Dear Everyone,

As our New Year of 2014 has begun, I would like to greet you all in gratitude on behalf of our beloved HDF-Mercy Centre.

The work that you have supported by your caring concern and financial assistance continues to flourish. We stand tall as a vital hope for many living in the slums and on the periphery of Bangkok, and our needs are ever constant.

With Thailand’s present political unrest, we have publicly announced that all 23 of our shack/school kindergartens, located throughout the city slums, are places of safety and refuge, as is our Mercy Centre here in Klong Toey. Our doors are totally open to all the nearly 3,000 children we teach daily plus their families and anyone else who needs a meal or a place to rest. Also we share our meager rice supply with the local Temple and Mosque, as they share with us.

Some may have recently wondered if I am still at the heart of our great work and if I have the zeal and strength to continue to serve the poor and especially the children of the slums.

As this New Year begins, I assure you all that I am happy and healthy, and jog (slowly) three miles most every day. I am excited about life and honored to share my days with these less fortunate of God's special ones. I see all of you as being very much a major part of my life and our commitment here at Mercy. This Apostolate would be impossible without the knowledge that you are there and thinking of us – praying with us. Don't worry. Don't blink. Together with our children of yesterday, today and tomorrow, the Sacred Flame of Mercy burns brightly in Klong Toey and we – all of us, me too, Fr. Joe – are the Keepers of that unique Sacred Flame. We are here.

Please keep us in your prayers – tell people about us - and continue your financial support. We are deeply grateful. Without your being there, we could not be here. So as we step into a New Year, the Year of the Horse, our 43^rd Year in the Slaughter House and Klong Toey slums, let us renew our commitment and support for one another.

On behalf of our Mercy Center family, I thank you.

Prayers as always – Respectfully fr joe