Fr. Charles Kunene's Return to Iowa

Below is a letter written by Fr. Charles Kunene upon his return to Iowa from his home country of Swaziland in mid-November 2008. Fr. Kunene serves three parishes in southwest Iowa... and the letter is addressed to his parishioners in love, gratitude and joy:

It sounds like a dream that I have just returned from Swaziland, but it is true. It was exciting to go back home after being away from my family for six months. The journey was longer for me, because I was really missing home and my family. And it was made worse by a delay in Senegal, West Africa, where we had a two-hour delay due to technical problems with the plane. This resulted in my missing my final flight from South Africa to Swaziland.

Anyway, I was happy to be home at last on Saturday, October 18, with the rest of the team from Iowa. We were welcomed well by our Swazi hosts with a cocktail [fruit juices & tasty treats] on our arrival. Sunday was time for me to worship at St. Luke's, which is the parish in western Swaziland that I left in order to come to Iowa. They were happy to see me and they surprised me with a sign written, "Welcome Home" on the wall above the altar, a bunch of roses and a cake. They noticed how well looked after I am while here by my three churches [in Iowa], and that I was happy. I did not need to talk about that part. They saw it themselves, and this is wonderful. I was a picture that spoke a thousand words about the churches I work with in southwest Iowa.

It was wonderful to represent you through what you did for the people of Swaziland. You were not there physically, but through the chlorinators that were distributed, the clothes collected by Red Oak and Shenandoah, the chaplets from the chaplet ministry in Glenwood and the scholarship money raised from the Vacation Bible School with the Methodist Church in Red Oak, you were made present in a powerful way to the people of Swaziland. God bless you!