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| Haitian eating mudcakes |
Dear Military Rosary benefactor or Rosary maker:
Spring 2014
“Update on Haiti Rosary Factory“
In the last couple of years our Iowa
parishes have made thousands of Holy Land Military Rosaries. The olive wood crucifix for these Rosaries is
purchased from the Catholic families living in Bethlehem, this being their sole
means of livelihood. These rosaries continue to be a great source of blessing
as a prayer aid for military personnel, parishioners of all ages, patients in
hospitals and hospice wards. I believe that the Holy Land Crucifix is a
connection to Christ in the Garden of Olive and a reminder to us of the land
where Jesus walked. For anyone praying
the Rosary, I encourage you to ask the grace to ‘pray with the heart’—which
involves the special grace of praying the Rosary while contemplating the
Scriptures, with devotion and Divine love. Also I believe that the Scripture
from Isaiah
2:2 applies, which states that 'Swords will be turned into plowshares...”, so
my loose translation of this is, "Parachute cords will be turned into
Rosary cords...".
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| Baking mudcakes to eat |
With our parishes having a sister parish in
Haiti, we are establishing a ‘Rosary Factory’ in Haiti. An opportunity to begin this project came
recently when Liz McDermott, the rep from ServeHaiti, recently visited
Haiti. Here is her report after I gave
her rosary supplies to take with her on her Haiti trip:
Liz said she worked with the
local chapter of the Vincent DePaul Society in Haiti to train workers there to
assemble the Holy Land Military Rosary.
She paid the workers a working wage for each Rosary made, and the
Haitian workers were delighted to have some work in a country where the
unemployment rate is about 70%. Liz
took 1000 Rosary materials, and cloth cases for her February, 2014 trip down to
the sister parish in Haiti, who assembled the Rosaries and cases. Then Liz and
the ServeHaiti volunteers brought the finished Rosaries and cases. I mail the
majority of the Rosaries to the
Catholic Chaplains in Afghanistan and around the world. I also give samples to Rosary groups in
parishes to promote the praying of the family Rosary. Our quantities of assembled Rosaries will
dramatically increase this year as we have a donor who will match the first
$15,000 worth of donations for this project in 2014.
P.S. Any
donations for the Rosary Factory should be addressed to “SS Philip &
James”, with a notation: ‘Special Haiti Project’.
Fr
Bill Kneemiller
SS Philip & James Church
606 Fulton St, PO Box 7
Grand Mound, IA 52751
The Holy Land Military Rosary
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| eating mud cakes in Haiti |
# 1 reason for the need to create jobs in Haiti:
There
are sections of Haiti where the poverty is so severe that the people are eating
clay cakes made with salt and a little vegetable oil to have something to put
in their stomach. We can do better than this!
Dear Military Rosary supporter: 26
Jan 2014
“Inverted Jenny Biplane Stamp Project”
Recently I read that the Post Office issued a commemorative
stamp of the ‘Inverted Jenny’ biplane stamp a few months ago. This stamp is a
commemoration of the famous error of the biplane flying upside down. The post office Commissioner approved
issuing 6 pages of these stamps nation-wide with the biplane flying right side
up. This means that anyone who buys one
of these pages of six, $2 stamps will have an instantly rare stamp, with an
estimated worth at least $25,000 for the page.
The reason I’m mentioning this to the Rosary supporter folk
is that I’m inviting folks around the state of Iowa to buy a page of these
stamps. If by a 100,000 to one chance you get a page of stamps of the ‘Inverted
Jenny’ flying right side up, please consider donating part of your good fortune
to our Rosary Factory in Haiti. If you know anyone who has a business mailing
packages please encourage them to buy these stamps while they are still
available.
Thanks, Fr Bill Kneemiller
PS: Our Rosary Factory in Haiti is beginning in earnest this
year. Also, at the end of July I am
sponsoring a trip down to Branson, MO for a ‘Rosary Factory Convention’—my
favorite vacation place. I can get rooms
down in Branson for $55/ a night for a double, up until the month of July,
2014.