Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia

Another week in Eastern Europe, with four countries that were once a part of the Soviet Union.  I'm traveling this week so I could use help identifying prayer requests for these countries.  I know one thing I will pray for is the continued work of missionaries in these formerly Communist lands.  My parents have good friends who emigrated to the US from the Ukraine, and they used to travel back with suitcases filled with Bibles.  The WCC site is right that there is certainly a long tradition of Christianity in these countries, but the effect of official atheism is still profound.

Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary

Still in Eastern Europe for a few more weeks.  Hungary is mostly Catholic, and Romania is mostly Orthodox, and Bulgaria, I don't know.

Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia

This is a hodgepodge of former Yugoslavia, and there's a lot of variation.  Slovenia, for instance, has a fairly comparable economy to Western Europe and avoided ethnic cleansing; Bosnia, wasn't so lucky, and Albania has a per capita income that is closer to the Third World than the First.

But if it was hard last week to think of anybody but John Paul II, it's hard this week to think of anyone other than the world's most famous Albanian, Mother Teresa.  As with most of Catholica, I am not nearly well-versed enough in all that she did and all that she means to the church.  I am told that one of the best biographies about her is Kathryn Spink's Mother Teresa.  I am reading Rev. James Martin's My Life with the Saints (which I recommend highly).  Here is an abridged version of his chapter on Mother Teresa, which helped me learn a great deal about her.  

Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia

We seem to be working our way through the Eastern bloc this month.  This week, the two countries that used to make up Czechoslovakia and Poland.  It's hard as someone who really only identifies as an American to fully grasp what it must be like to be from a country like one of these, which for so long was dominated by more powerful nations, whether Soviet or Nazi (or Austro-Hungary or Prussian).  The Czech Republic is considered one of the most secular nations in Europe, while Poland seems to have a pretty sturdy strand of faith.

When I was a kid, it was still considered acceptable to tell Polish jokes.  Of course, at that time and place, we didn't know much about Poland or anyone who was from there (at least, nobody who admitted it after hearing all those corny jokes).  Now, things are a little different.  Pope John Paul II, as the first Polish pope,  whether you're Catholic or not, has reframed what it means to be Polish in far more positive ways.  

This is a small thing, but my church has a Polish mission.  That is, there is a Polish priest and a little church that meets in our buildings comprised of Polish-speakers, and they have mass in their language.  So that's an easy pray-for for me this week.

Three different Baltic countries

OK, a little research on the three countries this week.

Lithuania, it turns out, has a sizable Catholic population, where as Latvia has some Catholics and Estonia only a handful.  But whatever the Christian denomination, all are on the way up after suffering under Soviet rule.

I connect Lithuania with tie-dye; this isn't due to anything more than the fact that Donn Nelson coached their national basketball team and was a big Dead-head.  I know this because Wake Forest had a Lithuanian player from the national team, Darius Songaglia, who is still floating around the NBA.

But I digress.

Here's a much more meaningful story.  Remember that church in Alabama that was struck by a tornado on Palm Sunday, killing 20, including one of the pastor's children?  Well the pastor, her husband, and their two daughters went on to be missionaries in Lithuania.

Here's a profile of some Latvian missionaries on the Eastern European Missionaries Network.

But this is the best story of the bunch, a profile of Sisters of Charity working in Estonia.  It is really worth the read.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

This month we pray for three countries that show me my age.  I remember them not existing - they were part of the Soviet Union.  And yet they aren't new.  I look forward to learning more about them this week.

Chilean miners

Does it feel any different to hear about 33 miners trapped in Chile after praying for that nation a few weeks ago?  I know I am much slower to pass that story by, knowing just the very little bit I learned that week.  Please pray for them, their families, and their country.

Welcome to Oceania!

This week we pray for a whole bunch of places you may not have heard of, all (as best I can tell) located in the region of Oceania, which we used to call South Pacific before the movie:

American Samoa
Cook Islands
Fiji
French Polynesia
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
New Caledonia
Niue
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu

Oh, I'll need some help on these.  The BYU Hawai'i campus runs a Polynesian Cultural Center which highlights some of these island cultures, so my visits there taught me enough to know that Tonga isn't just a descriptor for the French Toast they serve at Disney's Polynesian Resort.  But otherwise, I'm not a big resource.  Here are some possible leads:

The WCC seems to have links for most of these countries' churches here. It's on the right side of the page.

Here's a little story from FIDES about the 170 years of Catholic missions work in some French Polynesian islands.

They got a new bishop in Papua New Guinea this summer.  From Pittsburgh!

And here's a little info from Catholic Relief Services about work they do in the Pacific.  But only a little.

Australia and New Zealand

Hey - I'm away from the computer most of this week but wanted to note that the countries to pray for this week are Australia and New Zealand.  If you know anything about the church in those great countries, post it in the comments.  See you next week!

Home game

This week the WCC is praying for the United States and Canada.  That's us!  (Or, that's us, eh!)

So what are some ministries you're praying for here?

Here are two for me - one by the Diocese here where I live in St. Petersburg, Pinellas Hope.  A great story by a friend, Steve Nohlgren, in the St. Pete Times.

And another, a teaching ministry by a good friend and mentor, Walt Wiley, called Winning with Encouragement.

What about you?

Haiti Overtime

We've moved on, but one last request for Haiti from Beth:

THis is late, but just learned this last night.  Please pray for Notre Dame de 
Lourdes orphanage in Haiti.  The home for 70 girls, ages 3 to 16, was leveled 
during the Earthquake.  Three girls were killed.  The others are living in tents 
on some land that they hope will house a new orphanage.  Friends in Buffalo are 
working on the design and funding of this, so please pray for their efforts 
also.  

Jamaica

If you're like me, you smile when you hear the word "Jamaica."  The bobsled team.  Bob Marley.  One Love.  

You might not know that Jamaica suffers from a high rate of illiteracy, a booming HIV/AIDS crisis, and the ignominy of being the murder capital of the Caribbean.

Catholic Relief Services is trying to help Jamaica by promoting peace, addressing HIV/AIDS, helping with disaster recover from past hurricanes and promoting education.  Here's more on their work.

Some other smaller groups that are active missionaries in Jamaica include:

• Missionaries of the Poor
• Kingdom Builders
• The Passionists
• Jamaica Missions

And many more.

More on Haiti

This came from Catholic News Service: 

HAITI-PATIENCE Jul-29-2010 (660 words) With photos. xxxi

Patience of Haitians six months after earthquake impresses US bishops

A destroyed St. Gerard Church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in early February. (CNS/Bob Roller)

By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With cleanup following the Jan. 12 earthquake moving at a snail's pace and life in makeshift shelters the new normal, Haitians are facing their predicament with a spirit of patience that has impressed two American bishops.

"The people are hopeful," Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview July 28 from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. "There's not a mass depression.

"But at the same time they need some concrete signs of a plan. That's not been developed yet," he said.

Bishop DiMarzio was part of an eight-member delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that arrived in the devastated capital July 25 for a week of meetings with Haitian government officials, Haitian church leaders and Catholic agencies working on migration issues.

Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami described those with whom he spoke after celebrating Mass at one of the hundreds of tent camps that remain in Port-au-Prince as patient, but anxious.

"I asked them how they were doing. They said, 'We're here. We're surviving.' People are certainly anxious in having a sense of where they are going. But they also had a sense of understanding of what could be done under the circumstances," he told CNS between meetings July 28.

Bishop DiMarzio said that based on what he heard during his visit it appears that many people will remain in substandard housing in the camps for at least another six months.

"There's a lot to be done," he said. "We wish it could be done more quickly. I think the weakness of not having a major central government to force things to happen is a problem."

That weakness also has limited progress on recovery and reconstruction efforts. Debris removal is moving at a snail's pace because of a shortage of heavy equipment, the country's poor road system and lack of landfill space to dump material.

Although mountains of debris remain in the earthquake region, Archbishop Wenski said he has found that much of what has been accomplished has gone unnoticed.

"It's certainly a daunting task," he said. "Six months is not a long time in many ways. When you consider ... the amount of debris and rubble here is 10 or 12 times as that generated by the World Trade Center (in 2001). It took several months for that debris to be cleared."

The archbishop also said that cash-for-work programs coordinated by various aid agencies, including Catholic Relief Services, are bolstering the Haitian economy.

The archbishop discussed the recovery process and other needs with Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and Eduardo Marques Almeida, representative of the Inter-American Development Bank in Haiti, July 28. A July 26 meeting with Haitian church officials further clarified priorities for rebuilding local parishes, schools and community centers. The earthquake destroyed 70 parishes.

The delegation also had a humanitarian focus to its mission. Bishop DiMarzio was accompanied by staff members of the U.S. bishops' Migration and Refugee Services in an effort to determine how best to meet the needs of children in the aftermath of the quake. Specifically, the delegation was concerned about children who remain separated from their families or orphaned.

The delegation also gathered information about Haitians seeking to immigrate to the United States to reunite with children or family members sent northward for treatment of serious injuries sustained in the disaster.

MRS staff also planned to visit officials in the Bahamas, one of the stopover points for Haitians trying to make their way to the United States.

Archbishop Wenski planned to visit the Haiti-Dominican Republic border before his return to Miami Aug. 1. The area has long been the source of tension between the two countries as Haitians attempt to flee their economically depressed homeland in search of jobs and better opportunities in the Dominican Republic. The delegation planned to meet with Jesuit Refugee Service representatives to discuss how to ease the tensions and better serve the economic refugees.

Suriname

I grabbed Suriname out of this week's bag o' countries for no good reason - only that I swam in high school against a guy from Suriname who went on to win an Olympic gold medal.  Anthony Nesty, I still thank your coach at Bolles for entering you in the 100 breast, so I could say I beat an Olympic gold medalist.  (Two actually, but who's counting.)

But I digress.

Suriname doesn't get much coverage in the Catholic Church - the last story in FIDES is from the installation of a new bishop by John Paul II - but I did find a couple of family-run missions there.  When you think about it, it's cool to see the Spirit connect people so randomly so that I (and maybe you) end up praying for:

The Shirley family, witnessing to the Aukan people in Suriname

The Rhoads family, in Paramaribo

and

Jared and Wendy (and now Lydia Grace!), witnessing to the Saramaccans.

Cuba?

Maybe it was all the Cold War drama about "Godless Communists," but I'm slow to think of the Catholic Church as active in Cuba.  And yet it is.

Catholic Relief Services has been active there in conjunction with Caritas Cubana since the early 90's.  You can read more about their work here.  And here's a story about a conference for lay Catholics held by the archdiocese of Havana.

Haiti Prayers

Let's face it: there is much to pray for in Haiti.  It's easy to be overwhelmed by the depth, extent and pervasiveness of suffering that has existed there for decades and was magnified exponentially by the earthquake.  I can't cover it all, but I'll try to highlight a couple of things - ministries that people I know are connected to.  I'll also set up a list of Haiti causes on the PATW twitter feed (assuming Twitter's server ever works again).

1) From Beth: Living Hope Ministries in Haiti is a Christian mission organization near Carrefour, Haiti that operates a primary school, trade school, entrepreneurship program and church. Living Hope (LHM) is about 2 miles from the epicenter of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12. God has providentially protected LHM in the midst of the devastation so the mission will have a large role in the coming months in sharing God’s love in word and in action.

2) From Dan: He'll be traveling to Haiti next week (August 6) with the youth group from his church.  As he says: There are 48 of us making this trip to help the healing and rebuilding process that our church is committing to being a part of for as long as it takes.  While we’re there in Port-au-Prince we’ll be doing a VBS with the children, interacting with local teens, painting an orphanage, distributing food to the poor, and doing other outreach and local ministry activities. We’ll even be spending some time praying at the Presidential Palace.  You can follow his trip here.

3) I'll also mention again the ongoing ministry our church has with its sister parish in Haiti, St. Isidore on the island of La Gonave.  Partners with Haiti could always use your prayers for its medical mission trips and for those who come to St. Petersburg from Haiti for medical care.

4) Catholic Relief Services has been a giant among Haitian ministries for a long time.  Here is a recent blog post on their work, here is a summary of their report on Haiti 6 months after the earthquake, and here's a much broader overview of the history of CRS in Haiti.

5) Here, here, and here are three reports from FIDES on the state of Haiti 6 months after the earthquake as well.  Two million people living on the street.

Holy Caribbean!

This week appears to be a "catch-up" week for the World Council of Churches ecumenical prayer cycle we're following.  While the headliner is Haiti, for which there is so much to pray because the needs are so great and the Church is so active, Here's the whole list of countries to pray for this week.  If you know anything (or care to research a little) about missions in any of these countries, e-mail me what you know or find out at prayaroundtheworld@yahoo.com and I'll post it for everyone to see.  So here's the list:

Antigua and Barbuda

Barbados

Cuba

Dominica

Guyana

Haiti

Jamaica

Netherlands Antilles

Puerto Rico

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Suriname

The Bahamas

Trinidad and Tobago

If you want to claim a country as "yours" to research, there are plenty to go around, so just claim it in the comments!  The links on the right side of the page are a place to start.

Guatemala medical mission - Hands of Hope

This is an inspiring story about a family from Pennsylvania that started a mobile medical mission for the rural poor in Guatemala.  Thanks for finding them, Beth!

Hands of Hope

How We Started 
In 1998 our family moved from Pennsylvania to Guatemala. We started the Hands of Hope Ministry Mission(which is Manos de Esperanza, in Spanish) operating a mobile medical clinic to the rural  poor in Guatemala..’ 

In 2000, we built a 2,400 sf medical clinic in the rural village we serve, near Sumpango/Chimaltanango, Guatemala. There are so many needs among the very poor people that many times our clinic is barely large enough to accommodate the crowds of sick people.

We are a Christian, faith-based mission and we rely on donations from others to fund the needs of the clinic. However, we serve everyone equally without regards to their particular religious beliefs or, non-belief.

Hands of Hope is a registered USA 501(c)3  non-profit and all donations in the USA and Canada are tax-deductible.

What We DoOur mission and goal is to serve the very poor rural indigenous people while demonstrating the love of Jesus. Our 2,400 square foot permanent medical clinic is located in the mountains about 45 minutes from the town of Antigua, south of Chimaltenango. The nearest town is Sumpango.

Villages We ServeOur clinic is in the village of San Rafael El Arado, which is the center village of three villages: Santa Marta,  San Rafael and San Jose Yalu which is the village farthermost from the main highway.

Next week: Haiti

Next week is the Caribbean.  Lots of great ministry to pray for.  Here's one, from the Bible Dude.

And here's one from my own parish, an ongoing ministry as part of a parish twinning program:

Guatemala: Are you kidding me?

Searching Catholic Relief Services site, I found this:

Guatemala: Volcano, Storm Force Evacuations

People arrive at a makeshift shelter in Santa Rosa, Guatemala, after they were forced to leave their homes due to the torrential rain dumped by Tropical Storm Agatha. Photo courtesy of CRS partner the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima

Anne Bousquet, CRS country representative for Guatemala, describes the conditions in Guatemala after the eruption of the Pacaya volcano and the torrential rains brought by Tropical Storm Agatha.

It’s been a week since the Pacaya volcano erupted and people are still sweeping the ash from their homes and streets. I mean, the ash, it’s like snow that doesn’t melt. It’s black, black sand. The big issue is roof collapses because when the ash gets wet it gets very heavy. I’m amazed at how much has gotten cleaned up in such a short time. There are teams of public workers dedicated to the effort but you also see average citizens cleaning up their neighborhoods. I really hope it doesn’t blow again.

People evacuate their homes in the village of Aldea in Santa Rosa, Guatemala, after flooding from Tropical Storm Agatha. Photo courtesy of CRS partner the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima

A bad situation was made worse by the arrival of Tropical Storm Agatha, which dumped torrential rainfall throughout Guatemala. All told, 21 of 22 departments have been impacted. So far there are 156 people reported dead and over 140,000 people evacuated. The short-term needs right now are food, water, medicine and temporary shelter. The good thing here is that the majority of evacuees are with family or friends although there are over 88,000 in shelters. But soon people are going to need homes to return to because some of them were mired in mud and floodwaters. Some homes can be repaired quickly but others will take time depending on the amount of damage.

Going home will really help people to return to a certain sense of normalcy that will allow them to begin focusing on getting their kids back in school and earning a living. The floodwaters washed away crops. If they are going to reap any harvest this year they have to get new crops into the ground soon. If they don’t get it in now they are going to lose that essential resource and potential income. So there is that sense of urgency.

We sent two teams of experts to Escuintla today and one team will travel to San Lucas Toliman tomorrow, to assess how we can be of most assistance to our partners and the people affected. San Lucas Toliman was really hit hard by the storm and like Escuintla and many other areas of the country, they have had a couple of deaths. It’s devastating. Some of the worst hit areas are getting attention in the media but some that are still really bad aren’t getting any. We can’t forget that the people who were affected by the volcano continue to need our help, despite the fact that Agatha left so many others temporarily homeless.

Our goal is getting people back into their communities and their regular lives as quickly as possible. Around the volcano a number of schools were partially or totally destroyed by rocks. We are interested in working on needed repairs. We are currently mobilizing food, water, medicine, hygiene kits, cooking kits, temporary shelter supplies for those most in need.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? A volcano AND a tropical storm?