RESURRECTION … IMMINENT!!!!

NICE TO BE BACK AGAIN AFTER MY NINE MONTHS PERIOD OF HIBERNATION!

Have lots of news, but will give it to you by degrees!

Two of our Families moved at    Christmas 2009 into their own

Semi-detached, 3 bedroomed houses paid for by Monaghan and Co. Clare and London, Benefactors

THANK YOU!

The best is that we moved 11 more families out of the refugee camp at Christmas into their new houses, so HAB  made a lot of families happy for Christmas 2009.

We have plans for more bungalows as our benefactors are so generous to our project and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all again for your continued support of our terrible camp near Medjugorje, 20 mins out the road!

Bye for now!

Josephine x

SEAN’S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE VISIT

.

TO  RETURN to my Beloved Beautiful Refugee Children and their wonderful parents, in Mother’s ‘Second Village’, Tasovcici Camp, Capljina, Bosnia Hercegovina, just next door to Medjugorje, I want to tell you about my recent lovely surprise.

.

I prayed as usual, for a return visit to the Camp, as we must keep giving our refugees hope and help, otherwise they are so forgotten!

.

God is always ahead of us and He knew I wanted to get back to see them soon again, so He arranged for my wonderful friends Sean and Ann to accompany me to Medjugorje for Sean’s birthday, last Saturday.  We made a ‘flying visit’. 

This couple had a fantastic surprise, as the house they are helping the Maracic Family to build, is almost complete and nearly ready to move into.  What joy when they met ‘their’ family!  One could hardly do better than give the homeless a home!

.

.

Also, about a year ago, when I pleaded with God for money to build for our elderly refugees, who have been 15 years in this awful camp, I asked Sean over a meal one day in Medjugorje, if he would  draw me a little bungalow,  and design a simple interior, so Housing Aid Bosnia might consider building some small homes for the elderly.  Of course I had no money but I have great ideas!

Now Sean has seen the result of his plan and he couldn’t believe the gorgeous 12 little bungalows HAB has completed for 24 elderly refugees, who think they are in Heaven.  They love being in the bungalows and are so fantastically welcoming and hospitable, and ‘at home’.  They love the central shrine of Our Lady.  The recent Irish visitors, among them some builders, could only say “they’re Stunning”.

.

They could not get over the excellent workmanship, though in fact the little houses are beautifully simple.  An anonymous donation of £200,000 to the Charity enabled all this to happen. I did ask God for that exact amount and lo and behold it dropped from Heaven into ‘Housing Aid Bosnia’ Charity Account!  Simply Amazing!

Of course, EVERYTHING  WE  DO is beautifully done as it is done for God!  It is His project and He is in charge of it.  We are but His tools!   Everything given is directly for the refugees-nothing is ever deducted!  Itself a Miracle!   I wonder sometimes why we don’t trust God enough as He is in charge of life, no matter what.  Even, if circumstances are bad, even disastrous, like losing your home in the war or by re-possession etc., God will always bring good out of evil as He will not be beaten!

I just read:
‘The dark threads are as needful in the Weaver’s skillful hand
as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned’.

Christians know that Jesus conquered all evil on the Cross, dying once to save sinners.  In spite of everything, He is always with us.  He will never leave us. He is with us in our poverty and in our riches.  He alone can restore us! He came to bring us life to the full and I see Him doing just this for our poorest refugees.  How can I thank Him!  What appeared to be the End for them becomes the Beginning!

YOU  COULD  HELP me to get our refugees

out of this terrible camp.  One darling little woman, Kitty from Gweedore, Co. Donegal, Ireland, said that their cows on their farm in Ireland had better houses!  To help our registered Charity to build the refugees houses, all you have to do is to contact me by e-mail: (jw13@live.co.uk), and I can send you details,  or, you could make a donation directly into our Charity Account:  ‘Housing Aid Bosnia’  Charity SC030136:  BARCLAYS BANK, 111 High Street, Bedford,  MK40 1NJ, UK
Sort Code:  20-05-74.    A/c No:  10917567.     THANKS!

Or a Direct International Payment,  through your own bank, to ‘Housing Aid Bosnia,’ Registered Charity No. SC030136:  Swift Code:   BARCGB22
IBAN:    GB63  BARC 2005 7489 4235 00
Our ‘Housing Aid Bosnia’ Euro Business Premium Account  No. 89423500  Sort Code  20-05-74; is lodged at, Barclays Bank, 111 High Street, Bedford, MK40 1NJ,

You could write to me at home to; Sr. Josephine Walsh, 13 Aspreys, OLNEY, Bucks.  MK46 5LN, UK.  If you send a cheque, please pay ‘HOUSING AID BOSNIA.’  If you are a tax payer and would like us to get Gift Aid ie. 25 pence extra on every £ you give to our charity, please let me know your intention. It is a great help to us. For this, I would need your address and your permission to claim.

EVEN  BETTER  STILL,

go and visit our refugees in Tasovcici Camp, CAPLJINA, if you are in  MEDJUGORJE and see their poverty for yourself.

Bring them some little things like sweets, milk, juice, meat, oil etc.  You won’t be sorry.  Your visit will bless you!  I have never seen anything like it!

There are currently 90 families. We are helping 37 0f these at the moment to build! You would see and meet our gorgeous 69 children, and those we are building for at the moment could take you to see what we are trying to do for them.  Simply ask them!  Mention Josephina!

Melica, who now owns one of our lovely houses, made a beautiful cake to celebrate Sean’s birthday, and was he surprised and delighted!  We arrived at her house with a coach load of 50 people  to thank God for His wonders.  Surprise surprise!  Can you imagine a coach load of people arriving at your house and being so welcomed!!  All given juice and b’day cake Melica had made for Sean!  The Pilgrims just couldn’t get over it all.  We ended up in Sr. Helen’s gorgeous Church for the refugees, our hearts so full of gratitude we could hardly speak!

Please don‘t forget to pray for our work and especially for our refugees to get more jobs, and to get housed.  HAB has in fact have created several jobs, and now thanks to another marvelous couple, six of our refugee families have a beautiful farming allotment beside their house. 

This couple bought a farm for us, and we split it in 6 for 6 families to farm.  You should see their vegetables!The refugees are so industrious, and all they need is to be given a chance!!   Everything helps!

May God keep you safe in all you do and may He give you His Peace.

From Sr. Josephine with love and prayers

TRINITY – THREE-in-ONE

MY  FRIEND, Fr. Gerald, was ordained priest on Trinity Sunday, 15th June 1957.  That was just over 50 years ago.  The Faith is the same but there have been some changes.  In those days he celebrated the Mass in Latin with his back to the people, in strange vestments called ‘fiddleback’ vestments.  Whenever he sat down during the Mass he covered his head with an odd little black hat called a ‘biretta’.

He loves Trinity Sunday because that was the day he celebrated his very first Mass.  Trinity Sunday, however, was instituted in 828  by Pope Gregory IX.

.

.

IMAGES of the Holy Trinity  (of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit)  depict the three elements of the one God.  The Holy Trinity is sometimes symbolized by a triangular shape formed by three overlapping oval rings or loops, each featuring the one of the following images:
the Crown (Father) within the top loop;
the Cross or Lamb (Son) within the second loop (anti-clockwise);
and the Dove (Spirit) within the third loop (anti-clockwise).

It is one of the few feasts that is celebrated as a  DOCTRINE instead of an event.    It reflects the Christian belief in the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and falls on the Sunday following Pentecost each year.

The belief of one God in three elements is a distinctive tenet of the Christian faith although I have to admit that  the early church was plagued by heretical, contrary views.  But by around the 14th century Trinity Sunday  (which belief affirms the doctrine of the Three Persons in One God) had spread throughout the western church.

.

.

.

A  SIMPLE  SOLUTION to the problem of  presenting an image of The Three Persons in One God to ordinary, simple folk was solved by St.Patrick.  He showed them the beloved Irish Shamrock.  It was One flower with Three equal petals, one stem.  God, he said, is TRINITY  –  God is Three but God is One.

.

.

.

.

At first sight this does seems to be puzzling.  But we are quite familiar with many types of trinity. The two best-known examples of trinity are:   WATER, which is ice, liquid or steam: and,course,  we HUMANS, who are body, mind and spirit.  Many things are three in one.

.

A man is ‘Robert‘ to his wife.  He is ‘Tiger Bob’ to his workmates.  He is ‘Daddy’ to his children.   A trinity of titles – but only one person.  We are quite used to trinities.

You will think of some other ‘trinities’:–

What about the trinity within colour? Even white, the purest colour of all,  is a combination of red, green and blue.

What about the trinity of Time? Past, present and future are dimensions which only exist in the present universe.

What about the trinity of Matter? Which is controlled by electromagnetism, gravitation and nuclear reaction.

.

There are many other demonstrations of the principle of ‘trinity’, but perhaps the ‘Atom’ is the most profound..
THE WORD ‘ATOM’ comes from the Greek word for “indivisible” representing the purest essence of a single element, and yet it is made up of three.  The proton, with the neutron at its centre, and of course the negatively-charged electron which acts as a balance with other elements.

.

Jesus spoke of the 3 persons in one God:  “The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said.”   (John Ch 14 v26)

.

.

IT  IS  AMAZING that God cared for us imperfect humans so much as to become a perfect human person – Jesus, who died and rose again and is now back in heaven preparing a place for all those who trust in Him.  He even sends us his Holy Spirit so that he can be with us for ever, in all circumstances.

What a wonderful God we have!

God bless your own Body, Mind and Spirit.

.

.

IS CONFIRMATION A SACRAMENT OF FAREWELL ?

THE COMING DOWN

of the Holy Spirit on Our Lady and the Apostles happened 50 days after Easter and is called the Feast of Pentecost or Whit Sunday.

I am a Daughter of the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost means a lot to us.  Convents which are with easy distance of each other always come together for a celebratory meal.  In advance we will have prepared spiritually with  9 days of prayer (called a ‘Novena’) asking for a special anointing of the Holy Spirit.  As nuns, we need this anointing to give us strength to evangelise and tell people of God’s love in the world.

Come, Holy Spirit we need you

Come, Holy Spirit we pray

Come with your strength and your power

Come in your own special way.

We pray for an extra outpouring of the Holy Spirit with his Seven Gifts upon many of our young people being confirmed at this time of the year, and we ask God that they will become active Christians in our world.

SADLY some of our young people say GOOD-BYE for the time being to the inspired teaching they have received from many committed Catechists over the years.
So, for some the Day of  Confirmation is the Day of DEPARTURE.

They say:  ‘Good-bye’ to us,  and that is the last time we see them!!   However, we mustn’t say ‘Good-bye’ to them – one day eventually at a time and in a way we can’t predict they will have another opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit’s Gifts.   Confirmation is a time for vigor, excitement, energy, movement, birth, fresh air and fresh commitment.

PENTECOST is a time of red — a color of fire and zeal and passion and heat. The Spirit is incendiary within us. Thus, wear red or flame-orange clothes or accessories, especially when combined with baptismal whites.

Bring out the red potted flowers, and make flame decorations. Serve red and zingy foods. My favorites are Italian pasta dishes with hot sausage and tomato sauce, but you might want to try Mexican food with red peppers and chilies and tomatos. Eat that red supper together with family, friends, and perhaps a new acquaintance, lighting a candle on the table for each person who’s there, as well as perhaps ones for other loved ones who are especially missed.  You can use that time to say something brief about where the Spirit’s flame burns in your life.

Red could also be the theme of the refreshments made available at church after worship.  At Pentecost, the theme is not the kind of fire that consumes and destroys; the theme is the kind of fire that warms, energizes, excites, powers.

B U T for some the Day of  Confirmation is the Day of WELCOME!

TAKE SOME TIME to think about the gifts the Spirit has given you.            Say : ‘Is there a way I can use these gifts to build up or help bring healing to others, to the credit of God alone?’

The thanks that the Spirit wants for giving his gifts is in your using them instead of sitting back and frittering away the opportunities.

.

Come like a spring in the desert,

Come to the withered of  soul,

Come with your sweet healing power,

Touch me and make me whole!

–

I WANT TO RETURN !

I JUST CAN’T WAIT to get back to my Bosnian refugees!  A sudden and unexpected opportunity came last Saturday night  and so with two wonderful friends, Anne and Ted, I fly out  on Thursday (21st May).   The refugees are in Tasovcici Camp only 8 miles from Our Lady’s Shrine in Medjugorje.

Sometimes they feel that Our Lady doesn’t hear their prayers!

Most of teeming pilgrims are not told about their desperate plight.   There is  no organized outreach to help them.

Our Charity – called HOUSING AID BOSNIA – (H.A.B. for short) fills an enormous gap and was founded in an effort to provide houses for the refugees. The Friends of H.A.B. have been wonderfully generous and so far we have been able to build 83 brand new houses an addition to helping a further 32 families to complete at least the bottom part of their house. This is slow because we need more funds.  Any offers?

Meanwhile those remaining in the camp live in these tiny asbestos roofed huts. ORIGINALLY, I WAS VERY SCARED to go inside one of these refugee huts in case I picked up some dreadful disease!! But I soon learnt that, despite their awful poverty, they were exceptionally clean.  I am no longer frightened of having refreshment or a meal with them.  Do remind me to tell you of the time I spent Christmas there, when we had Christmas lunch with one of the refugees’ family.  What a story that was !!

These are unbearably hot in the summer when temperatures soar to 40 degrees!  Eggs could fry on the ground!  They have neither hot nor cold running water nor do they have a toilet.  There is a communal toilet and washing block but it is quite awful.  They dream of having one day the luxury of a bathroom of their very own.
I GO OUT TO CHECK on the building progress, pay the workmen and to look out for some more building land.  I need your prayerful help. There is a very good plot which is coming up to auction very soon.  I have put a Miraculous medal already in the land – which is how nuns usually get their land!    You must help, too, by praying that this land may be ours.

PROCLAMATION OF THE RESURRECTION

THIS MONTH  we are invited to join Pope Benedict’s prayer intention . . .

‘That Christians may not tire of proclaiming with their lives that Christ’s resurrection is the source of hope and peace’.

Straight after Jesus’s death, his closest friends, convinced that he had left them forever, turned back to their old lives in confusion and helplessness.

Then strange reports began to emerge.  Some claimed they had seen the risen Jesus while fishing, some had met him out on the road, others had seen him whilst gathered together in a locked room.

GRADUALLY the conviction that Jesus was alive enthused the early disciples to such an extent that they couldn’t wait to spread the important news far and wide.  Suddenly the disciples were filled with energy, courage, vision and hope.  This is what belief in the resurrection has to mean for us too.

Join with me now in praying together Pope Benedict’s prayer intention  . . . . . ‘That Christians may not tire of proclaiming with their lives that Christ’s resurrection is the source of hope and peace’.

FROM HELEN WITH LOVE

Hello again from Sr. Josephine!

To continue Helen’s little story about her lovely church she built in Bosnia, she

reported last time on some of her touching benefactors, I want to actually show you her church building, as it really is a gem, and thank all the other benefactors too of course.   You could go and visit  the church yourself when you go to Medjugorje, and then you will realise what an amazing contribution it is to the healing life of our  beloved refugees.  Some of our priests have actually celebrated Mass there with their groups, and loved it!

Medjugorje, as we all know, is a great place of Pilgrimage.  For some, including myself, it is their second home.   The guest houses are second to none and the families welcome pilgrims, so hospitably, from all over the world.  Lots of wonderful restuarants welcome us and serve us so graciously.   There is a great cross-culture  here, just what God’s Church should be, one family, where everyone, even the poorest, feels ‘at home’ and welcomed.  No favourites!!   You make new friends all the time as you meet different people from every country under Heaven.  Sharing with them is part of the richness you experience.  Have you been there yet?   It’s a great holiday too!

At Easter, we stayed in Kata’s guest house and there we were blest to be with some lovely  Africans with their little baby girl, who was such a joy to us at table.  Helen fell for her!   She always says she would love to be a ‘granny’, as you can give the children back when you like!, no responsibility!  Helen never loses an opportunity of bringing sunshine into someone’s life and so holding the baby for a photograph gave great joy to the proud mom!

Words of encouragement all round, created much happiness, and spiritual sharing.   A small world, you might think, for these African friends live down the road from us at home, in High Wycombe, South Bucks, and we live in Olney, North Bucks,  but we had to go to Medjugorje to meet.

Well that’s it for now, goodbye!   Meet  you again soon!   Don’t you think Helen is very photogenic?   Love always and thanks for all you do for us and our amazing project. God bless you.  Josephine x

HE HAS NO HANDS BUT OURS . . .

THE  NEXT  STEP was to send out the wonderful 3000 appeal sheets.
‘He has no hands but ours’.
The first 100 sheets were posted mainly to teachers (We thought we would get  an instant response from them!).  But life is not always like this;  sometimes we must be patient and wait God’s time.  However, after a few months one poor little girl sent £10, very grateful to her indeed.  Of course this wouldn’t build a church!  What shall we do Lord?  No responses!   So, should we Pray, Pray, Pray and keep on going!  OR were we being told that He didn’t want this project to succeed and to pull the plug on our efforts?
We got our answer the very next morning.   Two surprise cheques arrived in the post, one for £50, Praise God, and guess what? – the second contained an anonymous cheque for £6,500.  Fantastic!  What joy to receive it and what an answer to prayer!

THE  GOD  OF  SURPRISES took over.

Whose project was this, anyway?   We should have known.  It was His.  Now the bricks were on the move and He took over.  Can we ever doubt Him?  Thank you God for sending us to provide a beautiful Church for your refugees, where generations of peoples will come and worship You.

One dear lady, on her daughters wedding day, had organized little games for the children, to be played during the long speeches.  This must have led to a donation arriving for the church.  When the same young couple had their first child’s christening party, another donation arrived for the church.  Wonderful!  Another young couple, decided, after hearing an appeal on their church, to donate any money they might receive for their wedding to this church project.  A unique gesture, so touching, what a special couple!  May God enrich them and may they always have plenty, for it is in giving that we receive, God says.  What can we say only Thanks and more Thanks!   To our God, be the Glory!

ROSARY and THE MONTH OF MARY

MAY  IS  THE  MONTH  OF  MARY

The wonderful refugees at the Tasovcivci Refugee Camp  (so close to Our Lady’s Shrine in Medjugorje)  teach us so much and never fail to inspire us with their strong faith.

God and Our Lady mean so much to them and some of them say the family rosary every night.   One can’t but admire the rosary beads and other religious objects in their little tin huts.

Sr. Helen efforts to build them a Church Fr. Blaz, a young zealous priest with a special charism for God’s poor, seeing their contagious faith,  decided to build a church “with no money”!! ‘With God, all things are possible!   The Good Lord, hearing the cry of his heart, came to his rescue.

A retired priest from England came out to Bosnia at the right time and immediately he asked to see the progress of the new church.  All he saw was bricks piled up outside in the open!  He asked Fr. Blaz when was he starting to build the church.  “When I get some money,” was the reply.

When the English priest returned home, being a man of action, and longing for the new church for these ‘forgotten’ people, he set to work immediately.  He decided to design some sponsor sheets to be circulated in churches where appeals could be made.  It was suggested that we ask him to do 12 or 20 sheets.  He said he would do 500 copies, but I felt that 500 would be over the top and vastly too many.
BUT, LO AND BEHOLD, when they arrived there were 3000 sponsor sheets!!  No half measures there!   The Good Lord was at work and nothing could stop him!  Our faith in the risen Lord must increase.

. . . .  read the  rest of Sr. Helen’s story tomorrow

INTRODUCING “MY” CHILDREN

IF YOU HAVEN’T HEARD of Our Lady’s Children in Tasovcici Refugee Camp, Capljina, only 20 minutes from Medugorje, I want to introduce you to them now, in the hope that some of you might sponsor one of these lovely poor children for me!  I have some children already sponsored but need more sponsors to make sure all of these very special and lovely children are properly fed.   There are still 105 families and 69 children remaining in the camp !

Some children are babies, just a few months old, others are 2 or 3 years old. Usually people sponsor them for £20, £30 or £50 a month through the Charity Housing Aid Bosnia.  One teacher from Guildford is coming to do art workshop at the camp for me in Sept 11-18th.  Derry youth have already done 2 workshops on 2 consecutive years, and done wonders with Our Lady’s children. They also brought them lots of stuff from Derry.  Had great fun with them.  They said it was the highlight of their visit to Medjugorje.

Don’t get confused with what’s called ‘Mother’s Village’.

Those children get everything from Medgegorje pilgrims all the time as they are taken by coach to see them.

The beautiful Tasovcici camp children just 8 miles away  get nothing!, and pilgrims are never taken to see them.   And they are gorgeous!

You will say that I am prejudiced. Yes, OF COURSE, I AM PREJUDICED !      as I have helped these families for 15 years now and know and love them all as ‘my’ children.  See what you can do for them!

My love,  (Sr) Josephine xx

..