coptichymns.net - Sharing the Joy of Coptic Hymns Around the World

Today is Sunday and there was a liturgy with all the kids of the church. They were very excited for church; it is amazing to see these 20 children come to church every week, even though they are not all baptized yet. They were also very excited to see each other. The fellowship they have with one another is very nice- they help each other during the liturgy, to find where Abouna is in the book and they also help each other during Communion. They take the place of their parents and the older ones look after the younger ones. If one of the kids take a long time in the bathroom, one of the other children will go look for him or her. We ate together after liturgy and then we had Sunday School; the little kids were in one room and the older kids sat together outside. We talked about the story of the 5 loaves and 2 fish and we sang songs and played games.

The new church that is being built has a roof now. The rafters are up and you can see the church from the main road as you are driving by. Attention is being drawn to this church and the local people of the island are beginning to ask Abouna Shenouda about his church and what is going on. When people see Abouna Shenouda and Abouna Angelos walking around together in the town, they come up to them and ask what is going on. They are shocked to see another priest like “Mr. Newman,” because they did not know anything about the Coptic Church. Tomorrow night, God willing, we will be holding an information type-session to try to tell the local people about the Coptic Orthodox Church and the saints of the church. Please pray that people will be interested enough to come and we will hopefully be able to tell you how it goes sometime in the near future.