BISHOP FILBERT MHASI
Diocese of Tunduru-Masasi in Tanzania, East Africa
Bishop Mhasi would like to thank all the donor-friends of Father Ronald Knott and Father John Judie, who have helped finish his new Cardinal Polycarp Pendo Primary School which had been sitting half-finished for the last few of years. This new Catholic school is scheduled to open this July (pictures of the school opening will follow in an upcoming blog post). The school will open with the first four of six classrooms this July - with the final two classrooms opened next year hopefully. The school now consists of a classroom building, an administration building, a library/kitchen/lunchroom building, new large outhouse toilets, a newly drilled water well, along with some cows to provide milk and meat for the school kids.
I have also gathered, and have ready to send, some desperately needed school supplies which many parents cannot afford. To save money, Father John will start taking some of them with him on July 12 on his next trip and the rest on his following trip in late August. I collected over 1,500 misprinted and used pens and the same number of new pencils, along with a variety of other needed school supplies like erasers, small pencil sharpeners, plastic rulers and even a few hand-held solar-powered calculators (no batteries needed) and so on. We cannot send paper products because of the weight. It would be cheaper to send the funds to buy school paper locally.
This school will address three major problems in his Diocese of Tunduru-Masasi: generational poverty, early Christian-Muslim relationships and the reduction of the need for migration into other countries. Interestingly enough, in a predominately Muslim diocese, some of the Muslim parents approached Bishop Mhasi about building a school for their children to attend along with the children of his diocese. Even some of the local Muslim leaders showed up at a Third Sunday of Advent Mass (notice the rose vestments of the day) celebrated at one of Bishop Mhasi's many mission stations.
On May 30th, I got another bit of good news about a funeral for one of his priests - Father Joel Tindawa. Among the 300 attendees were some Muslims, the Anglican Bishop and the Lutheran Bishop. His effort to build good interfaith relationships, starting in early childhood, will surely produce more great results in his predominately Muslim diocese in Tanzania with this new school.
Our goal is to finish the last two classrooms by next school year. If you would like to help with the last two classrooms which will complete this school, please send your tax-deductible checks, made out to Father John Judie Ministries, to me for deposit in that account:
Rev. Ronald Knott
1271 Parkway Gardens Court
#106
Louisville, KY 40217
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