The Orthodox Mission in South Madagascar

 

Browse all the images in the official site: https://www.orthodoxdiocesesthmadagascar.org.mg/

 

Source: https://youtu.be/Gcis4JC1hWE

 

 

I haven’t got any specific abilities, no special gifts, nor am I “someone”.

But the truth is that in southern Madagascar, during these past seven years a miracle has taken place.

Of course it is not attributed to me – nor am I saying this either out of humility or seeming humility; it is the actual reality.

This is due first of all to the blessing of God, to the blessings and the intercessions that I believe are deeply rooted in me, of the late bishop of Madagascar, Nectarios (who was killed during the Chinook flight), and to all of you who truly support us with your love and are by our side.

I will make a small repetition - not to impress you, nor to display something – only so you can see that after 7 years what I had said before - about how the grace of God has worked, how your love and the love of many, many, many other people has benefited southern Madagascar.

It has been 7 years so far.  Let me begin here with the last project of the brotherhood, which is the 18th temple that we are building and is dedicated to Saint Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos. Glory be to God. And I think the people who work here are also aware of this. It was truly the will of the Saint. When we laid the foundation stone, we were headed elsewhere, and by the time it began and then finish (it will be finished in a month), the container had arrived.

Quite simply, I did not publish anything about it because the missionary center in Toliara is located in an area that is somewhat isolated. So we were given the opportunity, and there were plots of land being sold, about 500 metres away from us. And I had wanted a temple – a temple of the missionary center to be somewhere near a main road. That is, not hidden away.

Well, they were selling a plot of land. Next to it was another sect that owned another plot of land. Across the street was also another one, but they wouldn't give it to us. We bought the first plot of land and started building the temple. While building, we had to compress it somewhat, of course, but by the time this whole process was over - I won't forget it, it was Easter last year, Good Friday - when this sect came over to us and said, “you know, we are talking about leaving, in case you want to buy the plot." So we bought the plot next door too.

And indeed, when the patriarch visited Madagascar in September and the temple had progressed, we laid the foundation stone, also knowing the patriarch's love and willingness -as well as the brotherhood’s-  for the canonization of Saint Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos. When we laid the foundation stone, we said that it would be dedicated to Saint Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos. It is a temple that is quite large for the standards in Africa, and also in Madagascar. It is quite a beautiful temple. We had delayed it quite a bit, compared to other temples, because the plans had come from Greece. So you understand, because it has certain peculiarities, it was not as simple as the other temples, and with the grace of God, I believe that in a month it will be finished, and it will be another project that the brotherhood has offered here to the diocese of Toliara and southern Madagascar.

Also, now, in a month's time, we are finishing our (now 14^th) school building. And as I had told you, there are three large schools already operating in the city right now. At present, we have 750 children in the three schools in the city, which are only middle school and high school - and now elementary school. Also, by the grace of God, I don't know if any of you remember, our orphanage is also completed and now operating.

I don't know if I had told you about this – did I tell you about the director of the orphanage. Yes? Okay. So, recent events.

Well, let me tell you this: in southern Madagascar there is a custom. They kill twins. Twin babies are forbidden. They are forbidden to grow up together. So in this area called Mananjary, they kill them. When I was over there, we said that we had to do something. So we created an orphanage that will save these children. The orphanage started, and it is operating.

Beyond all the miracles - of how the orphanage was built - I won't go into all of it, as for me, the most important thing was the director of the clinic where she was - and now of the orphanage - Lorenji.

This girl was born in Mananjary; a few months ago there were people here who have visited Madagascar - the South - and they knew this person.  And so when Lorenji - about a year and a half ago - found out she was adopted, she began to search about her own life. She arrived here and discovered that she was born in this place - in Mananjary. She was a twin. Her mother had died at birth and her father had given the order to kill her.  And for that very reason, the midwife who was present at that twin birth, had taken Lorenji and given her to another woman who had given birth to a stillborn (dead) baby; she then took the dead baby of that other woman and gave it to Lorenji's father, telling him that it was his now dead child...

And so we have this amazing situation. A child who was saved from this act is now the director of the orphanage that is saving these children!  A more suitable person I could not imagine! if I were to tell you about her life... I really don't want to go into details, but it can really become a movie - and I will do it - I will go all the way to Hollywood – without a doubt – and it will outdo the movie “Titanic”... because it is a true event and it is really worth it.

So we now have the orphanage with our little ones fully operating there - glory to God. In total, we now have 8,000 children in our schools, who study entirely free of charge - and this detail is very important.

I must make a parenthesis here, and a request. What southern Madagascar now needs is a boarding school. It is an immediate need, because I am saddened.  There are many enlightened minds of children who live in the villages and do not have the opportunity to continue with school. Because, while they are in elementary school, the law says that someone who has finished the third year of high school can teach - so that many children who have finished high school in the villages where they grew up can then make a living. However, in the villages it is very difficult to have middle schools and high schools because the living conditions are difficult, and no one who has been educated will return to a village where they have to walk an hour to find water, and without having all the other basic needs.  And I am truly sad, because they don’t even have relatives in the city who can host them; but even if some children who do have relatives to host them, they always have to pay.

Therefore, I regard this - and am making it as a request - and I will write it convincingly in the magazine as well.... Don't worry.... I will write it.... I can read your thoughts. So I am saying it publicly, that southern Madagascar now needs a boarding school, and we are committed, Your Eminence, to doing everything we can for this idea of yours to come true.  Amen. We thank you.

Also something that moves me in relation to all of us. It is truly moving - even now in Holy Week when we experience it most intensely - the participation of these people in the Mysteries of our Church. And when I say Mysteries I mean the divine Liturgy and in whatever else takes place during Holy Week.

It is very touching to see people who actually abandon their everyday life – the everyday life that provides their daily bread.  If someone doesn't go to work - and because I come from a farming family I know what it means to be a farmer, to have animals, and the care you have to take for such things that you can't omit - and yet, you see these people abandoning their so-to-speak personal leisure in order to participate in these events of our Church!

And allow me to say that this is a test for all of us who are always trying to find an excuse - either to not go to church or to not celebrate the event of each holy day that we have in our church - as we really should. And I am really moved, because I believe deep inside me that these people in Africa - who may not understand much, they may not know theologies, they don't have books to read, they don't understand us if we give them lofty theological interpretations of the Gospels, but they do have an experience of faith, and this experience leads them to this relationship that they have with the Mysteries of the Church and with the Church Herself.

I also want to say that - as someone asked me, I don't remember who - if there has been any improvement during this time.... Africa is kept in this situation for understandable reasons. But when we who were there in October the American ambassador had come to our clinic. He went to all of southern Madagascar. He visited the state hospitals, the Protestant clinics, the Catholic clinics and so on. He came to us too. Okay, I could see he had some enthusiasm, but I didn't ask him any questions either.... The official website of the American embassy in Madagascar now mentions that if any American citizen who is in southern Madagascar becomes sick, they should – and it is recommended – that they visit the Orthodox clinic.

I mentioned this, so you can see we provide everything for free.... that is, free medicines, free tests. Everything is free.  May Cyprus be well; and father Vasileios from Ayia Napa in Cyprus, who supports the operation of this clinic.  Because I am obliged to mention that if it weren't for him, every month we need money to operate the clinic - all these 38 people who are the staff, the doctors, nurses, the medicines, the tests. In other words, the clinic needs at least €10,000 every month in order to keep operating... so, we are very much obliged and wish Cyprus well, who supports us and helps us in this sector.

Furthermore, this program which we had started and which I have mentioned many times regarding the malnourished children:  albeit having set a limit in my mind that we would not exceed 500 overall – initially I had estimated 300 – we eventually reached 500. Now we are at 1,300.

But I repeat that I am not saying all this to impress you. I am saying (take note of this) that when we have within us a positive disposition and Christ sees a good intention, He blesses everything in our personal lives. I am telling you this from experience:  I have not understood how things happen, and how all these expenses are covered each month - but I must confess, and I am not saying this with arrogance or ego - there is within us a good intention and a good predisposition for improving the living conditions of our brothers there, to the best of our ability, and to offer what we also said in church:  to offer love to these people.

And when you actually offer love in your life, God somehow returns it to you. And we see it, in our schools and in the clinics and in the wells that we have opened, and in the computer school. That is, nowadays you meet children on the street 7 years since I was there, who may have then been 12 years old or 13, and are now 20, others 15, and even over 20 - and you see them greeting you. This for us is the greatest joy we can receive - that these people, these children who - thanks to people from Greece who support us and help our work - have gained something. I wish we could do this for all the children, but for those who had come across our path, you can see that they did not forget us.

I repeat, that difficulties exist and are numerous and for the schools to function and for the clinic to function they are numerous and there are many problems. But beyond that, as I firmly believe, it depends on us, where we focus and what we finally let settle in our soul: a difficulty, a problem... if I focus on the negativity of the problem, if I focus on the difficulty and not on the fact that we have overcome the problem and we have moved on, this beautiful situation would not have existed. Subsequently, in southern Madagascar, what we are personally experiencing is a blessing from God.

And what makes us feel wonderfully even more, is not so much all these works. It is that in recent years we have baptized more than 12,000 people. It is the Mystery of holy Baptism. Now if these people are consciously aware, or are not consciously aware of what is often heard – as to whether these people essentially understand the concept of faith as we understand it - it is not possible for them to understand it as we understand it. I beg you very much from my heart, I tell you sincerely, to learn to have not just an open heart, but a very wide-open heart towards how these people experience their faith.  We were born in an Orthodox country, and yet, we still don't manage to understand it. You can surely understand how difficult it is for them. But the fact that these people are baptized means that at least they have the “passport” - which is very important for one to have the passport for the next life. Let me say it like this without fear. It is very important.  One may not reach and pass through all the "checkpoints", but this passport will ensure your entry somewhere. And for these people - what we do throughout Africa - is essentially that we provide them with the “passport”. Now, from there on, it is the grace of God and the love of God for them that will act both in this life and in the next life.

For this very reason, my brothers, let us be condescending. Let us not have any other spirit within us, judging and criticizing everyone and everything without knowing. And as I said in church, I say it again here, we must not often become the obstacle to the salvation of other people. This is the worst of sins - that I, with my word or with my attitude, obstruct a person from uniting with God.

And Africa and the people of Africa and Madagascar are a people who are more moved by sentiment rather than by logic.  This applies, when they see in front of them one who stands as a person who has within him the love of God, and who even more, shows understanding for what is happening in their country, the morals, the customs. There will be difficulties, but in these difficulties there will always be some who can tell you apart from the others, and it is with such people that we actually walk together.

I don’t remember if I said it here, I don’t think so, because I have not been here before. In September, in south Madagascar there had begun an uprising and they overthrew the president of the country and martial law had taken over.

For me, the biggest reassurance that in these previous years, something was accomplished -  I'm not saying that we had done something, only that something was accomplished – was during the three days when the biggest lootings had taken place – right before our eyes, while Kostas was there.  We were actually looking at them taking place - and when I say lootings, you’d see sofas taken out of stores, televisions, motorbikes, cars... I'm not even talking about supermarkets and food.

Our warehouse doors only have a plain padlock. Inside them were things that could have been taken easily. They were full of foods, full of clothes... On seeing them approach, I said “Now we are finished...everything inside our warehouses will be emptied in one night...”  but they had stuck a piece of paper on the door of these warehouses and on it, they had written:

“BECAUSE YOU RESPECT US, WE RESPECT YOU” .

 

 

 

 

Translation: AN