapinduzi Zanzibar and Maulid, today is finally a day of work. Having celebrated the Holy Mass in the morning, I will be soon heading to the Ministry of Education to receive the official letter from the Hon. Minister - the recognition of the Diocese of Musoma as the lawful owner of pre-school and primary school in Kiabakari and myself as an executive director / manager of the same. This process of registration has there major steps and we have done two out of three. After today, what will be left is to finally register the schools and get the government number. This will enable us to be recognized as educational institution in Tanzania and as a recognized examination center for the upcoming national exams for which our standard four students will sit for the first time in the short history of our primary school.

Apart from this visit at the Ministry, what is on the agenda today is the visit to Crown Healthcare Ltd. - our main supplier and maintenance provider for our health center in Kiabakari. Since we have got a brand new water bath machine and microscope funded by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 'Upendo Unaojali' project, purchased at the end of the last year, I am able to bring for the emergency repair our old water bath and microscope - which - after some six years of continuous work in our lab - gave up and broke down.

In the afternoon, time permitting, I may feel tempted to go to the movie theater. Some new movies playing (same blockbusters as elsewhere in the world). We will see!

What's Cooking?

The New Year has arrived. It feels so good to enter a new year with prevailing conviction that I did what I humanely could to live it to the fullest and do whatever I could. Overwhelming gratitude do Merciful God who made it happen.

And now as I enter the New Year with all plans, dreams, resolutions, decisions and hopes, I can only repeat what I always do - In Te, Domine, speravi; non confundar in aeternum! Jesus, I trust in You!

You may ask what is cooking in the back of my mind, what lies in stake in this new year, what agenda I have. Well, it will become known and clear as we progress. For now, apart from the pastoral plan for the Year of the Family, reports of the finished development projects, hopes for the new ones, final stages of the registration of our schools, I work on final touches of the new website of Kiabakari. Hopefully, before I begin my long awaited holidays in May this year, the website will be completed and I will be able to publish it. Looking very much forward to it as it will combine and put together all assets in Kiabakari and will link in one place all things Kiabakari.

Wishing all of you happy and prosperous New Year both in your personal and professional lives, I pray for each and everyone of you. God bless us all!