James Hargrave’s love for Africa dates from his early childhood as the son of missionary parents in Kenya. He first learned of the Orthodox Christian faith through the witness of Ethiopian refugees, and it was on a return visit to Kenya as an adult that his own commitment to Christ and to the Orthodox Church was established. His dedication to Christian ministry began developing in 2004 as he did social work in inner-city Los Angeles. James’ faith was further shaped in graduate school by the Orthodox Christian Fellowship at the University of Florida and by his parish priest of blessed memory, who was himself a cross-cultural missionary from Greece to America. James has served as OCF president and parish council secretary in Gainesville, Florida and worked with other Orthodox students across the state to begin an annual pan-Orthodox statewide Lenten retreat.
In Tanzania, James will be dedicating his experience and training in communications and organizing to assist in diocesan administration as directed by His Eminence Metropolitan Jeronymos. He will use his linguistics training to acquire multiple local languages with the intention to assist in the future translation of church materials and as an aid to indigenous ministry.
James counts on your prayers and financial support in order to serve in Tanzania as a missionary. Funds donated in support and encouragement of his service in Tanzania should be made out to OCMC with “Hargrave” in the memo line and sent to: Orthodox Christian Mission Center, P.O. Pox 4319, St. Augustine, FL 32085-4319.
Hi James!
I would love to be subscribed to this blog. I have a blogspot which I created to help me connect to non-xanga blogs, but I can’t figure out how to subscribe here. Do I need a WordPress account, or can I get an email subscription or subscribe somehow through my blogspot?
The internet confuses me to no end sometimes.
Thanks, friend!
~ Joy
Mr. Hargrave,
I wonder if I could trouble you for some assistance. I am a convert myself and my whole family was raised Protestant. My sister, who is searching deeply at this time, has joined the Peace Corps and has been posted to Mtwara region in Tanzania. She has been in a mostly-Islamic city for training and has been informed that the region she is heading to will be largely Christian. She is hoping to find an Orthodox community there and asked me if I knew if there were any Orthodox there. I have been doing some searching but most of the web pages are designed to let Americans know (generally) what’s going on in Tanzania, not to help them find a parish they can drop in to on Sunday. If you could assist me in finding the nearest parish, group that occasionally gets a priest to visit, or just person she could talk to, I would appreciate it tremendously.
You can contact me at tealizzy@gmail.com. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Presvytera Elisabeth
Enjoyed your postings on Rod Dreher’s blog, particularly your encyclopedic presentation of the Orthodox history of missions. Pretty comprehensive and enlightening. Also, pretty much a stark contrast, sad to say, with the current state of most Orthodox parishes, in terms of their awareness of missions. But you are doing a lot to change that! I am on the Board of Friends of Indonesia, and actively raise support for Fr. Daniel Byantoro who is working in Indonesia. You may have met recently?
Best, and hope you get to Baltimore eventually. We can certainly host you at Holy Cross in Linthicum.