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...".
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’.
P.S.S. —our new website is now up: www.holylandmilitaryrosary.org
Fr Bill Kneemiller
SS Philip & James Church
606 Fulton St, PO Box 7
Grand Mound, IA 52751
kneemillerw@diodav.org (563)321-0124
The Holy Land Military Rosary
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.