New Year's Letter from Fr. Pontiano

Dear Fr. Scott and St. Thomas More,

I am so pleased to have this time to write this message of thanksgiving to you at this time when we are heading towards the end of the year of 2018. Christmas season is very special to us all as we reflect on the love that God showed to the human person.

For me this season is also special because it is the time when I meditate on the love you have shown me through the big support you have offered to me and my community here in the diocese of Sumbawanga. It is a long time enough since you began to donate financial support to my parishes of St. James and now Holy Spirit. These parishes have things that show your support. These are things like chapels, hostels, catechist houses, bicycles, books, student support and now the health clinic. The transportation truck is working wonderfully and is helping to transport me to villages and facilitate the transportation of building materials for houses and stoves.

My catechists have benefitted from your support by attending annual trainings and receiving bicycles for their pastoral trips in villages. We thank you very much for your generosity, which I cannot measure because of its bigness.

Many people from your parish have donated their materials for development of my parish. I cannot mention everybody by name, but my heartfelt thanks is with them as well as my prayers.

It was my luck to have Edward and Nancy Keane and their children at my parish in July-August this year. They were able to visit most of the projects you have supported in different times so that they were satisfied of what has been achieved. I hope Ed and Nancy shared with you the stories and added more information about my pastoral works here. In their visit, they were able to put a cornerstone at the newly build health clinic for mothers and children at one of the parishes. This clinic needs few things for completion to be used by patients. The joy of people of Pito village is so big that they can now expect to get health services nearby.

Dear Fr. Scott, the parish staff and parishioners, thanks for the More News and Links magazine which you send me [so I can get] the latest news about St. Thomas More Parish and other events. Your Pastor's Points is my place of reading because I get new insights in matters of spirituality and church building methods. I really love your points.

I have many words to say but as time for preparing my parishioners for sacramental services comes closer, I have to say thank you and I request your generous support wherever I will be assigned by my bishop to work in my diocese. There are 23 parishes and I have worked only in three, therefore there is a possibility of being transferred to another parish in the future. I request that once this happens, please, I need your generous support.

Finally, I wish you Happy Christmas and Happy New Year. I pray that all of you be safe and healthy so that you celebrate the birth of Christ with joy. May the Almighty God continue to bless you in the coming year of 2019.

Your dear friend in serving Christ,
Fr. Pontiano Chomba
Pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Sumbawanga