Very dear Friend of the Mission,
Someone recently asked me if I wrote to our Mission friends only to ask them for donations, and… I was petrified! Yes, was the answer. Unfortunately yes! And it broke my heart to have to admit it.
There was a time… times I miss greatly, in which so many of you were my awesome pen pals. What a delight that was! Back then… I wrote over 800 letters a year. It was my favorite pastime. But then… the Mission happened, and for reasons that I will only know in the next life, the good Lord decided to bless our Mission in ways that only He knows how.
However… there was a price to pay: my pen pals. But in a certain way my pen pal joys were replaced by that odd kind of joy one feels in the trenches.
The fact is that: all my pen pals, and so many other loyal friends, followed me to the “trenches”, only that today… they don’t send me letters… they hand me “ammunition”. And since the trenches seem to be my destiny… how can I not thank God for you all? So… God bless your good hearts!
Why am I writing to you today? To wish you a very blessed Christmas and to thank you wholeheartedly for all that you have sacrificed so that the Mission can be what it is today. And… to let you know that, once again, we are out of “ammunition”. 
Completely out! And the Mission has urgent needs right now. So, in your generosity please don’t forget us this Christmas. And please keep us in your prayers as we keep you daily in ours, with much gratitude.
May Jesus, Mary & Joseph be in your good hearts, in your homes, this Christmas and always.
Rev. Canon Fragelli, Missionary in Africa
PS. How to donate? Go to www.friendsofthemissions.com. On the same site you have also the option of sponsoring one of the students of our Saint Francis de Sales School.
