The Kenyan Orthodox Orphanage – We Need Your Help, Support & Prayers
Anastasia – 25/12/15 – Saint Philothea Project
Lear more about the Kenyan Orthodox Mission Here:
Kindly visit the below to make your valuable donations!!!
https://fundrazr.com/
Seasons Greetings Dear Friends!
As we await the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, let us rejoice in all the miracles he has bestowed upon us. We have witnessed several goals being achieved through this mission.
The first goal being, as we have mentioned, that we are able to place all 28 orphans who passed their qualification exams into elementary school. We are able to afford, not only one uniform, but TWO uniforms per child. School uniforms are mandatory to attend. For an underprivileged orphan, that is a road block to education. Having two will make it easier, being able to wash one, while wearing the other. Children often wear their uniforms through school and all day at home as they work & play. Two will ensure that they are able to get through the entire school year. We have placed our deposit on the uniforms & will be finalizing our purchase when we arrive in January, at which time we will distribute. We are looking forward to sharing their smiles with you as they get ready to attend school mid January.
We are waiting to hear back from Father Mark Mwangi to see how many of the high school children passed their qualification exams. Results of the exam will be released from the school early January. Our desire is to help them too.
During our mission, we will look to gift school packets to help get their school year started. We also plan to feed the children & distribute food packages to each child. We are looking to bank food items, so the children will have food to eat even after we are gone.
Having raised enough money to achieve our first goal, we then continued to raise money to fulfill the goal of providing Father Mark Mwangi and Presbytera with a second hand vehicle, to enable them to continue their spiritual good works for the orphans through their ministry. We are so delighted to announce that a single anonymous donor has generously stepped forward & donated this instrumental tool to Father Mark Mwangi’s Orphanage! What joy! What a Christmas MIRACLE!
I have a few words from Father Mark to share with ALL our supporters!
From Father Mark Mwangi:
Dear Madam Anastasia,
Peace be with you. Amen. Please allow me to send my heartfelt thanks to you, Mr Timothy and to the donor who donated money for me to buy a car. I don’t think I have the proper words to express my thanks to you and him. It was beyond my imagination. IT IS A MIRACLE FROM GOD, that a person who doesn’t know me contributed a car WHICH I HAVE LONGED FOR, for 25 YEARS of my priesthood!!! This car will help me alot to carry on my Sacramental services to our local community and even go further with Evangelism in the future. This car will help me REACH ALL ORPHANS IN TIME, carrying food to them and taking the sick to the hospital, which is very far. I have decided the best vehicle to fulfill these needs, is a Toyota Probox car. This type of vehicle is strong and spare parts are not expensive. It’s fuel consumption is low. I have found a good car in one of the firms in our city. My prayers is that God bless Saint Philothea Project, it’s leaders and ALL those who have donated to us.
Your donations will save orphans lives. You have given them hope. By paying for their education, you’ve made them feel that even though they don’t have parents, they have friends who care.
Please remember, that God will not ask us how many services we have attended or how much wealth we saved. God wants to know how many people we gave food, water, and clothes to. God will remember those people you comforted when they were in need. You are wonderful friends. Your support will help us alot.
God bless you all.
Father Mark Mwangi welcomes you to Kenya.
Thankyou.
Sincerely, Father Mark.
So my dear supporters & friends of Saint Philothea Project! Together, we have made a HUGE difference in the lives of Father Mark & his orphans. We look forward to JANUARY 13th, when Timothy Farrell, President of Saint Philothea Project leaves for Kenya! Our philosophy is to personally deliver goods with our own hands, so that way we remain a symbol of hope to those we serve.
We are also quite proud of the team we put together to help promote & organize this fundraiser. We have added several key members to our team! We look forward to collaborating together on future missions, sponsored by Saint Philothea Project.
I want to personally thank George Alexander (Secretary of Orthodoxy Cognate PAGE – Pan-Orthodox Christian Society-NGO Movement ) for helping us promote our fundraiser on OCPMedia Network- the world’s largest Pan-Orthodox Christian News Portal.
I also want to thank Dionysia Petrakis who is helping us develope digital letterhead & helping us promote & advertise our fundraiser. We look forward to working more closely with “Nysia” on our next project & possibly making her a permanent part of the Saint Philothea Project team!
I also want to thank Elenie Grasos for coordinating another division of our Kenyan mission project, SEW FOR AFRICA! Elenie coordinated with the ladies & nuns from her home church & monastery to help sew 68 reusable feminine hygiene pads, desperately needed by the woman/girls in Kenya. A woman’s menstrual cycle can cause her to fall behind in school, eventually failing a grade. We look forward to continuing & growing our SEW FOR AFRICA project! We are also looking for more volunteers! Please contact us if you are interested!
I also want to thank our president, Timothy Farrell for his spiritual inspiration, his past experience with mission projects & his willingness to be the FACE of Saint Philothea Project. Timothy gifts his time of travel & pays all his own expenses to complete our mission. This includes airfare, accommodations, car rental & all other incurred travel expenses.
We look forward to future group missions to Kenya with hopes to grow our charity through various other projects, both spiritual & medical. All those involved in Saint Philothea Project put in their own free time, skills & money. We do this servitude for the love of Christ & love & compassion of our fellow orphans & widows. We focus on our Orthodox children to grow God’s church. In doing so, we are doing what our Lord has asked of us.
I personally am doing this, because if Father Mark Mwangi and Presbytera Alice Mwangi can labor this hard to achieve all that they have, with minimal resources, then it is only fitting that I do something to give them the support they deserve. I can honestly say, that the BEST Christmas gift this year was the JOY I RECEIVED IN GIVING my attention to this project. I witnessed little miracles along the way. I’ve witnessed that God answers prayers. I’ve seen amazing successes come into being through prayer, hard work & dedication. My future dream is to attend in person the next mission trip to Kenya, where I can see the fruits of my labors with my own eyes. I want to see the joyous smiles of these children that I love & to embrace them with my arms. God willing, I will! As we continue to grow our relations with the people of Kenya, this dream will become possible.
I leave you with some more joyous news of our success, through the words of Bishop Neophitos David, Kongai.
Anastasia, by God’s grace I was elevated by the Holy Synod from Auxiliary Bishop to a Diocesan Bishop, meaning that I will be fully responsible and authoritatively free to discharge my pastoral duties directly from the throne of the Patriarch of Alexandria. I am welcoming Saint Philothea Project to my Diocese so that we can bring our minds and hearts together to help the needy and evangelize together through this expression of love to others in need. As soon as I am settled I will inform you because I am going to begin from nothing. This is a new Diocese which has never existed before, so there is no office, no residence, no nothing! But the faithful are there & the church is alive… with God all things are possible!
What joyous news! Another miracle in itself! Saint Philothea Project has worked hard to gain recognition through the head of the Orthodox Church in Kenya. We seek to bridge the gap between the Kenyan, African Church & the (Greek) Orthodox Church of America. We look forward to Bishop Neophitos visit to Texas in March 2016 & seek to use it as an opportunity to open the lines of communication between the two parts via the OCMC. We hope we can gain the support of our American Orthodox Churches to grow future missions for our African counterparts in Kenya, through the help of Saint Philothea Project. A big dream, but one that has begun with this critical step.
On this mission, Saint Philothea Project will be welcomed into Kenya through the Orthodox Church of Kenya! We look forward to this joint collaboration, as it will allow us to grow our future missions.
Timothy Farrell arrives in Kenya Jan 14th. He will begin our mission with an over night stay at the seminary. We have lots of work ahead as we prepare & seek to fulfill all the goals we set & the promises we made to our supporters. We look forward to posting an update following our mission trip & sharing lots of photos of our journey.
None of this could have been made possible without the generosity, love & support of our donors. You too, are a critical part of our team. Some gave a little, some gave alot, but you all gave what you could! It is BECAUSE you gave that ALL of this is possible. Please remember, that what you gave together, was HOPE, DREAMS, LOVE & so much more.
Father Mark Mwangi, Presbytera, the orphans & we at Saint Philothea Project THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.
Finally & foremost, we THANK God, for giving us the greatest gift of all, his only begotten son, the babe in the manger, Jesus Christ! Dear Lord, we thank you for making miracles come true every day. We thank you for your guidance & for bringing us together to do good works. Merry Christmas!
Source:
OCP News Service
