Dear
Fr. Anthony and Parishioners of Sacred Heart Church, Henley
I would
like to send you a few words about the extension of our chapel, which you
kindly helped us with. The photos at the bottom of the page show people
outside looking in as they normally did, though it is a posed photo as I
forgot to take it before we started! The one on the left shows the building
from the outside as we began and the following ones show the work in
progress.
It was
a parish effort from the beginning. We got a professional builder to do the
brickwork but otherwise parishioners themselves worked early and late to do
the job; painting, putting down matching floor tiles, sanding. Since prices
are subject to inflation and wild variations they had to hunt for materials.
At times we got our quantities wrong and had to go a second time to search.
We had
a job to get enough floor tiles and efforts were made to make our own but
the circular saw blade was blunt and when a new one was bought the
electricity cut. In fact we have so many power cuts you can never plan. The
leading worker in the project, Leo Mazengula, said to me with a big smile
last Friday after yet another searching trip to town “Ah, Father, now I am
stressed out!”
The
plan was to complete the whole job in two weeks but plans turned to hopes
and hopes faded! We are now into our fourth week and have a new hope that
NEXT SUNDAY we will enter Jerusalem. I will try and send you a photo of us
all in the new extended chapel.
Renewed
thanks for your generous help with this work. People here are delighted.
