Newsletter December 2005

Welcome

Once again the sun is shining down on a hot and sticky shanty town on the outskirts of Guayaquil, Ecuador where I am working on the Missions. And it is from here that I send my Christmas and New Year greetings to you all – supporters of this missionary work. I have been amazed over the past year and a half how people are involved in and excited about the work that is going on here. And, since I know that many in Scotland simply cannot take up missionary work, I am glad to take up the work for you and be your man on the Missions. This “Poverty with Dignity” Newsletter will bring you up-to date with all that it going on here
and will also show people how to get more involved in the work. I recently came across a greetings card, which had the line ‘although we are far apart, you are never far from my heart’. These are the thoughts I have when I think of all the efforts you are making on my behalf and on behalf of the people here. From personal donations to large scale efforts like the Coffee Mornings or the Seamill Hydro Ceilidh in November, they all show your willingness to share what you have with the poor and needy. This is a great inspiration to me to get out and about and see where the needs are and to share your gifts with the people in Nueva Prosperina.

In this Newsletter:

The Building and The Chapel House

At the end of May I moved out of the Chapel House in Canal Ocho where I had been staying with my good friend, Fr. Tom Oates and into my flat within my own Parish of the Most Precious Blood of Christ, Nueva Prosperina. The last time I wrote to you the hillside had been transformed with three retention walls and work had already begun on the Chapel House. Living only two blocks away from the hillside meant that I could visit the work every day and, indeed, any time I was passing. The workers, who mainly come from the mountainous region of Ibarra to the north of Ecuador, are extremely hard working; they work every day except for a half-day on a Sunday. This has meant that wherever they are working, progress is rapid and, if I was away for a couple of days, then I would notice a
big change on my return. When I came back from Scotland only the inside walls of the Chapel House were up but slowly and surely the roof was assembled on site, then put on, the brick work was completed, an outhouse was added to the original plans before the inside work of tiling and painting could be completed. Apart from the fact that I wanted into the house myself, the work had to be hurried along a bit since I knew that three priests of the Diocese of Galloway were due out in November. So near the end of the work I felt I was actually living on the worksite since I seemed either to be going for bricks or paint or deciding with the architect on the internal layout of the house. In any case, I moved out of the rented flat and into the Chapel House on the 4th November and I was just happy to be there at last. The house has two bedrooms, an office, sitting room and a kitchen as well as an outhouse and a garden to the front where grass has been laid. There is no downside to the house since I am glad to be here in a permanent base within the Parish but, if there was a slight niggle, it is that I am living right beside a bus station where the buses start up their engines from five in the morning – I am sure I shall get used to that!Having a permanent base means that people now know where I live and am hopefully more accessible. I have come to serve the poor people and only last night a family turned up to ask if I would come and pray over their son who had lost his life in a street battle in another part of the city. Being visible and available is part of the ministry of every priest.

Visitors to Nueva Prosperina

Visitors from Scotland, which I and the people here have loved, have punctuated throughout my first year and a half on the Missions. The very first visitors from Scotland were my good friends Andy Hand and Donald McKay who arrived in February and, as well as visiting the various parts of the Parish and city they also helped Alipio, an older parishioner to renew his house and, perhaps more importantly, rescued me out of the mud as my truck slid all the way down a hill narrowly avoiding crashing into a neighbour’s house. Next up was Gillian Campbell, a former parishioner from Stevenston and now She was here at the time Pope John Paul II died and, since she is a Spanish teacher, worked several days at the school teaching English. Just before summer I had a flying visit from Johnny Ogilvie, nephew of Fr. Willie McFadden who was on a gap year trip in South America before starting university studies. He was here in the week I moved into the rented flat so he saw it in all its glory. He also got involved in our evangalisation project going round the parish with the loudspeaker and distributing leaflets.

Read the full December 2005 Newsletter here:

A4 Newsletter (December 2005)