WISE MEN FROM THE EAST ARRIVE EARLY - BY CAR

A VISIT FROM MY FRIENDS FROM TOGO IN AFRICA

Part of our (myself and an anonymous friend) "R.J. MISSION PROJECTS" fund is to support international seminarians at Saint Meinrad Seminary. Three of those friends contacted me recently to see if they could come and visit now that the semester has ended. All three are from Benedictine Monasteries in the French speaking nation of Togo - a narrow little country in west Africa (in green on the map below).

Three monks studying at Saint Meinrad from two DIFFERENT Benedictine monasteries in the French speaking country of Togo in Africa. Brother Cajetan on the left and Brother Justin on the right are from the Monastery of the Ascension. http://www.abbayedzogbegan.com/photorama.php?lng=fr Brother David in the middle is from the Monastery of the Incarnation: http://www.agbang.org/welcome.html

BROTHER CAJETAN'S AND BROTHER JUSTIN'S COMMUNITY

BROTHER CAJETAN'S AND BROTHER JUSTIN'S MONASTERY

founded in 1961 from France

BROTHER DAVID'S COMMUNITY 

BROTHER DAVID'S MONASTERY

founded in 1985 from Germany

MONK'S DAY OUT IN LOUISVILLE

Left to Right - Brother Cajetan, Brother Justin and Brother David, all Benedictine monks from Togo studying at Saint Meinrad Seminary, arrived before noon. 

We had a nice lunch at the Red Lobster Restaurant. 

This was Brother Cajetan's (left) and Brother Justin's (right) first trip to a Mall. 

They fit right in to Mall life. You would never know they were monks from the other side of the world. Brother David picked out a UK hat. I reminded him that UK stood for the University of Kentucky, not the United Kingdom!

It's a small world! We ran into this Mall worker (red shirt and big hair) who is from Tunisia in northern Africa (see top of Africa on the map above). 
Since both Tunisia and Togo are French speaking countries, they spoke for a while in French.

Before they headed back to St. Meinrad Archabbey, they wanted a photo in front of my condo complex. I think they had a wonderful day out!  I certainly had a great time showing them around. Monday, they will visit St. Paul Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery in New Jersey, for the holidays. They need to see something besides southern Indiana, as nice as it is, while they are in the United States. They will probably get to see New York and maybe Washington DC. 

No Place Like Home!

DOROTHY WAS RIGHT!


SO WAS PERRY COMO!

There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays
Perry Como
Oh, theres no place like home for the holidays
Cause no matter how far away you roam
When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze
For the holidays, you cant beat home, sweet home
I met a man who lives in Tennessee
He was headin for, Pennsylvania, and some home made pumpkin pie
From Pennsylvania, folks are travelin down to Dixies sunny shore
From Atlantic to Pacific, gee, the traffic is terrific
Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays
Cause no matter how far away you roam
If you want to be happy in a million ways
For the holidays, you cant beat home, sweet home
Take a bus, take a train, go and hop an airplane
Put the wife and kiddies in the family car
For the pleasure that you bring when you make that doorbell ring
No trip could be too far

After all that traveling and speaking this year, I am looking forward to staying at home for a few weeks! 

SOME SPECIAL MOMENTS AT HOME
OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS

Snowy evening at home last winter.

When I am home alone on a snowy winter evening, I am always tempted to turn on the gas (fireplace, that is)!

Why make the bed? I am retired and I am just going to get back into it again this afternoon!

MY HERO

I used to watch him all the time on TV. I never identified with Tonto. He was way too dependent!

This is where I cook my healthy meals!

Dinner is ready, Ronald! 

A very underused dining room. 

Library and Memorabilia Museum

I finally turned this junk room into a guest room. Now I need some guests. 

With a setting like this, why, oh why, did I give up cigars? 

December in the Missions Daily Diary - DAY NINE

DAY NINE - Tuesday, December 15, 2015

BEYOND EXHAUSTED

After getting up at 4:30 am in Barbados, I arrived back in Miami this morning right before noon on American Airlines. Getting through the Miami Airport is getting through a series of mazes and long lines. I don't know how people with children do it and I certainly don't know how old people and people coming in from other countries do it - dragging luggage, more security checks, passport and immigration stations and signs pointing left and right!

When you get off the plane, you are directed to a machine where you stick your passport for scanning. The machine asks a lot of questions about where you've been and what you have on you. Then it takes your picture and prints out an ugly copy of your tired frowning face with other pertinent information. Then you go down a series of hallways, tunnels and steps to wait for your luggage to come down the belt before taking that ugly photo of yourself and dragging your luggage to "the immigration man." 

After waiting for about thirty minutes, my luggage finally came down the shoot. (You always think it got lost.) I grabbed it and headed to the immigration check point which appeared to have a short line, but all of a sudden a bossy looking woman shouted "CLOSED," pulled the barrier across our path and angrily directed us to a long line at the other end of the hall. That line suddenly got longer and longer behind us. 
Just when I was about third to reach the end of the line, the officer at the booth grabbed the woman in front of me, pulled her and her luggage out of the line and took her into a room to be searched! I don't know if she was carrying "drugs" or what, but it scared me. It was like that TV show about drug smuggling in foreign countries and being arrested in their airports! 
After that check-point, you re-check your luggage to your final destination - in my case, Louisville. I was glad to get rid of it again!

Even though going through customs took time, there was still a long seven hour layover. 



Because of that, like last time, I rented a Miami Airport Hotel Day Room within the terminal itself. For @$90 you can use a day room from about 9:00 am to 6:00 pm to take a nap, bring up some food,  take a shower, use your computer, read or just chill in privacy. It's better than seven hours sitting in a plastic chair in a crowd of people or walking till you drop.
When times come to board the plane, I will just go downstairs, go through screening again and go to the gate to board the American Airlines plane for Louisville and be home by 11:00 pm. 

It was a long hard trip, the last of the FIFTEEN exhausting speaking trips in FOUR countries that I agreed to do this year, so I will be glad to have a few weeks off to rest at home till it all starts up again. Click the MY TRAVEL SCHEDULE bar at the top of the blog. It's already filling up and there are more to be scheduled. 


WELCOME TO "RETIREMENT?" 

December in the Missions Daily Diary - DAY EIGHT

DAY EIGHT - Monday, December 14, 2015

HOMEWARD BOUND

Fergal and Martin dropped me off at the airport at 7:30 am this morning. They will also be traveling next week back to visit their families in Ireland for Christmas and return in January. 

The airport is named after this distinguished man with the impressive name:

HONORABLE EBENEEZER THEODORE JOSHUA

He was the First Chief Minister of St. Vincent & The Grenadines.

I arrived on my LIAT AIRLINES FLIGHT back in Barbados to spend the day and night in the Diocese of Bridgetown on Monday before catching the 8:00 am American Airlines flight to Miami on Tuesday morning.


WHILE BACK IN BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS

MEET 
ARTHUR TOUSSAINT
Installed as Acolyte by Bishop Gordon
on 
November 22, 2015
Arthur assists Father Paul in leading prayer services at the dock for the Coast Guard and Army. He is a Sacristan at St. Patrick Cathedral (Bishop Gordon's other Cathedral - the one in the Diocese of Bridgetown). He has always been single and always involved in the Church.
He is originally from Granada. 

There is some construction going on behind the Cathedral of St. Patrick. I believe it is rectory space for the pastor, associate pastor, visiting priests and seminarians. There seems to be more resources in the Diocese of Bridgetown (Barbados) than in the Diocese of Kingstown (SVG) where I have been volunteering. 


DINNER WITH THE SEMINARIANS

I took Seminarians, Carl Philadelphia (on the right) and Omar Valmond (on the left),  out for dinner to celebrate the end of the trip.  They chose Mama Mia's Italian restaurant. Wonderful guys!

December in the Missions Daily Diary - DAY SEVEN

Sunday, December 13, 2015

A GREAT DAY INDEED!
FIRST DREAM FULFILLED!
THANKS BE TO GOD AND HIS GENEROUS PEOPLE!

After a lot of hard work, prayers and much generosity, the first van has arrived. It is fully paid for (taxes, insurance and all) and has been blessed by the bishop.  

Father Andrew Roache (Pastor), Bishop Jason Gordon and Msgr. Michael Stewart (Vicar General of the Diocese and Pastor of the Cathedral of the Assumption).

St. Benedict Parish will operate this first van. Saint Benedict's is one of the most outlying parishes so the need for transportation is obvious.

Bishop Jason Gordon blessed the van with Holy Water.

I am the "R" in the "R. J. Mission Projects."

My anonymous friend is the "J."

"Adveniat" is a German Charity who made a sizable donation toward this first van. 

I handed off the keys to Father Andrew Roache, Pastor of St. Benedict, and to some of his younger parishioners. 

ON DOWN AND ONE TO GO!

My dream is to have the second van secured by the middle of February when my third trip is possible. The second van will go to Corpus Christi Parish (see below) Want to help? I would love to hear from you.

jrknott@bellsouth.net

Make Checks Out To:

St. Bartholomew Church

And Send To Me:

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

#106

Louisville, KY 40217

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Today, I returned to the Parish of St. John the Evangelist in Mesopotamia to preside at the Sunday Eucharist and preach. I celebrated this past Holy Week Services there on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

I was picked up at the Pastoral Center by Jamal Andrews, a good church worker, and taken to St. John's Church for Mass.

It was good to see some old friends again, especially the pastor Father Richard Paynter.

The alter boys and girl were well prepared. 

The right side of the church included the choir on the right. Great music and the people sang with spirit.

The left side of the church with some of its senior members in the front pews. 

Some of the cutest kids in the whole world!

Donette Dowers, far left, and her girls from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Home for Girls. I met them last Easter.

Myself and the two volunteers from Ireland, Fergal and Martin, joined Father Paynter (former Anglican priest) and his wife Daphne (the bishop's secretary) at their house for lunch.

After the lunch, we stopped by the Corpus Christi Parish Harvest, an event very similar to our parish picnics - booths, food and entertainment - to raise money for the parish. 

Some of the youth performed a dance number for the crowd. 

Father Boniface, a priest from Nigeria, is the pastor of Corpus Christi Parish. He is very excited about the possibility of his parish having a van. I met him last Holy Week as well. 

We ended the day by having a drink with Sister Clare (a Sister of St. Joseph of Cluny) who was born in Trinidad. Her brother is the Archbishop of Port of Spain. She has ministered in Ireland, Sierra Leone (Africa), Rome, Dominica and St. Vincent. We went to the Blue Lagoon on the bay where lots of very large yachts are parked. Lovely woman!



WHAT A DAY!


Tomorrow morning, Monday, I will fly off of St. Vincent back to Barbados to stay at the bishop's house again to catch the Tuesday morning American Airlines plane to Miami and the plane from Miami to Louisville.