WHILE LOOKING FOR A NEW NORMAL - PART THREE

A TIME TO START AND A TIME TO STOP

 

A Simultaneous Announcement For All My Friends

and

Generous Donors to My Efforts in the Caribbean Missions

BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES 

3:1-3

After six very successful years of working in the Caribbean missions, after doing so much good for so many, it is time to really read the handwriting on the wall. Various circumstances are telling me that it is time to move on to a new ministry, something closer to home. I will let you know what that "something closer to home" means in a few months. 

After twelve trips to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the COVID-19 pandemic caused me to cancel my thirteenth scheduled trip last March. I had hoped that COVID would be a thing of the past by now, when in fact it has gotten worse. Even though the islands were spared for a while, it has now moved very quickly into the islands since the Christmas travel holidays and is now spreading rapidly. What's worse, mutations of the virus are expected there and elsewhere. Travel, the rest of this year into next year, does not look promising. As if all that is not bad enough,  they are having a deadly outbreak of dengue fever (causing more deaths than COVID) and a large shark infestation! On top of that, the volcano in Saint Vincent has been showing activity again and the country still remains on alert. Then there is always the annual hurricane season to come.  You can't make this stuff up! 

My volunteer partner, Fergal Redmond, has been held up in Ireland for over a year because of serious health issues and is still not permitted to travel without a clear date on the horizon when that could change from his doctors. Meanwhile, the COVID pandemic keeps spreading its way through in Ireland as well.  I do hope he will be able to visit me again here in Kentucky someday before we both have to "hang it up" for good. 

On a personal note, I will be turning seventy-seven this April. While I do not have any major health problems at this point, I do have a few issues that I need to keep a watch on that make it wise to be close to good health care which is not available in the islands. These factors were also part of my decision to give up my trips to Canada and across the United States doing priest retreats and convocations as a way to raise funds for the Caribbean missions. I still hope to restart taking real vacations again, once it is safe, but so many long distance work trips for weeks at a time are most probably a thing of the past.   

As much as I hate shutting down the CATHOLIC SECOND WIND GUILD in Saint Vincent in the Grenadines, I leave knowing that my donor partners and I have done much good for many people. Many of our efforts will have lasting value and help them in many ways going forward whether it be in the area of health care, educational support, the renovation of the Pastoral Centre, transportation  or  church renovations and updates. All of us who were involved in this ministry, including those who made volunteer trips, will have lasting memories of the people we have met and tried to help through things like  computer camps, Christmas toys, Easter baskets, school supplies, help with diocesan staff salaries, furniture and furnishings and so many things that we have forgotten already.  I will still be able to make deposits and send on any donations that people are inspired to send to them. A couple of the small "reserved funds" will remain in place until they are gradually dispersed.  

Personally speaking, I am leaving with a heavy heart. I tried my best to give my best. I gave it everything I had. I lived and breathed "Caribbean missions" for the last six years. Even good things do not last forever. In any regard, I want to express my heart-felt gratitude to God for this memorable six-year experience. I will never forget it. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the people Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. I wish them well and I will always pray that God will spare them from danger and continue to to bless them with His care. 

I thank all those who have supported the CATHOLIC SECOND WIND GUILD - SVG CHAPTER over the last six years from the bottom of my heart. I think we can all be proud of what we have accomplished in support of our fellow Catholics in the Caribbean missions.  We have done a good thing and God will remember it. 

Please continue to pray that the people of the Caribbean will be spared diseases like COVID, poverty and natural disasters like volcano eruptions and hurricanes.