Parish News Archives - September 2007

Rector Writes | Readings & Services | From the Registers | Organisation Reports | Announcements | Other News

Rector Writes

Dear Friends,

I hope you have had a good summer. As we start back in September to all the business of the winter, its worth reminding ourselves of all the people who keep things going throughout the year. At the last count well over 100 people are involved in leadership positions throughout the parish, and many more behind the scenes as well. These are the people who keep everything going, and often do it unsung and unheralded. A few years ago I asked everyone to give our leaders their support and I think its worth giving the same two pieces of advice again!
The first is encouragement! A quiet word of thanks and congratulations makes all the difference. Even sending a card or short letter can really brighten someone’s day.

The second is to think before complaining! Remember that the people involved are usually volunteers, trying to do their best on a small budget, often under deadlines and pressure in their work. While we try to be as professional as we can, we can’t do everything in the way that everyone would like. So if you have an area of concern or a problem, try and remember these points.

Make sure you know exactly what it is you are complaining about!
Don’t bring in unnecessary side issues
Speak informally to a leader first, and then put your problem in writing if necessary.
Don’t expect to be able to speak to someone on the night of a meeting, they may be very busy with other things including supervision. Try to make an informal appointment.
Stay calm; stick to the issues; don’t be personal.
Listen to the other person’s point of view.

If we can “oil the machinery of human relationships” by respecting others, we will go a long way towards creating the kind of Christian community which is the true foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

Finally, if you aren’t already involved in some aspect of our organisations or helping with the church’s worship, why not offer your services – for as much or as little time as you can spare. The more we put in to our Church, the more we will receive.

Yours in Christ

Andrew

From the Registers

Holy Baptism:

Christian Marriage:

Funeral:

In Memorium:

Organisations Reports

Mothers' Union
We hope you have all had a sun drenched (!) summer and are looking forward to a new season of Mothers Union, full of friendship and fellowship.

Our closing event before the summer break was our outing which was a combined treat this year with our annual meeting with our friends in our link branch of Holywood, Co. Down. This was held on 28th April and we met up with them for a visit to Beaulieu house in Dundalk. Many thanks both to the MU there who supplied us with a wonderful tea and to Rev Sandra Pragnell, our former curate who conducted a lovely service for us all.

Our opening night will be held on 3rd September and is entitled Beetles About! We are looking forward to seeing people again and having a bit of fun together. Our opening service will be on 23rd September in Castleknock Church at 11.30 a.m. and everyone is welcome.

At the time of writing our chairperson, Hilary Nason, is about to travel to Madagascar with Habitat for Humanity, we wish her all the very best, and look forward to hearing all about it on her return.

Susan Green

Announcements

School News:
School news:
At the end of last term we said farewell to Ms Hazel Thompson, and shortly after to Ms Averil Fraser, both of whom have taught with us for a number of years. Welcome now to new teachers, Frances Vickers and Damien (language support) and new class teacher Eva O’Callaghan. Ms. Shirley Hill has moved sideways from language support to class teaching.

Summer Camps:
The school and parish centre were well used for special camps over the summer, welcoming Bright Horizons and Artzone. Our own parish summer camp was held on 20th-24th August – more details in next month’s issue.

Coming up in September:
All the organisations are starting up as usual this month. Contact the parish office for more details.

Harvests:
On September 30th, the ever popular Mulhuddart Harvest has an ecumenical flavour as we welcome Fr. Tony Gavan from Kilbride Parish as our preacher. We hope to give a very special welcome to all our new neighbours from the housing developments around.

On October 14th, Kevin Brew, rector of Howth, will be our special preacher in both Clonsilla and Castleknock.

Robert Moves!:
Best wishes to our former lay reader, Robert Lawson, as he continues with his training for ordination, assisting in Lucan and Leixlip parishes. At services on the last Sunday of June he was a given a presentation to mark his 13 years of outstanding service to our parishes, both with services and in the pastoral care of many of us.

New Organist:
We welcome as our new organist Maedhbh Daltuin. Many will remember her as our Organ Scholar a few years ago. Philip Good has also been appointed as our new Organ Scholar

Other News

Bible Readings for September

During September, in this Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary, the epistle readings come from 3 books of the New Testament, while the Gospel read throughout this year is that of Luke. Below are short summaries of these books.

Luke: Three gospels in the New Testament offer similar portraits of the life of Jesus; Luke is the third of them. Its author, traditionally Luke the physician who accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys, draws on three sources: Mark (via Matthew), a collection of sayings (known as Q for Quelle, German for source) and his own source. It is a gospel that emphasizes God's love for the poor, the disadvantaged, minorities, outcasts, sinners and lepers. Women play a more prominent part than in the other gospels. Luke never uses Semitic words; this is one argument for thinking that he wrote primarily for Gentiles.

Hebrews: Apart from the concluding verses (which may have been added later), this book is a treatise (or sermon) rather than a letter. Its name comes from its approach to Christianity: it is couched is Judaic terms. The identity of the author is unknown; Origen, c. 200 said that "only God knows" who wrote Hebrews. The book presents an elaborate analysis, arguing for the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Christ as revealer and mediator of God's grace. Basing his argument on the Old Testament, the author argues for the superiority of Christ to the prophets, angels and Moses. Christ offers a superior priesthood, and his sacrifice is much more significant than that of Levite priests. Jesus is the "heavenly" High Priest, making the true sacrifice for the sins of the people, but he is also of the same flesh and blood as those he makes holy.

Philemon: This is the shortest of the epistles written by Paul. He sends Onesimus, a run-away slave and recent convert to Christianity, back to his master carrying this letter. Paul does not address the general question of slavery as a social institution, but he does plead with Philemon, on the basis of love, to take Onesimus back and treat him as a fellow Christian. Many centuries later, it was on this same basis that slavery was abolished in Western societies. While the ideas are the same as in other epistles, here we see Paul being delicate and tactful. At the time of writing, Paul was in prison - probably in Ephesus.

1 Timothy: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus are known as the Pastoral Epistles because the author addresses the needs and responsibilities of the leaders of Christian communities. The styles and themes of these letters are so similar that many think they were written by the same person. Although they claim to be written by Paul, the structure of the church they show and the specific content of their teaching indicate that they were written a generation or so after Paul. 1 Timothy begins by emphasizing the importance of correct belief and by cautioning against false teachers. The leaders are mentioned as bishops, deacons and elders. The term used here for the coming of Christ is not found in Paul's letters but is common in pagan Greek writings. In those days, a writer sometimes honoured an earlier leader by writing in his name.

Mothers' Union Baghdad addresses humanitarian crisis

The Mothers’ Union revealed today that it has been distributing emergency food aid to people in Baghdad through its 400 member-strong branch in the city.

Utilizing its Emergency Relief Fund, which enables Mothers’ Union branches all over the world to facilitate work in times of crises, Mothers’ Union has sent £5,000 through Canon Andrew White, vicar of St. George’s, Baghdad, enabling the members at the church to provide food, and where necessary blankets and medicine, to hundreds of people displaced or impoverished throughout the city.

It is not just UK-distributed funding at work. For many months the women of the Mothers’ Union at St. George’s, Baghdad, have been fundraising and making saleable goods themselves in order to provide supplies for nearby orphanages that are helping the increasing numbers of children without parents. The women hold meetings once a week and provide support through food, bedding and school stationery supplies for orphanages, a local home for disabled children, and for families seeking support from the church after being forced out of their homes for being Christian.

Mothers’ Union member Canon Andrew, who is Chair of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle-East (FRRME) said, “I have been so impressed with the way the Mothers’ Union members have co-ordinated and distributed the emergency relief aid, they’ve been fantastic. Aid is not just going to Christians but to Muslims too, and to members who are themselves in need. All receive help equally.

We have been so impressed with how these volunteers have co-ordinated the relief work, that I hope that not just this funding, but humanitarian projects funded by FRRME will be handled by the Mothers’ Union.”

Despite the praise, the Mothers’ Union are aware that they only have capacity to help those known to the church, or in the surrounding communities. Coupled with that, the members are themselves victims of the constant food shortages and accommodation crises, not to mention the violence, that threaten the stability of everyday life in Baghdad.

Oxfam International have reported that nearly 30% of all children in Iraq are malnourished, and that 15% of Iraqis’ regularly do not have enough to eat. Speaking in support of Oxfam’s call on agencies and governments to do more to bring humanitarian aid to civilians in Iraq, Mothers’ Union Chief Executive, Reg Bailey said “It is a hallmark of the Mothers’ Union that it is a grassroots membership which volunteers assistance at the local level as and when it is needed. But the continuing deterioration of the situation in Iraq cannot be sustained for much longer by and for local people without outside help. We support Oxfam’s call for the international community to do all it can to encourage governments to bring urgent assistance to people of all faiths and none, within Iraq.”

My Sojourn in Rwanda

Thanks to Almighty God, the group of seven that travelled to Shyogwe Diocese, Rwanda in July came back safe and sound. On the visit were three members of the Diocesan Council for Mission and Diocesan Lay Readers, Geoffrey McMaster, Stella Obe and Ken Rue, CMS Ireland Board member Robert Syme and a former chairman of Protestant Aid, Arthur Milligan, Jennifer Syme who kept a marvellous diary of the trip and Robin Brown (Abbey Presbyterian) provided an ecumenical element. First I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the people in the parish whose generous contributions and prayers ensures my safe sojourn in Rwanda. Some of the money given to my support was put to good use over there for deserving causes - all the causes are 'deserving', because 13 years after the genocide and 9 years after the massacre in the refugee camps, there is still much which is not as it should be. Here are a few of the projects that I observed and some insights into the part that the Anglican Church [EGLISE EPISCOPALE AU RWANDA] is playing in Rwanda, especially in Shyogwe Diocese that we visited.

It was quite an experience and an eye opener for me as a black, African lady visiting another African country. I have never seen or been subjected to some of the level of poverty that still exists, but at the same time my faith was more affirmed, because despite all the poverty, lack of proper health care facilities, lack of nutritional food, lack of proper education and educational resources, lack of skills etc., there is an over abundance of faith. The people are still singing, dancing and generally praising God for their life and existence - it was something to behold, that level of faith, that level of commitment to the Gospel and that level of sharing and loving your neighbour as yourself.

The people of Shyogwe Diocese are not putting out their hands and waiting like beggars for handouts from outsiders or the likes of myself, they are getting on with their lives and making do with what they have got.

There are a lot of self-help projects going on with people forming co-operatives of maybe 20 people or more in farming, animal husbandry, tailoring, small scale industries like soap making, greetings cards, crocheting, basket weaving and so on.

At the forefront of these projects is the Anglican Church. The Bishop [Dr Jered Kalimba] and his team of Diocesan workers are very forward thinking and trying their best first to evangelize the word of God, Church building and Church planting, follow by trying to see to the health and well being of the people, re-educating them about HIV/AIDS and nutrition. In fact their aim and slogan is 'Holy Soul - in a Healthy Body' and their motto is 'Thy Kingdom Come'.

There is the Youth at Risks project where the Mothers’ Union are taking the giant steps of teaching the kids who are mainly the heads of their households now that they have no parents or elders, in learning skills like carpentry, welding, tailoring, agriculture and how to manage their lives through moral teachings and a rudiment of primary education. These are kids that would otherwise have no opportunity to avail of any formal education at all. The older people of whom some are widows and poor families are encouraged to form cooperatives and work together in groups. All in all what I saw in Rwanda was very inspirational and I can confirm that the experience has changed my attitudes and priorities in the way I view life and my very existence. Like I said to a friend upon my arrival back here if she ever hears me complain of anything mundane again to give me a swift kick in the behind.

I had the privilege of teaching in the bible school where lay readers [they are called Catechist in Rwanda] are being trained so that they can go back and head their different village chapels which are an equivalent of a parish here seeing their congregants are in excess of 100 or more, and Shyogwe have 29 parishes and 321 of these chapels. I did try my best to impart a little of what I have gained from my own training here in Ireland but in the face of virtually no resources only God can train the trainers Himself. The current set of Catechists have just completed one year of their two years training and are expected to go back to their respective villages for two months to start their practical work of winning souls for the Lord before coming back in September. To God be the Glory.

Once again thank you all for your support and prayers and please continue to keep the Bishop, the Pastors, the Lay readers, the diocesan workers and Mothers’ Union and the people of Shyogwe Diocese in your prayers.

IMANA IBAHE UMUGHISA (meaning GOD BLESS YOU)

I remain yours in Christ

Stella Obe

Work Party

ST. MARY’S CLONSILLA

SAT. 22nd SEPTEMBER AT 10.30

WORK PARTY—TIDY UP THE CHURCHYARD
BRING ALL THE FAMILY
TEA/COFFEE PROVIDED
BRING LUNCH TO POOL WITH
EVERYONE
don't forget your gardening tools

Many hands make light work.

My personal experience in Madagascar with Habitat for Humanity

By Muriel Kellett

September 2006

Early in 2006, it was announced in my parish church that a member of the parish was hoping to lead a team to Madagascar to work with Habitat for Humanity to build decent houses.

I have always thought that I would like to do some work outside Ireland with a charity but building houses was not really what I had in mind Having trained as a nurse, I thought maybe hospital based work might be the way to go. However when this opportunity came along I did not hesitate in putting my name forward.

My application was accepted and then the feelings of excitement & anticipation of the unknown came flooding in, how would I cope with new culture, new country, far away from family – all the “what ifs” came to mind. But with a clear head and an open mind I was ready to accept whatever came along and deal with it at the time.

I was funding myself, however as a volunteer for HfH it is part of your remit that you fundraise, this in turn raises the awareness of the charity. So I put my heart into the fundraising and as always, my family, friends and colleagues and business friends all rowed in behind me.

Everyone was extremely generous. At this point I would like to say a huge THANK YOU

We had meetings and lists and guidelines. Injections and medicines. Aaaaah!!!

Fourteen of us travelling, one leader, a co-leader and twelve members.

September 2nd 2006: Dublin – Paris – Antananarivo. Arrival at Tana Sunday 3rd (missed the flight in Paris)

We landed in Tana late at night and with our bags on the bus we set off to our hotel with Edwin & Malala our guides. Little children begging in the airport, already pulling at our hearts. We did not see very much on the way to the hotel as it was dark but the noises during the night were different to those at home – not traffic on the motorway but dogs, cockerels & birds. A huge market was set up opposite the hotel and there was people everywhere – carrying huge baskets on their heads – full of fruit & vegetables, etc., men driving vans, hooting horns and full of people. Everything was so colourful & so full of life.

We were taken to change some money, two by two we changed €200.00 each or there abouts. We were like millionaires coming out – for each €1.00 we received 2680 Ariary.

We were then taken to the HfH office for a familiarisation chat about the aims and objectives of our trip. On our way to Ankazobe we stopped at Akany Avokay, an orphanage for lunch. The bus ride to Ankazobe brought us by paddy fields, lots of stepped vegetation and rolling countryside.

A welcome team greeted us when we arrived. The Presidential Office was to be our home for the next while. What friendly and welcoming people. It was almost like coming home.

A double fronted single story building, two rooms to the front our sleeping and living space.
(A side room out the back from the garden where we would have our meals. A “little house on the prairie” at the end of the garden would be our toilet. Water barrels and basins in the garden our washroom. However there was a plastic/canvas open tent with a partition so that two people could wash at a time in private. We were fortunate & privileged to have water at our house, we did not have to carry it from a pump along the roadside)

We set up the mosquitoes nets, eight to a room or there abouts, sleeping bag to sleeping bag and there we lay, again lots of strange noises. We were well awake at 6am. Breakfast of muffin bread (like a doughnut) and some crumpet like breads and tea.

Edwin & Laingu brought us to the sites we would be working on – now this is much better – getting down to work at last. We brought buckets and trowels and shovels with us. We met the stone masons. One site was a lot smaller than the other. The stone mason of the bigger site was the brother of the lady whose house we were to build. The foundations for this house were in the process of being dug out. The foundations were already laid in the smaller site which was at the back of the house lived in by the family.

The bricks for both houses were on the road side and had to be brought in close to the buildings. We split into two groups and were shown how to throw a brick and to catch it correctly. How to stack them neatly so they would not topple and injure anyone. We formed orderly lines and threw bricks to each other and made piles close to the site. The president of the HfH affiliate worked with us along with Edwin and Laingu and the children and adults whose houses we were building worked with us too. We finished about 1pm for lunch after which we cleaned up and attended a welcome party held in the local community centre. At the top of the hall was a table with biscuits and fizzy drinks, the President of the local affiliate presided over the afternoon. The main theme being dance – there is no language barrier with dance so we all joined in. The children danced and we were given a wonderful colourful welcome. After the party we were home for dinner. Our meals consisted of lots of vegetable and rice and usually some meat pork, lamb meat balls, zebu (like beef), fish and beautiful pineapple and sometimes papaya for pudding and bananas (not altogether!)

For breakfast we would have doughnuts made with rice or wheat flour and tea or coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Before or after dinner we would have a meeting to reflect on the days events, how we felt we were getting on, if we had any worries or anything we wished to discuss. We had a reading and prayer.

Each day we were on site about 8.30 - 9am and worked through to lunch time and then until about 5.30. Every day brought with it a new experience whether it was learning a new skill on the building or just a hug from one of the little children, the delight in their eyes and the squeeze of your heart as they smiled and sang the nursery rhyme that we taught them to sing while taking a break from the dust and heat of the building.
One morning there was a great smell of fresh coffee and being a little nosey we investigated where it was coming from, one lady and her young daughter were grinding fresh coffee beans in the little garden beside their front door. She very kindly offered to make coffee for us – oh goodness, it was beautiful and not sweetened with sugar which is very common. We were greeted by this generosity time after time – these people have so little yet gave so much.
Back at work I had my knuckles wrapped as I was not laying the bricks quite straight enough so I was put back to mixing mortar or ferrying bricks!! I did improve you will be glad to hear and was allowed back to laying bricks.

Eleanor, my sister, and I went for a walk on the way home from the site and met Laya, this young girl who had worked with us on site for a little while and had then disappeared, however on this day she brought us to visit her family, we might never have gone down this little lane but for her. It was heart rendering the sight before us, pigs, ducks and chicks, cats, etc., and people appearing from everywhere, from the tiny mud and brick houses with shaky half missing wooden stairs to the upper level mud and dirt everywhere. We came to Laya’s home. In the little yard at the bottom of the stairs the family sat – granny, mummy and many children all as happy and chatty as could be.

We had to go upstairs, it was scary as neither Eleanor or I are particularly light weight, one by one, and very slowly, we followed Laya and her little brother up the stairs – rungs missing and only one side of the stairs attached to anything. The room was in darkness, a table and 2 chairs and cardboard on the dusty floor, bed clothes lay in one corner. Laya’s mother greeted us from the inner room and as she spoke no English or French Laya translated for all of us, she asked if we might come back another day as today she had nothing to give us – no coffee but she would get some for us tomorrow – another example of the generous nature of these people. We chatted & learnt a little about the rest of the family and then it was time to go. We left with heavy hearts.

How lucky we were, we were going back to base for dinner – of potatoes, noodles, vegetables, meat and pineapple.

In the evening we either wrote our diaries, went for a little walk or one or two occasions we were able to visit the local coffee bar/café. We sampled the local beer – Three Horse Beer. One was enough for most of us, the brave had a second one, and actually it was a good beer. Some played cards and chatted with our new friends that were looking after us in the house. Some of us just wanted to sleep.

Back on site, the lady of the smaller site had cooked a root called Cassava which was a cross between a very dry sticky parsnip & a potato. This was cooked with lots of sugar and was very sweet, a little went a long way, here again the people gave and did not ask for anything in return – sure we were there helping to build a small decent house with them but they had so little and gave so much.

As part of our trip we were encouraged to stay with a local family for a few nights, this was a wonderful experience and a very special one. We were to stay with Jean Marc, Lala and their family of four children, ranging in age from ten down to two. We brought our sleeping bags and torches with us and little gifts for the family. Their home was one of the houses in the HFH complex. A neat little house with a hall way and a room on either side of it, one being the kitchen and dining area and the other the bedroom. Eleanor and I slept behind the table in the hallway between the window and the hall door. A curtain was drawn across. We sat around the table when we arrived and as we had no Malagasy and only school French, the family spoke very little English and no French either so what is the best thing to do but sing songs and this they did beautifully, a family of singers beautiful harmony. Jean Marc played the guitar. Prayers were said after supper of hot chocolate and biscuits.

The house was about 20-30 minutes walk from the village and from work, in the morning Lala was up so early – peeling potatoes, cooking rice, making batter for banana fritters – what a feast – we were stuffed and had to tell Lala not to do anything like that again – we would eat what they normally eat. Next morning we had a dish of what was for all the world like a runny sweet rice pudding with different things in it and tea. It was very filling and tasty.

Everything was going along well on both building sites, the scaffolding left a lot to be desired at times but all was well. Everyone watched out for each other. The walls were creeping up and the apertures for the windows and door were in situ and we worked around these, the stone masons did all the corners and we worked away with plum lines and trowels and buckets and bricks, lots of mortar made from the dug out foundations. It was a good feeling to see the houses coming together.

We were allowed visit the hospital in the village, it is according to travel books – a first class hospital and should any problems occur while in the area we would be well looked after. In the first ward, which was a male ward and there were two patients in bed – both from the prison (in prison for stealing cattle) and both very ill with stomach ulcers caused, we were told, by eating too much cassava (which creates a lot of acid in one’s tummy) they were lying on bare mattresses – you had to bring in your own bed linen and supply your own food and we think we are neglected by the HSE. I could not go back into the ward it saddened me so much and a lump still comes into my throat when I think about it and it’s a memory that will not leave me. No dignity, no food and no covers but they did have a bed to lie on. The delivery suite was stark, a trolley bed, buckets and a scales and pictures of white babies on the wall.

As a group we donated to the hospital, giving the funds to the doctor in charge, she assured us the money would be spent well, maybe on food for the six patients in the hospital. One lady was in the ward, she had covers on the bed and her husband was by her side. There was a new theatre built recently but was not open as there was no funds to man it. All in all it was yet another experience, an eye opener.

On Saturday evening, one family were having their little boy circumcised. It is a big occasion for the family and the time of the circumcision is determined by the moon. This one was to take place at 3am, until then there was music and dance. The doctor came and preformed the operation, the little boy was held by a member of family and then the grandfather ate the foreskin, this is to keep the connections between the generations.

On Sunday we went to an evangelical church service. We may not have understood all of it but it was enjoyable and moving, the singing was wonderful. Taking place at the end of the service was an auction of goods and produce, those that could not contribute financially would bring goods to be sold. There were all sorts to be auctioned – a gander, sugar cane, cake, eggs and potatoes, we had great fun bidding for goods for our families. 800.00 Ariary was raised for the church and the families benefited too and we had fun.

Do you think it would work in Ireland!!!!

In the afternoon we went to a river side with the local community who were looking after us and played games or just chatted in the sun and had a little picnic of fruit and juice and biscuits. The buses were jammed but we sang along the way.

Monday morning we were allowed to go to visit the local market to buy some goods for our families if we wished and we had gathered some monies to buy items to give to the families that would be moving into the houses – basins and pots and pans, etc. El & I bought a goose for our family along with blankets, etc., and such fun we had getting it to our house, we put him in the back garden tethered to a tree until we could carry him up to our family later on. We called him Gilbert.

All the families were delighted with their gifts, all the items given to us by friends at home we divided up and gave to the families too. Lots went to the school and some kept for the children at the orphanage – we had so much – you were all so very generous as always.

The delight and appreciation in the family’s eyes and the little children shrieking with delight will remain with me for ever. Jean Marc, Lala and the children cried and cried as did El and I, we all sang songs and hymns to Jean Marc playing the guitar. El & I sang a childhood hymn – Jesus loves me this I know, well!! If Jean Marc didn’t get up and go to the bedroom and bring in the hymn book and there it was in Malagasy – so Candu (the eldest girl) tried to teach us the words in Malagasy – now I’m afraid we let you down badly because our pronunciation was not good and she got quite cross with us woops but we did laugh about it later saying we would not like to have her teach us in school and that she understood and explained to her mum and dad and they laughed at us. There was and still is a huge bond between us, it is hard to explain but God was working with us. Two different cultures no language between us but hymns of praise and I thank God for being able to share this experience. It is very special.

Our final day approached all too quickly, we had done as much as time allowed on the building, both houses up to roof level one with a gable end.

We had a farewell party in the community centre, much the same as our welcome party but so emotional, we were saying goodbye to our new friends and it was very difficult. We were all presented with a piece of cotton, on it was embroidered our names and a map of Madagascar. We danced and sang, laughed and cried. Many photographs were taken.

Both the Madagascar and Irish flags were flown on the house as the dedication was taking place. We were all dressed in our best and the ribbon was cut by the President of the affiliate. We each received a little piece of ribbon as a memento. All the team signed two bibles and presented these to the families together with the gifts for the homes.

Next morning we had packed ready to depart from Ankazobe and visit Akany Avoko the orphanage but before we left the host families came down to say goodbye and it was a very tearful moment, more photos were taken and we were very sad to leave our new friends.

NOT ONLY DID WE BUILD HOUSES BUT WE BUILT RELATIONSHIPS ALSO.

We visited the orphanage again and from here we went to Andasibe – a national Park for two nights R & R, we had some guided walks to see the infamous lemur in their own habitat. The plant life was amazing.

Next step was Tana again for one night before setting off for home. We had a meeting in the Habitat office and discussed various aspects of our experience.

Before we left Ireland I had been in touch with an MU worker in Tana and we were privileged to have Jocelyn and Elizabeth join us for dinner. It was special for me to share our thoughts and to hear about their work on the ground and once again we built on our relationship. We are still in touch by e-mail.

This is a flavour of some of the experiences I had on my trip to Madagascar with Habitat for Humanity. If you would like to see some photos I will gladly let you have a disc or my albums.
The people I met and the family we stayed with are very close to my heart, only last week did I receive a letter and a photo of Jean Marc, Lala and the children. Tomo one of the team was out for a visit last February and laingu one of our hosts is here in Ireland on holiday – so relationships have been forged and most of the team would like to go back again. The experience was indeed a life changing one in many ways and a very emotional one.

High points: many

Low points: few

Would I do it again: yes, again & again

Rector Writes | Readings & Services | From the Registers | Organisation Reports | Announcements | Other News

Parishes of Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla
Parish Office
Main Street
Castleknock
Dublin 15
Tel: 01-820 0040
Fax: 01-820 0040
E-mail: castleknock@dublin.anglican.org