by Tim Frazer    

One resident of Concord struggles almost single-handedly to alleviate poverty in Africa.   

Father Robert Tumwekwase was ordained as a Catholic priest after growing up in perhaps the most poverty-stricken area of Uganda. The people of Buchundura, in Kabale province of southwest Uganda, barely survive on subsistence agriculture, but suffer epidemics of malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, typhoid, and other illnesses.   Health care is almost nonexistent, and rampant malnutrition results from crop failures and the loss of arable farmland.

After seminary, Father Robert became concerned with the plight of local children. His own brother died, leaving five orphaned children whom Father Robert adopted himself.  But the plight of children in even worse circumstances caught his attention.

Education seems the only hope for the children to break the cycle of worsening poverty, but for many reasons, most children are unable to attend the four area primary schools.   At the time he was sent to the USA, Father Robert identified some 200 children who could not afford the approximate $30 (per term) needed for uniforms,underclothes, exercise books, pens, and soap for washing and laundry. Also prohibitive was a $5.90 fee required for the school development fund. Besides these costs, poor health kept many kids out of school.

Father Robert began to look for ways to raise money to enable these children to attend elementary school, and still more for the time when the young people needed post-secondary education. By 2007, he had enabled eight young people to complete elementary school and to enter secondary school or college. But Father Robert's ecclesiastical order sent him the the United States. and he landed in Warner, New Hampshire, that year to serve as chaplain to the College of St. Mary Magdalen.

Despite the meager stipends allowed to priests in his order, Fr Robert has continued to find ways to keep a handful of Buchundura children healthy and in school, with several more entering secondary school and college.   He has managed to keep the assistance coming to children back home, and he travels to Uganda to monitor their progress.  

Another job change has brought Fr Robert to Concord, where is is now teaching at Bishop Brady High School.   He has not had the time to learn the American practice of fundraising, but somehow he has been able to keep hope alive for children back in Buchundura.

Casper Kranenburg, Senior Warden                     

Jan Greer-Carney, Junior Warden                                       

                                                                      by Steve Blackmer     

As I prepared this summer to take on the role of minister to middle and high school youth at St. Paul's, I read several books about youth ministry. A phrase from one in particular* really caught my attention: work with kids to become "God-bearers" who are a part of Jesus' "love-crazed plan to save the world." Now that is something I can be passionate about!

Sometimes I am torn between feeling the world is so messed up that there isn't any hope for it (or for us), and feeling the world is so incredibly beautiful that...that it's the most beautiful thing in the world. The answer, of course, is that is both messed up and beautiful at the same time. Which is exactly why we have Jesus and his love-crazed plan.

My intention with both CnC (Confirm not Conform) and SPY (St. Paul's Youth) is to open their eyes to their opportunity to be "God-bearers" who help bring love and healing to a hurting world. There really is no other way. So as the year goes on, we will do this by:

• Knowing God and God's love through praying together - in silence, with words, outdoors, through music, and in action;
• Learning to be a love-filled and action-oriented community, supporting and encouraging each other and bringing our passion and love to others; and
• Contributing to the needs of our church, community, and the world by loving and serving our neighbors and the Earth.

If I am able to do only one thing with the kids, it will be to share my own passion, love, and joy with them. If I am able to do a second thing with them, it will be to help them learn about their own gifts, passions, and path to God and life. If I am able to do a third thing with them, it will be to create a loving community and teach them about the ways of the church.

Together, we will spend time talking, thinking, praying, asking questions, wondering about life, the world, and God. Are they open to that? Are they able to be patient enough for that? Is this possible in our consumer and technology-obsessed world? I hope so - with God's help and the support of this wonderful congregation. Because the world is in desperate need of God-bearers who are committed to Jesus love-crazed plan to save this beautiful, messed up world.

                                          by Patrick Greene    

I have always been bothered by the idea that simply by believing that Jesus died on the cross for us, we'd be saved. The idea that Jesus' death allowed our souls to go to heaven never sat well with me. Because of such doubts, I wondered if I could honestly consider myself a Christian. And then, while I was driving, the thought occurred to me, as they often do when I am alone in my car: Jesus never told his disciples they needed to believe this, that, and the other thing about his life. He asked them to believe in his words, and follow his example.

In Matthew 22:34 Jesus said "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The first is simple enough, but what does the second mean? It means to love those around you as though they were yourself; in other words, love them, because they are people, just like you. This means being actively and constantly aware that those around us are people with the same full complexity of thought and emotion that we each possess. "Put yourself in others' shoes", because we can only comprehend each other by using ourselves, and this human condition which we all share. This deeper awareness of others transcends the self-awareness that so commonly defines humanity.

Then, in John 13:34, just before the last supper, Jesus says to his disciples, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. . ." Jesus had taught them how to live by his words and his example. He had loved them for their humanity, and forgiven them for their humanity. He had washed them, and cared for them, including Judas, who was to betray him (again, forgiving his humanity). He was telling them to follow his example, to make the world a better place, and to do so peacefully, by nurturing the goodness in people, and when persecuted and faced with death, to forgive.

But still, why was Jesus' death our salvation? I do not believe God sent Jesus just to be sacrificed; I believe that God was sending a message and he knew that we'd kill the messenger. It is not the fact that Jesus died, it is HOW he died. He did not flee or resist his fate. Most importantly, his last words were "forgive them, for they know not what they do." I do not believe that he meant they were unaware that he was their savior. He meant they did not really comprehend that he was human, and therefore could not truly know what they were allowing to happen.
           

The message God intended to send through Jesus has been heard, and has changed the world. Before Christ, there was no such thing as a peaceful protest, to my knowledge. People did not fight the evils in the world by simply getting up and walking, and showing the world, once again, the futility of violence. This is seen throughout the world, inspired in its origin by the way Jesus showed us to live our lives, right to the moment of his death. He saved us all by allowing us to know what it is to be close to God, and thus allow us to accept the infinite love of God.

© St. Paul's Church, 2012. Next Newsletter: November 1; deadline for submissions: October 29.  Please do not reprint text or graphics without permission.