Dear friends,

October was a busy month, and a fun month. The weather was pleasant and warm enough to work outside, so I kept busy patching the asphalt on the driveway, and sealcoating other parts of it that were  badly cracked.  I get my winter exercise by shoveling rock salt on the long half mile stretch, so people can make it up to the house for talks on the first two Tuesdays of each month, making sure the rest of the days the driveway is clear.  Fortunately, my godson Peter Della Ratta and his crew clear away the snow, after a king neighbor, Howard Jackson, plows it first thing in the morning after a big snowfall.

One the awesome events of the month was an interview with Msgr. Ron Lengwin, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He is a remarkable storyteller himself and interviewed me for two hours on Sunday night, the 7th of October.  It is always a joy to be interviewed by him because he reads the books before hand and always asked intelligent questions which make for very productive discussions.  I am deeply grateful to him for the time and care he spends on these very professional interviews.

Lately, there has been a flood of articles on the new evangelization movement among the churches, particularly, the Catholic Church.  Many of these articles are written by archbishops and cardinals and what impresses me most is how much they insist on the proper and precise teaching of the Christian theology and catechesis, and a Christian understanding of present day issues such as women's rights and gay rights and gay marriage, and abortion.  What is noticeably missing is the mention of Jesus as part of the evangelization process. Hardly ever is his name even mentioned, as if he has no place in evangelization.  And yet Jesus is our religion.

So, I started on my daily website postings a series of messages on evangelization, with the idea once a child or a grown person is introduced to Christianity, they should learn about Jesus first, then once they begin to love Jesus, they are finally ready to learn about what Jesus taught, in such a way that they can then see theology as expressions of Jesus' thinking and ideas that are of vital importance to him, like the Holy Trinity.  For so many the Trinity has become a theological concept.  For Jesus it is his heartfelt sharing with us his inner life as God.  And it is so beautiful to know that this sacred Triinity dwells within us.

Later in the month I had a visit from a dear friend, Bill Clapp. Who came in from Seattle, Washington.  He has been a Joshua fan for many years and was inspired to start a mini-bank.  Now after all those years, he enabled women in Central America to begin and develop successfully 800,000 small businesses, which is remarkable especially since there has been a loan payback of 98%.  Also I found out that another friend, Tom Cousins of Atlanta, Georgia has had 17 successful years with his restored Eastlake crime ridden community and over the past three years graduates from the high school have been winning scholarships to prestigious colleges.

Also, Warren Buffet teamed up with Tom to continue renewing these crime-ridden communities around the country and are presently working on one in New Orleans.  You can watch the CNBC documentary on the Eastlake venture by typing "Miracle at Eastlake" on the internet and can you view that wonderful program.  Tom told me that Eastlake is modeled after the program Joshua proposed in "Joshua and the City." 

Other dear old Joshua friends from Australia, Fr. Peter McGrath and Barbara Lunnon, his loyal assistant, who has now a young grandmother of many times over.  The stop every year on their missionary tour to various states and to England.   Their ministry has touched hundreds of thousands of lives, many of them inmates in prison.  It is always a joy and a strong inspiration to me when they visit.  It is a sad time when they leave.  When they leave  here they visit a prison in Pennsylvania, and Barbara visits her family who live in that area.  After the Peter goes to England to speak and Barbara goes back to Australia.

Our heart and prayers go out to all those who have been stricken by the hurricane last week.  It must be painful and emotionally devastating what you are going through.  We pray each day, especially at Mass for all of you that you not only survive but rebuild you homes and your lives. 

In Joshua's love and peace,

Fr. Joe Girzone