Our Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Bless! The Lord!
Help! Please Help!
These have been three very hard last years since we were shut down over the Wisconsin State mandates for Covid and the subsequent financial and functional ripple effect moving forwards on us since then, which are still with us today. Our monastic community is not paid at all except for the simple housing, heat, lights, and telephone availability with basic food provided and we have been living personally this way here at the Skete in Southwestern Wisconsin for the last 35 years. Even many of our monastic clothes are torn and need repairs which are secondary to whatever might be the most important needs present at any time. Please keep us in your prayers.
By specific donation appeals in the past we have had by the help of many donors to build St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, the Common Monastic Building in the back Skete valley, and our many monastic cells mostly also in the remote and so quiet back monastic valley. Thank you for those amazing gifts as they were able to be realized. These are true gifts indeed.
Our small monastic community is struggling just now with an immediate need for help with the very basics: heat, light, food, and the means to communicate by telephone and the internet. These are those basics that allow us to live and stay safe and sound enough to function day by day, and winter is almost upon us. In fact, today is the first real snow here at the Skete in Southwestern Wisconsin and it is snowing just now (and quite beautifully too) as these words are being written.
We are almost out of the propane that heats our buildings we live in, and the large heating cost bills still partially left over from last year which are needed to be paid before the contractor will come, with the price of a single fill up now, will cost almost $9,000. Our tanks are almost empty, and the Wisconsin winters are cold, truly cold. Please, please help us now. Any help is a help indeed!
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Critical Help is Needed Just Now
Our electricity bill is past due and will cost another $1,200 to pay. The furnaces that run the heat are also run by electricity. Our telephone and internet communication bill for several months is also past due and will cost $900 to pay now. Basic food is needful also but can be bought as we need and most of our cooking now involves healthy diabetic menu choices made in our kitchen as one of our monks has type 2 diabetes which is being controlled by careful nutritional choices and amounts and exercise, thanks be to God.
We know that all of us these days are now experiencing an increased cost of living, including the price of food, gas, and everything else at the store. It is a dilemma that we are all facing these days, and this may likely continue for at least some time. It is hard for us here at the Skete to ask, but we are just asking to live with the basics, and every dollar that you might be able to spare would be a blessing.
Our main work here at the Skete has been prayer for all of our dear friends and those that we have established an open connection over these 35 years we have been living here. You are in our prayers daily, and the lamps that burn before the icons and the candles lit in church during our services include this connection from us to you. Please help us stay warm enough, bright enough, in connection enough, and fed simply enough to move forwards towards the coming Nativity Season.
We earnestly need your donations now in order for us to continue to say our prayers, live our simple monastic life, and still reach out with love for all.
Thank you for listening, and please pray for us as we are praying for you.
Your Brothers in Christ,
The Monks of St. Isaac of Syria Skete
and the Community of St. Nicholas Church
Make your donation Here
Your donation is tax deductible.