God Bless Haiti

Our four Church Community has been praying for our brothers and sisters in Haiti ever since we felt the tremors that Tuesday evening in St. Mary's Church. As the world comes together to help the Haitians rebuild their Country, so has our Mission offered assistance. In addition to a collection of t-shirts and other clothes, last Sunday our people collected $67,145.00 Jamaican Dollars (about 755.00 usd) to send to our Caribbean neighbors. Our people know the generosity of others and know that the gifts they receive should be freely given to others in need.

Curley Service Week

Once again the rocks at St Mary's saw the arrival of the seniors from Archbishop Curley High School with their president, Fr Michael Martin, OFM Conv for their third visit. This year the group was chaperoned by two new faculty members Mr Nick Brownlee and Mr Travis Williams (seen on the top of the scaffolding). In the morning Team Curley ran the Brain Camp (pictures above) and in the afternoon the church got a new coat of paint.

The day's not done . . .

The day's not done until Sr Marcia records the lunch tickets from today's lunch period. A record number of children are frequenting the Fasini Feeding Centre these days. But today it looks like Sister's recording a baptism . . .

Service Week - Play Day

With each group that visits we try to have one play day. It seems like any trip to the Caribbean should at least provide an opportunity to experience the sand and the sea. Here are a few shots of the trip to Lime Cay and the Mass on the beach.

W C S U Makes Their 4th Visit

This marks the fourth visit for Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) for their Alternate January Break - aka, Jamaica 2010. Fr Michael Lasky, OFM Conv, the Director of Campus Ministry at WCSU is making his fifth visit. Each student dedicates one bag (50lbs) for bringing down the needed supplies for the week. Below you will see one of the bags, and the sorting process. Each day a group of 2 0r 3 students is on Martha Duty - they help with the dishes and make sure the water barrels are full.

The Service Project for the week is two phase - the mornings are working with St Mary's All Age students in our Brain Camp and the afternoons putting a coat of paint on the visitors' hostel - Padua House. Below are shots of the WSCU working with St Mary's All Agers with reading and word recognition. The last picture catches Fr Mike Lasky serving up the porridge.

BAPTISM of the LORD

Sunday, 10 January, 2010 was the Baptism of the Lord, the last day of the Christmas Season. Here at the Missions we had Baptisms in three of the four churches. Below you'll find several shots of the two Baptisms done here at St Mary's. This Feast also kicks off Vocation Awareness Week. Approximately thirty young adults journeyed with us to the cathedral for Solemn Vespers with the Archbishop, His Grace, Donald Reece, DD.

EARTHQUAKE to our East

This afternoon during our Holy Hour for Vocations, just before the Our Father, the pews started to vibrate and the overhead fans (that were turned off) began to sway left to right. Sr Naomi looked at Br Michael and mouthed...it's an earthquake.

The evening news went to CNN and the 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. Kingston to Port-au-Prince is 257 nautical miles to our East.

Wanting to assure our families in the states all was fine, Fr Mike called home. Miss Pat, our faithful weather look-out cautioned us to beware of a tsunami.

As fate would have it, during the evening news, it was announced that the Caribbean is under a tsunami watch.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This is but another natural disaster to hit in these past few years. Let us pray God spare any further loss of life and protection to those who will come to Haiti's aid in this post-quake period.

Record Low Temperatures

Let's just say in the five seasons we have been here this is the coldest we can remember, and for the locals its freezing. Mind you the actual temperature is 68 degrees!

When we arrived we brought an outdoor thermometer much like the one pictured here. Because the temperature variation is so slight the needle moves but a few degrees in a given day (84 - 88). Fr Joe once questioned if the temperature was correct... "that needle hasn't moved!" So Fr Joe put the thermometer in the freezer to see if it was working... and it was. Unlike this test by Fr Joe, the needle is moving down and down...

To take the cake. This morning at General Devotion at St Mary's College one young lady, Ms Debrana, was in a 3/4 length brown fur coat. Yes, a brown fur coat. Looked like something we wore in the 70's and now you would find at the thrift store.

Franciscans International Grassroots

In preparation for the upcoming human rights review in Jamaica by the United Nations - Franciscans International has asked the Franciscans in Jamaica to serve as a grassroots group to raise up human rights issues as they see them in their respective ministry settings. Franciscans International, founded in 1989, serves to work for: the eradication of poverty, human rights issues and care of the creation.

Through lobbying at the UN these issues find a voice, and through the observations made and reported at the grassroots level these issues gain a voice. After a day of conversations about human rights issues in our respective ministry areas the following topics arose: Police Issues, Children's Issues, Women's Issues, Education, Health Care, Housing, Men's Issues, Poverty and Creation. The group will now rank order these areas and continue to collect anecdotal and statistical information to report to Franciscans International, New York. Stay tuned for more developments.

Kings and Saints

Today our four Church Community celebrated the Solemnity of the Epiphany. Our people were challenged to pay attention to the manifestation of the Lord in every encounter, event and person they meet. Today marked the beginning of house blessings - we hope to be completed by Ash Wednesday. After Communion we also introduced our people to the Conventual Franciscan Tradition of the Extraction of Patron Saints. Men, women, and children approached the altar and picked a card containing the name of a Saint. This Saint will be their special patron during 2010. The Mission Community wishes all our friends a Blessed 2010!!