Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Discipleship Program, Ramnagar, Hyderabad

St. Francis of Assisi, Hyderabad July 24-26

L-R: Fr. Tony, Fr. Arun, Fr. Varghese, Fr. Sleeva, me, and Rajeshri

God had been letting us know in several different ways that the mission to Hyderabad would be extremely successful, and going by the number of people who registered for the post-session School of Discipleship — a phenomenal 120! — it surely was. The church was packed to capacity on all three days and included six Franciscan priests, among the nicest I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. They included resident priests Fr. Sleeva, Fr. Varghese, Fr. Tony and Fr. Arun, whose love, warmth and hospitality touched my heart to the core. Theirs was true Christian witness and I could only pray that more priests and lay leaders had hearts like theirs. I had a translator for the program, an anointed lady named Rajeshri who matched me in word and action, much like my translators in Africa.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

New Community Begins in Borivili, Bombay

HSI's newest community commenced today in John Bosco Church, Borivili with over 40 people in attendance. The community has the blessings of the Church authorities in the Archdiocese of Mumbai, who will be closely monitoring the community to see the fruit it bears. Having witnessed the enormous success of the first community in Dubai and successive communities in other parts of the world, I have little doubt that this will be everything we expect it to be — and more!