Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
First, I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and generous contributions over the past year for our foreign churches and global partners. Your efforts have meant that we have been able to faithfully support our ongoing efforts in India, the Philippines, and in Haiti.
Also, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you all on the progress that is taking place within our foreign churches and with our global partners. As you are aware,last year we were able to raise the funds to establish a Dalit Education Center in the Kadapa District of Andhra Pradesh, India. This school will be built with the help of Operation Mobilization and will be school number 105 of this type in India.
So far there have been six attempts to purchase suitable land in the area and so far none have been successful. Here is an excerpt from a letter outlining the most recent attempt:
I just got off the phone with the school management team. They said that during the month of December 2011, they found a suitable piece of land to buy in Kadapa and settled on a price with the land owner. They were in the process of making the deposit on the land (just a few days' time of getting paperwork in order, funds, etc.) and in that time, the land owner reneged on the offer and sold it immediately to someone who offered more money without coming back to us to let us counter offer! So now we're back to the drawing board. But since it's a new year, the two men on our side responsible for finding land to buy are on the job and they'll be going this weekend to look at more land to purchase.
That's the update for now. It's such a very complicated process.
That last line says it all! It is a very complicated process!
I know many of you may be concerned about a different Lenten Appeal this year when we still need to consider the ongoing support of the Dalit School. Since the land has not been purchased, the school has not been started and you may recall we raised sufficient funds to run the school for one year which means we will not need the additional funds until 2013. Please continue to pray for the efforts that are being made to get this project underway.
In the Philippines, Bishop Belmonte continues his search for suitable land on which to establish a training facility for his postulants and clergy. The money that was collected at last year's Synod is still in the bank and will be used as a down payment once a suitable site is found. In the meantime, many of you have given generously to both the program that is feeding the orphaned children in Dumaguete as well as to the goat program. Sister Marie Claire is now able to feed the children several days a week. The church and several of the parishioners now have 50 goats and we are arranging for training in the husbandry of these goats through our global partner, World Vision. Please continue to pray for the ongoing efforts in the Philippines.
Our recent visit to Haiti encouraged us to launch our Lenten Appeal and ask for your help in securing the future of the school there and to help them with a project that will help the Haitians provide the funds to run the school.
Please continue to pray for all of our foreign churches and for our global partners. I also want to encourage you all to remember the ongoing operations in all of these regions. While we put out special appeals for major projects, the month to month costs of running these operations have to be covered as well. Our foreign church partners are still largely dependent on what we are able to send them each month to cover their operational expenses. The clergy and the churches are the ones involved in spreading God's Kingdom in these various places and we need to support them as fully as we are able. Thank you all for kindness and generosity towards these ongoing efforts.
If any parish would like to learn more about our ongoing foreign efforts or would like to receive a visit and hear a presentation from a member of our missions team please feel free to contact me or the Bishop's office and I will be glad to arrange it.
Remembering that in all things, He is able, I remain faithfully yours,
Fr. David Haines, Vicar General for Global Partnerships
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