St. John the Forerunner Foundation

Summer Newsletter, 2012

Beloved Brethren,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! We pray that you are all well by the grace of God and that you have enjoyed a blessed summer with your families.

Breaking ground in March 2012

With renewed strength of body and soul, we pray you will begin the ecclesiastic year and all the programs you have prepared for the fall and winter.

It is time once again to update you on the building of our new church, which through your love and support has made great progress.

It is with great joy and gratitude that we have been watching the walls go up of our new Church! The cement block work is now complete: however, there still is a great deal of work to be done before the snow comes.

The endless amount of rebar has all been piously donated
by our faithful benefactors, Isidoros & Maria Garifalakis.

As we write this newsletter, we have ordered the trusses for the roof and the frame for the dome as well as the windows. The crew is working hard to reach the goal of getting the church covered and closed in before winter.

While the church is being built, work is also being done on the waterproofing of the structures, drainage of the grounds, retaining walls to stabilize the grounds and an underground connection with the new church and the cells.

It is our desire, with the help of God and through your continued love and support, to have the interiors of the church completed and ready for use by next summer.

	Inside the Nave of the Church
	West view of the church and the new cells
The steady progress of the cement block work	West view of the church and the new cells

We have also begun to add on to the Bakery kitchen in order to better meet the State requirements for the bakery and creamery operation. This extension will also create more room for the packaging needs of the Bakery. This project will take some time as most of the work will be done by volunteers and personal labor.
Besides all the construction going on around the monastery, the sisterhood has been working hard at our daily chores: the Bakery, the Dairy Farm, the Soap house, the Iconography studio, and the Candle dipping.

A new chore awaited us this past spring and summer- the cleaning and clearing of the property after last years fire. Every day we thank God, the Panagia and our Holy Forerunner for protecting our buildings and allowing only the forest to burn. However, many hours and lots of hard labor from the sisters and faithful pilgrims have been necessary in order to clean up, split and stack the endless piles of burned logs and brush.

It has also been a blessing for us to receive the increasing number of pilgrims during these summer months who have been a great help to us in all our labors.

Once again we would like to take the opportunity of this newsletter to extend our deepest gratitude and thankfulness for the unceasing love, and the moral and material support that you have all so faithfully and kindly poured upon us.
You are all remembered with much gratitude in our daily prayer and at the Holy Proskomidi. We humbly ask you to continue to remember our monastery in your prayers as we labor to complete the building of this monastery for the serving of the Orthodox Church and its faithful, to the glory of God.
May God bless you all.

With love in Christ,
Gerontissa Efpraxia & the sisterhood

If you wish to support the building of this Church to the glory of God, you may click here to Make A Donation. All your donations are tax deductible and receipts will be sent out at the end of the year. Thank you!