What I do everyday.....February 17, 2025

Dear friends,

This morning with the Sisters, we offered mass for the mother and child victims of the bandits in Kenscoff. It is a barbaric event involving the bandits forcing the mother to throw her baby into the fire or be killed. The young mother was forced to do so, and ran off and went crazy, and died of profound distress.

I hate to even repeat such a hateful and painful story, but it shows what terror is being inflicted on the population. Also, for those of us who are believers, our prayerful sharing in their suffering by lamenting their passion and death before God grounds us in compassion and trust in God’s final judgement and victory

There was also a massacre of 13 people, last night or this morning, in our area of Tabarre.

You can well imagine why, when we got near Kenscoff today, we had to pass through three different brigades of masked local people with machetes. They are so radicalized against the kinds of crimes I just mentioned, that they are vigilant against anyone approaching Kenscoff (and many other areas) that if they find an armed person or a person with no proof of identity, they are killed by the blade on the spot. This happens all around the country.

The roads were timid above Fort Jacques and beyond. Everyone knows the bandits are still present, in hiding. Kenson had mentioned that the police had returned in force last night, to prevent another attack. We saw them reenforcing their numbers again today about 4pm, by the time we were heading down the mountain.

We arrived at St Helen about 2pm with 20 sacks of rice, 10 sacks of beans, 4 cases of oil to help with the extras at meals (refugees). The best plan and the one being followed is when the day is free of shooting, the refugees return to the homes and gardens and come back to sleep in safety.

This works for refugees where we are (in Obleon) but not in Furcy, because many of those refugees had their simple, peasant houses burned.

We had the same quantities of food for the Furcy refugees, and they came to St Helene to get them.

We also had complete emergency kits for the refugee compounds, 10 each for St Helene and Furcy.

We also had three well prepared bullet injury kits for the police combat vehicles. They include tourniquets, injections to promote clotting where pressure banadages wont work (internal injuries), and thick compression gauze and pads, with elastic bandaging. We are also working on getting powder for blood clotting (BleedStop) and rapid Seal Wound Gel from USA.

This is especially a challenge with closed airports and borders.

We found Nirva, Kenson and all the team to be in good spirits in the face of their dangers and we are heartened by this.

There are two pictures of delivery below.

Also, as I was leaving for Kenscoff, Timario brought Jeannine and her mother to see me. Jeannine’s surgery for hydrocephalus went very well. Even though it is distressing to see such a huge head, anyone who saw the pre-surgery picture can see how relaxed and unstressed Jeannine looks now, in the third picture below, all thanks to God.