I wish to thank the Mission Fund in Malta for its generous donation to the Galilee Centre, a retreat house run by the Jesuits in Ethiopia.

The money will be spent on maintenance and repairs of the centre and for the servicing of our two cars, four computers and a photocopier.

Galilee Centre is situated in Debre Zeit, a town 50 km south of the capital, Addis Ababa. It has been offering retreats to the religious and priests of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia since 1968.

For the last seven years, the centre has been used by other Christian Churches as well.

We offer personally guided eight-day retreats and weekend retreats to seminarians in theology, to junior religious, to novices as well as to youth from different parishes and university students.

On the initiative of one Jesuit on the staff, we are also help pay the school fees of many students, distribute food to some poor families and offer special care to a small group of orphans.

More than half of the centre’s running costs are covered by the room and board fees of the retreatants. We also have two European donors who are subsidising retreats offered to religious and priests.

However, because of the rising cost of living, we still cannot cover all the centre’s maintenance expenses. It was for this reason that we appealed for help to the Mission Fund and they responded generously.

I encourage you to continue to send used stamps and donations to the Mission Fund to enable it to support many other Maltese religious and priests working in other countries.

Donations should be sent to the one of the following accounts: HSBC (account no. 061 197 448 050), BOV (163 007 980 19), APS (200 008 207 62) or Banif (008 879 631 01). The Mission Fund website is www.missionfund.org.mt.

I will pray for the repose of your bereaved ones and pray for your needs in my daily Eucharist. Kindly support our work here at Galilee Centre with your prayers.