Dear friends,
we apologise you for cancelling our retreats in Europe after 19th august 2019. Since there is a problem of extending our Residential Permit in Germany which expires on 19.08.19, we are not able to take up assignments we had agreed upon. Also my Indian Provincial has told me not to take up new assignments for retreats in Europe as I am aged.
In this context I would like to extent my sincere thanks to all those who have associated with us in our mission in Europe from the year 2000. I and my Retreat team member Miss Mary Pereira owe much to Sr. Margareta Valappila who was instrumental in our mission in Europe. Though there are a lot of dear ones whose cooperation and benevolence made our retreats for the past 20 years a success in different countries, a few need to be thanked very specially. That doesn’t mean others are insignificant……..
We are very grateful to late Countess Feliciatas Piccolomini who had been organizing, translating, helping us to get our Visa/ Residential Permit, providing us accommodation, seeing to our transportation for the past 15 years with the cooperation of her husband Giorg Piccolomini who also has been a great support for us. Thanks to Doblehoff of Sonntagsberg, who welcomed our retreats in his retreat center in Austria for quite a few years and also for arranging Austrian Visa for us during that period. I thank my German, Austrian, Swiss, Slovak and Hungarian SVD Provncials for giving me No-objection Letters and for guiding our ministry; Fr. Buob (who gave official sponsorship to Mary) and Barbara of Hochaltingen; Fr.Martin Ramosar who encouraged our Deliverance Ministry in retreats at his place Reisbach; Fr.Dietrich and Fr. Ludwig of Heroldsbach; Fr.Robert Maria of Waghausel; Fr.Ludwig, Rosevita and Maria Zehetgruber of Gundersdorf, Austria; Hans Schroeder, Sofie and their team; Beatrix of Mirian Verlag; Margaret Bartle; Cornelia; Rafi Francis; Marion Rist; Christina Bucher, Monica and Gabi of Axam; Eugen and Maria Malovecký who were instrumental for our mission in Slovakia, Miriam and Dr.Roman, Alica Prokopova, Lucia Palusova, Ferdinand and Iveta, Josef Macovich, Monika Komova and Marta Pincelova, Ladislav Madzova and Maria Madzova of Slovakia; Kristina Drungyte, Laima and Kristina Jureviciute of Lithuania; Arnaldo Paixao and Claudina of Fatima; Eniko and Peter Rumzauer of Hungary. Also we remember with gratitude Conrad and Wendy who took us first to Lithuania.
With regard to our website, it was the initiative of Eugen Malovecky who opened one for us free of cost and was working on it for quite a long time. Thereafter Branko Rabora of Slovakia offered us a free website and Jozef Danko and Lukas Vaník were willing to help us with it. We are very thankful to them for their selfless service in our ministry, all for the glory of God.
We are equally thankful to all the local organisers of our retreats in different places and translators in different countries and all those who have provided accommodation for us and seen to our transportation (very grateful to Wolfgang who was ever ready for it). Yes, the list of names of all whom we remember as our well wishers continues……We join with St. Paul and say sincerely: “We do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in our prayers” (Eph.1.16), not only those who are enlisted here, but many more who are in our hearts…..
Big thanks to Barbara Larumbe who welcomed us and arranged for our accommodation after the demise of Fella and also translated our retreats in her free time. So also Lucy Pregel who has been associating with our ministry as a translator and took up the organization of our retreats after Fella. Thanks to her husband Hans who cooperated with her and worked as a team with us in our ministry wherever he could come.
We are also grateful to Matthew Perukarote and family of Vienna who have helped us in many ways.
Last but not the least, we thank all the retreatants for their cooperation and acceptance of the message of the Lord, ‘for receiving the Word of God which they heard from us, accepting it not as the word of men but as what it really is, THE WORD OF GOD’ (1 Thess.2.13). We give all glory to God for the fruits we could see in the lives of many—a real life changing effect of God’s Word.
In 1992 and 1993, the Lord gave me a prophetic message through Sr. Elcius of Marian (Nirmala) retreat center, Kulathuvayal, Kerala, that I would be preaching retreats for Europeans in the years to come. The loving Lord fulfilled this message in the Jubilee Year 2000. He did everything to accomplish His Plans through me and Miss Mary Pereira. Please join with us to thank the Lord for all that He did through us.
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayers with joy, thanking for your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now” (Phil.1.3).
Father James Mariakumar SVD and Mary Pereira