Fr. Daniel has supplied newly updated information on the 2013 DOEPA Mission trip.

CHRIST IS RISEN!
 
Missions Trip Members,

I hope you all had a fruitful lent and a wonderful Pashca!  What a joy it is when brothers (and sisters) dwell in unity, and what a great treasure we have in the Holy Orthodox Faith!

Well, everything is still a go for our trip to the Assumption of the Virgin Parish in South Philly and we are looking forward to a great week together. The plans are underway to revitalize the parish there in an exterior way through roof repair, plastering and painting, putting in new doors and new windows, landscaping, cleaning, and general organization. 

The second aspect of the trip will be to reach out to the community with a Children's Festival in the afternoon on one of the days for 4 hours (probably either Friday or Saturday). We will have old fashioned children's games, bouncers and other fun for the kids. The team will man the games and help teach the children about the Orthodox Faith and lead them to the Church.

Our stay will be on the parish grounds, women will be housed in the apartment next to the parish, and men will dorm in the basement of the parish. Our evening meal will be provided by the parish each day, with our own arrangements for Breakfast and Lunch (Any ideas Mary-Hesna?)

We plan on doing some site seeing on Saturday the 20th, visiting some sites in the Philly area.

We will open with a Molieben Service on Sunday evening the 14th with an Orientation for our week and then we will have services each night with discussion and study thru the week. Divine Liturgy will be celebrated together with our beloved Hierarchs on Sunday the 21st as a final blessing and send off. More details and finalization of the schedule for the week will be posted in the coming weeks.

OrthodoxPhilly.com will be helping promote our Missions Trip.

At this point in your planning and preparation please make this trip a priority in your prayer life, asking God to make our trip fruitful and a blessing to those in the parish and neighborhood there. Frs. Please add the trip to your proskomedia and regular prayer.

Next, you should be fundraising...we are asking each person or parish to raise enough money equal to 250$ per person. So this means you can contribute 250$ for yourself, or you can work with your parish to do some fundraisers to come up with the funds. The easy way is to send a letter to your friends and family asking them to support you in this mission effort. 

If you have any other questions feel free to email me at fr.danielm@gmail.com.

Frs. please forward this to anyone you know wants to attend but is not on my mail list.

P.S. Also, some have asked if they can come for only part of the time...the answer is YES, but let me know the times and date of your arrival and departure so we can plan work accordingly.

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In Christ, Fr. Daniel