Five Minutes To Midnight - Wrapping Up 2014

I have just realized that I haven't posted anything in the whole month of November. Shame on me! Yet, considering the November pastoral and development works package plus the annual holidays of the manager of the health center and my personal secretary at the same time leaving me with all things on my poor head, no wonder that I was a bit too preoccupied to continue posting here. My apologies anyway.

We have just started December and the new liturgical year. The Advent has begun. The time, I would say - five minutes to midnight in the scale of the year.

This is the time for closing meetings of the year, reports, summaries, retrospections and so forth. I have drawn my short list of highlights of 2014 in my life and in Kiabakari. Here it is:

January - first pastoral meetings in the parish, the Holy Childhood annual feast on the Epiphany,

February - 8 days long Faith Renewal parochial retreat (The Year of the Family theme), Baptisms and First Communions in the parochial church and outstations, the end of the registration process of our pre- and primary schools (yes! after a full year of painstaking process!), Furu fanatics team hosting in Kiabakari,

March - Lent spiritual and pastoral activities,

April - Holy Week, Easter, Divine Mercy Novena and Divine Mercy Sunday three days of celebrations, major overhaul of Grandma (my 21 year old truck),

May-July - three month short sabbatical - medical checkups and procedures, pilgrimages to my favorites shrine and Saints in Poland, Italy and Ireland; visiting friends and places in Poland, Austria, Hungary, Ireland and Germany; private fundraisers in parishes and among friends for the construction of the new wing in the primary school in Kiabakari,

August - Third World Apostolic Congress on Mercy in Colombia, Bogota (paricipating as the national coordinator of the Congress in Tanzania) and the proposal of organizing a continental congress on Mercy in Africa and Madagascar in September/October 2016,

September - The Year of Family pastoral program with catechesis on Sundays, Confirmation catechesis on Saturdays, the pastoral visit of the Apostolic Nuncio in Tanzania in the Diocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kiabakari with the blessing of the construction site of the new wing in our school, the beginning of the construction of the wing,

October - The Year of Family pastoral program with catechesis on Sundays, Confirmation catechesis, the construction of the new wing, Holy Rosary daily prayer service in the presence of the Most Holy Eucharist,

November - The Year of Family pastoral program with catechesis on Sundays, the daily liturgical services with prayer for the deceased, Confirmation catechesis, exams, the construction of the new wing, Confirmation Mass for 128 candidates from all outstations of the parish (9/11/2014), the national exams for Standard 4 students in our primary school (26-27/11/2014),

December - The Fifth Graduation in our pre-school (3/12/2014), the official inauguration of the children choir in the parish (14/12/2014), the completion of the construction of the new wing and the finishing of the standard 5 classroom, Advent pastoral program, Christmas, the finale of the Year of the Family (27-28 December) with our bishop presiding.

There is a lot to be grateful to Almighty and Merciful God in this year. And I invite you all, my dear friends, to join me in this thanksgiving prayer. 

There is a lot to be sorry for as well. And I invite you again, my friends, to join me in our prayer of contraction and asking for pardon for our failures and shortcomings. 

There is a lot to be hopeful for in this new liturgical year. And once again I ask you all, my friends, to raise our hearts and voices to our God praying for our dreams, passions, resolutions, desires, plans and goals - may good Lord grants us all that is pleasing to Him and salvific to us.

In Te, Domine, speravi! Non confundar in aeternum!

Happy new Liturgical Year to us all!

A Mountain To Climb

Construction phase of our development projects over, half of seminars interconnected with projects done, three more to go. The time has come to complete paperwork - reports, statements, financial documentation etc. The sheer amount of work is immense and although all papers, documents, pro-forma invoices, invoices, legal receipts, photo documentation and so forth are professionally collected and stored securely, still - the job of turning this mountain of paper into prescribed in form and method reports - is a genuine mountain to climb. This is what I have started doing sometime ago and will continue for the next two weeks or so. Calm patience, silence and focus is what I need now. That is why I have detached myself from the noise and 'hodi hodi' environment of Kiabakari to do the job professionally and thoroughly. Wish me luck, please, and say a prayer to Holy Spirit for the success of this task. Thanks in advance!

Let The Roller-skates Roll!

The wait for the charity challenge 'Roller-skates Without Borders' start is over. Kamil, the hero of the challenge is on his way to Zittau, the departure point on his journey map. Last minute preparations are almost over as well. We, in Kiabakari, are ready as well. I will be sending daily dispatches from Kiabakari, reporting on what has been going on on each given day during the duration of the challenge, enriched with pictures from our daily life in the parish and our institutions. You may follow the daily report from the route of the challenge along with my reports and pictures by clicking on the link of the official blog of the challenge - here. Let the roller-skates roll! Please, continue to spread the word on the challenge, support it if you can by kind donations and help us to improve the quality and broader spectrum of medical services offered in our health center in Kiabakari! Together we can make a difference!

It All Comes To This

Yet another sentence from today's Gospel of St Mark, chapter 6, caught my attention and came to me with unique force as I continue to struggle with this flu and was forced to stay home and celebrate the Holy Mass in private in the house chapel this morning: 'The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught'...