I'd like to tell you about an amazing person, Fr. Silouan Brown, an Orthodox priest and monk who has repeatedly risked his life like a good shepherd to care for his flock in Uganda.
He is serving as a priest and caring for orphans. But his mission has run into a nasty obstacle. You see, there is a well-known and notorious scam associated with Nigerian royalty, and people have rightly been warned about that. And so there is an association in people's minds between "dealing with money" and "Africa" to mean "scam." And now his trusty helper Nicholas Hogan, who is at our monastery, and continues to be a humble blessing at the monastery, has been blocked from Facebook. And because of the Nigerian scam, people assume Orthodox Africa (Facebook, Telegram, donations), is a scam too. Orthodox Africa is not a scam. It is a mission that I can vouch for, and it addresses pastoral needs and helping people be self-sufficient.
May I make two requests?
First, please pray for Fr. Silouan, those serving with him, and those whom they serve.
Second, please forward this to other people who have associated Africa with pure scams and rightly put on their guard. You always meet obstacles when you are doing good, and on top of all the threats to Fr. Silouan's life, he has been tarred with an assumption that "Africa" = "scam." Which is unfortunate because Fr. Silouan is doing real work to serve real people and make a real impact in Uganda.
Thank you for your help!