The Gathering Place

 

   In our several visits to the Gathering Place in the past two weeks, I have been struck by how many people’s paths already cross this beautiful site each day – so many that in any direction one sees dozens of paths worn deep into the grass. The name Gathering Place depicts the place where all in the Diocese of Toliara can come to worship, study, meet and greet each other as well as guests to Madagascar, including mission teams, and have a retreat and be replenished. As Howard and I walked the site Monday with people from the Ankilifaly and Andranomena parishes to pray for the completion of the Gathering Place and for the Diocese, many others also walked one of the paths or rode a bicycle crossed the land – some were on their way home or to get water, going to or coming from the nearby elementary school, a neighborhood soccer game, or an outdoor market nearby; some were herding their cattle or goats; others appeared to be walking leisurely, alone or with others. As I have watched this constant activity -- from the prayer walk around the property on this past Monday, from the second-floor balconies, from a window as we worshipped this morning in Andraomena in a temporary sanctuary built when the new and growing Andronomena parish could no longer meet in a home -- the meaning of the name “The Gathering Place” has expanded for me. It is evident that this place is now and will continue to be a place where people on travel alone and together for many, many reasons. When the construction is completed, they may continue to pass by, or to stop and observe, to stay for a while, or to come again and again.

   The pictures below show the numerous paths worn into the land from the east, west, north, and south of the Gathering Place. When I was there with the participants in the photography class and with Patsy this past Friday, we watched a neighborhood children’s soccer game from the upstairs balcony, looking to the east; at dusk we watched the sunset with Patsy. It was the first time she had seen the sunset in their new home, still “under construction.” We watched a plane land at the nearby airport where Howard, Emily, and I arrived almost two weeks ago; where Patsy’s parents and Bishop Todd will fly in this coming Thursday, and where a team from Florida will land and then stay for almost two weeks. The team members will learn about Madagascar, provide medical care, work on both water and solar cooking projects, teach vacation Bible School, visit the site south of here where the resort and spa and a secondary school will be built. The Gathering Place is already a place of gathering, a place with which people in the neighborhood are familiar. May God bless and speed its completion and the fruition of its many purposes for the Diocese, for Bishop Todd McGregor and the Rev. Patsy McGregor and their family, for the Diocese's leadership and people, and the neighborhood and communities surrounding it.   

Peg, from Toliara 9-5-10