AFW Newsletter_August 2010

August - September 2010

237 skill trainees at Don Bosco Fambul receive their certificate

AFW

Ghana Freetown/SIERRA LEONE. During a great graduation 237 young women and men received Liberia their certificate. In this respect, a five hour ceremony formed the end of a 18month skill Nigeria Sierra Leone

Dear Confreres, Among all the events we have lived as a Province during these past months, the one that filled me with deepest joy has been the first professions of our 12 novices on the 8th of September this year.

Continued p. 2

Sunyani - 8th September 2010 – Shrine of Mary Help of Christians: Newly Professed - S Acheampong James Kofi, S Amankwaa Seth Antwi, S Aneke John Paul Chinonso, S Dike Kenneth Okechukwu, S Echegwo Gregory Chukwum, S Enu Bernard Evans, S Nwankwo George Chukwujekwu, S Nweke Emmanuel Chukwuemeka, S Okon Cornelius Ukeme, S Olamide Felix Olatunde, S Onuchukwu Sampson Olisaemeka, S Ugwuadu Matthew Ejikeneme

AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

(Continued from front page) That day was the feast of the Birthday of Mary, our Lady of Hope. The profession of those novices and the arrival of 17 new ones fill us also with joy and hope because they are the sign that God is with us and loves us. We see these “new vocations” not only as a “promise”, as a “potential” and a “bright future” for AFW, but they are also the “present”, the actualization of God’s gifts for us. For this, we are very thankful to Jesus and Mary.

If you look at the other stages of formation (prenovices: 16; post novices: 31; Practical Training: 10; students of Theology: 26) you immediately realize -as I have said - how much the Lord blesses us with vocations. On the other hand, we see and feel how big is our responsibility in forming them well, in transmitting unto them the Salesian Charism, the values of our consecrated life, the Salesian Spirituality and the beauty of our pedagogical system and the Preventive System.

Formation is the responsibility of all of us!

Through our witness, through our words and deeds, in one way or another, we are all forming our young confreres.

As you can see, the future of our Province depends not only on the number of vocations we are able to get, but above all in the quality of our formation houses, the formation guides and the Salesian formation offered to them. We shouldn’t put all this responsibility on our “formation communities and their formators”. Formation is the responsibility of all of us! Through our witness, through our words and deeds, in one way or another, we are all forming our young confreres.

The RM’s strenna for 2011 is entitled “Come And See” and it is focused on vocation animation. Many of you may think: “In AFW we have no problems with vocations” or “we are doing well”. I am also optimistic regarding vocations in AFW and about our future but I am also a realistic person and I can see several challenges in this field that I would like to share with you briefly as I recall them from my mind:  

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Strengthening our Youth Ministry with richer Christian-Salesian contents and experiences and presenting them in an attractive and youthful way.

Bringing quality to our evangelizing and catechetical work. As our evangelization becomes more explicit, vivid and passionate, then more vocations will come. Like Jesus, we evangelize calling, and we call evangelizing!

Utilizing the Social Means of Communications in all its forms to reach out to a greater number of young people with the message of the Gospel and the presentation of the different vocations in the Church.

Making explicit the vocational proposal to those youngsters who are spiritually deep, morally sound and personally mature enough to follow the call of the Lord.

Promoting with passion the vocation of the Salesian Brother. We have been blessed with several vocations of Salesian brothers from Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and only few from Nigeria. This year nobody professed as a Salesian Brother. That is a sign and a call to pray more for vocations to the Brotherhood and to present attractively this vocation to our youngsters.

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010



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Making our vocational animation and pastoral of vocations more systematic and methodical at provincial and local levels. It is not enough to organize “vocational activities”. We need a systematic plan with clear aim and objectives, methodologies and common criteria. This will give solidity, unity and continuity to our pastoral of vocations.

Strengthening vocation animation in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana. We cannot depend all the time on vocations coming from Nigeria. If Nigeria becomes a Delegation in the near future: how will the other 3 countries survive and maintain all their presences if they are few or no local vocations? Let us all awake and work consciously for the promotion of vocations in these countries before it is too late!

Bringing quality to our aspirantates in our 4 countries, clarifying common criteria for the running of the different experiences and appointed qualified Salesians to accompany aspirants.

Last but not the least: the financial dimension. It is “easier” conceiving a child than nurturing and educating him until he is an adult. The same with vocations to the Salesian life. It is not only a matter of finding vocations and sending them to the formation houses. In a Province of approximately 140 Salesians we have 100 in initial formation (including the prenovices). How are we going to cover the bills of our formation houses in the future? The Province will continue to search for funds but we cannot continue doing it alone. We need the help of all the houses and all the salesians. From now on, we would like to count on your unconditional support and thank you for your generosity.

I conclude by asking the Lord of the Harvest and to all our Salesian Saints and Patrons for the grace of good and holy vocations for the Church, the Congregation and our Province. And may the Good Lord grant to all of us the gift of spiritual accompaniment and discernment in fidelity to God’s Will!

Fr. George Crisafulli Provincial .

The future of our Province depends not only on the number of vocations we are able to get, but above all in the quality of our formation houses, the formation guides and the Salesian formation offered to them.

Photo: Novices Old and New

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Some of our brothers in Utume have renewed their temporal vows they include; Solomon Gbaki, Philip Gbao, Nathanael Akotsaha, and Daniel Agbor, it was indeed a nice occasion. Fr Giovanni Rolandi AFE Vice Provincial received their vows on behalf of the Rector major of the Salesian Congregation, Fr Ambrose Anene and Fr Michael stood in as the two witnesses. Later in the night after supper, the AFW student Association received officially all the AFW first year students as well as Fr Ambrose Anene.

We also congratulated Cleric Peter Morba for his final religious profession.

All members of AFW were in attendance, including Fr Lionel as he is enroute to Monrovia.

Peace Ike, Secretary

AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

WELCOME Arrival of Salesian Sisters in English-speaking West Africa 15th August 2010

15 août 2010 l’Assomption de Marie.

Aujourd’hui s’est ouverte la porte du paradis : Marie est entrée dans la gloire de Dieu ; exultez dans le ciel, tous les anges !

Aujourd’hui s’est ouvert la porte du Ghana : les FMA sont entrées avec joie dans ce Pays ; exultez, ensemble, vous les jeunes Le matin du 14 août 2010, nous, sœurs Ausilia Vizzi, provinciale, Bernarda Garcia, économe provinciale, Teresita Villegas, responsable de la nouvelle communauté, Jacintha Irudayasamy et Felicité Goe, nous sommes parties très tôt d’Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, pour nous rendre au Ghana, à Tema (Accra) pour une nouvelle fondation dans ce Pays, la première, pour notre province AFO « Mère de Dieu », dans un Pays anglophone.

Un accueil très très chaleureux nous a été resrvé à l’arrivé à la maison provinciale par nos frères salésiens da la province AFW. Le 15 à 7h30, à la paroisse, au début de la messe, des enfants adressent à chacune de nous individuellement, un mot de bienvenue en nous offrant un bouquet de fleurs.

Après le rite d’ouverture, un groupe de jeunes miment les défis que nous sommes appelées à relever dans notre mission ici au Ghana.

Un autre moment très significatif et important pour nous, a été la remise des clefs du foyer des jeunes filles. En effet après la messe nous nous sommes rendues, avec les salésiens et un groupe de jeunes, au foyer et le provincial le père Georges Cristafulli a remis les clefs à sœur Ausilia Vizzi qui, à son tour, les a remises à sœur Teresita, sœur Jacintha et sœur Félicité. Sœur Teresita, responsable de la communauté, a ouvert alors la porte de cette maison qu’elles habiteront ainsi que beaucoup de filles.

La fête continue à la maison provinciale avec un bon repas en famille salésienne.

Nous sommes en train de expérimenter ce que disait don Bosco : « C’est ELLE qui a tout fait ! » Nous constatons qu’ELLE nous précède et nous accompagne. Qu’ELLE guide encore non pas et achève ce qu’Elle a commencé pour que le royaume de son Fils grandisse dans ce pays béni.

Sœur Ausilia Vizzi 4

AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

Br John Patrucco with Bishop Francis Alonge and with Fr Italo Spagnolo at the celebration that followed the Mass of thanksgiving held on the 14th of August 2010 and presided by the Bishop.

It was bishop Alonge who first invited the Salesians to Nigeria; three years ago we celebrated the silver Jubilee of the arrival of the Salesians – Br John was one of the pioneers together with Fr Italo.

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

Freetown - SIERRA LEONE. During a great graduation 237 young women and men received their certificate. In this respect, a five hour ceremony formed the end of a 18month skill training. On this occasion, more than 1,000 guests gathered at the St. Anthony Hall Freetown. The Main guest speaker was the Lord Mayor of Freetown who also handed over the first certificates to the graduates.

Thanks to the hard work of the older student-team and the catering service of Don Bosco Fambul the whole ceremony went very well and without any problems. “This ceremony will go down in Freetown’s history,” said the Lord Mayor who hopes for further international and national NGOs committing themselves to the training of disadvantaged young people in the way Don Bosco Fambul does.

The director of Don Bosco Fambul, Brother Lothar Wagner, expressed his deep gratitude to the staff of the training department and the 91 trainers active at different workshops in Freetown. “They were trained in the spirit of Don Bosco in order to educate young people.

They inspired, encouraged and motivated. They coped with conflicts and commonly solved problems.”

Some statistics: Altogether, 420 trainees started their skill training in 2008. 43 trainees, mostly women, discontinued their training. The main reason (in 31 cases) was due to pregnancy. 148 graduates have already found an employment at a company or in a workshop. 168 want to become self-employed. These will receive further support from Don Bosco Fambul. Apart from a starter kit including tools they will receive micro credits for the next year. 104 trainees either want to attend advanced training programmes or a secondary school, or they are currently looking for work.

Hopefully a new training programme will start in 2011 after a thorough external evaluation will have taken place. So as to modify and adapt were necessary. Among others a vocational preparation programme is going to be introduced.

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

When Fr Riccardo finished as Provincial in January, he went for some months to Liberia, rendering his service there in the community and the parish, and then in July he went home for his holidays.It was during his stay at home that the Rector Major announced that Fr Riccardo has been appointed Rector of the Theologate in Rome at Gerini; while we rejoice at this appointment, knowing that the theology students will be well accompanied, we also know that he is a loss for the province. One of the first thing that Fr Riccardo did when he heard of his appointment was to write to the Provincial and the Province.

Dear Provincial and Confreres,

confreres knew already. Some of my old ICP friends congratulated me and I … was surprised and wondering! It was a little shock … from which I recovered soon.

I am writing from the quiet and peaceful environment of Beinette, my “hometown”. In Africa we would better say “village”, because that is what it is … with the difference that our villages enjoy all the facilities of the large cities and in addition a cheaper cost of life and a serene and familiar atmosphere.

Mixed feelings and considerations are still fighting within me. On one hand the situation of our dear AFW with all our dreams of growth and expansion vis-à-vis with the situation of personnel; on the other hand the religious availability to serve the Congregation wherever you are asked to do so.

I have put my heart and mind at rest, convinced that “obedience is better than sacrifice” and that when you do the obedience you are sure to be on the right track. I take it as a gift from God. There is something God wants to tell me and I hope to discover it sooner or later.

Fr Riccardo with our two AFW theology students Albert and Damien as they start the year together in Gerini Rome.

In my case, what makes more enjoyable the village life is my family: they are all concerned and caring to make sure that I lack nothing.

They are spoiling me!!! I will never thank God enough for the gift of my family, even though I have not much time to enjoy it.

The big talk of these days is the exceptional hot”tropical” weather. I smile and let them say… there is no way to convince them that for us it might be considered “spring time” !!!

Fr Riccardo being congratulated by confreres during the Mass of installation.

I left Liberia and came home with a well defined programme (… at least in my mind!): a short break with my family, a three-month Renewal Course and then … back to AFW!!!

Far from my mind was the thought that God had something different in store for me.

fellow

About AFW: What will I miss most?

All of you, dear confreres, whom because of my different responsibilities have come to know personally.

And then all the many people I came in touch with during the 28 years spent among them: Bishops, priests and religious, young and lay people.

When I reached home it took me some days before I opened my BOX. When I opened it I came to know, what quite a number of

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

What do I admire most? The generosity of the Vice-Province, that in the midst of so many needs dares to be generous and help the missions and the Congregation. It is an act of faith and a bet… with God, who will never let us down.

Tony writes to us from the Sudan as he shares his thoughts about starting on a new mission.

What is my wish and prayer? That the quality of the confreres and of the pastoral work make good for the scarcity of personnel in order to build on solid ground the growth of the Vice-Province.

Moving out of one’s comfort zones is something many dread. However dreadful this might seem, I think it is something one should venture someday, somehow, somewhere.

What is my dream? To be back as soon as possible.

We often perceive and consider the world as something not beyond the gaze of our eyes, the thoughts of our minds and the borders of our environments. However, the world is vast beyond our imagination. Some have said that with technology, the world is like a global parlour.

However, true this statement might be, it is only true for those who have access to these technologies. It beats my imagination how people survive in environments so remote and underdeveloped. It also beats my imagination, how people in such misery live day by day with the hope that one day their current situation will change. There is so much optimism and joy written on their faces; so many smiles as they carry out their daily duties; so many children, playing all around, parents are there to protect them and teach them. And it is so interesting!

Fr Riccardo signing the letter of appointment as Rector of the Theologate in Rome, after he recited the profession of faith

It is discomforting to actually leave a place you are used to, to go somewhere totally different and unpleasing. It is discomfiting when you cannot go outside your gate, just to cross the street to get something. It is discomforting when you have to say something over and over again because those you are talking to, know little of English Language. However, it is comforting to see people who want to learn. It is comforting to be around people who appreciate you, people who are ready because they trust you to help them get to the next level. It is also comforting to realize that after a very short time those you are working with are making swift improvements.

It is comforting that I am getting attuned to the system and making it my comfort zone.

About my new assignment: What scares me most? The challenging responsibility, which I resolve to face at my best, knowing my limitations and shortcomings. As we say in AFW: “I will try!”

With this I mean: I will put all my best efforts in the new assignment and leave the rest to God. What consoles me most? To work with young confreres in an international community, a spectrum of the face of the Congregation.

And … dulcis in fundo? The relevant presence of African confreres … to keep me in touch with the AFW reality. I hope it will not cause me too much homesickness!!!

Dear Jorge and Confreres, Thanks for all what you are for me and for all you have given me.

Congratulations to the Finally Professed Confreres.

And when you come to Rome… look for the Gerini-Community!!!

Fr Riccardo, sdb.

Beinette, 23rd July 2010.

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

Sunyani is not a big city, just about one hundred thousand including the outskirts. But it is the middle of Ghana and this makes it an important cross-roads, with a large amount of immigration. Migrants arrive in Sunyani without any luggage, and being simply accustomed to survive, they settle for any kind of living conditions.

MUSLIM WORLD: it was my first time in my life that I shared a prolonged time with Muslim people.

180 out of 200 children in Zongo Holiday Camp and 3 out of 15 animators were Muslims.

I appreciated the positive contact with political, local and religious authorities. We shared the same concern for neglected children, we did something small together, we welcomed everyone despite our different backgrounds. I witnessed prayer on Fridays and fasting during Ramadan… a good lesson against superficiality which is sometimes making our being Christians so poor! And be aware of this: the Muslim world is running like these girls in the picture! Let us run along together with them sharing the same concern for religion (let them be good Muslims and let us be good Christians!) and education. If we do not build bridges between us it will happen that Zongo will be just a part of the town completely separated from the rest. Some of the animators (from Sunyani!) never crossed the invisible border that leads to the slum! Thanks to the Holiday Camp they won the fear and many prejudices. A small seed has been planted!

Many settle in “Zongo”. It is the rubbish dump area between the old town-market and the “Wednesday market”. When they arrive from the north in Sunyani, they adapt to anything because they are already escaping from even worse conditions. The majority are of Muslim origin and Islam is the style of social, religious, school life in Zongo.

A couple of kilometres away is “Don Bosco Boys Home”. It was the youngsters residing there that drew the Salesians like a magnet to Zongo. Some years ago, a young woman, a Polish volunteer staying in “Boys Home”, aware of the poorest ones among her youngsters began going to Zongo and to set up there a kind of wandering oratory amidst the rubbish dump to play and spend time together.

Last summer a courageous step forward was taken and a holiday camp was organized right in the middle of where they were living, with the tiny elementary school being the focal point for the crowds of children that attended. This year the camp was repeated and it was an experience of being together as friends, with some time for games but also for repeat lessons especially in English and Maths which are the two bugbears for students at all levels, time for formation and for prayer.

The “Holiday Camp” experience has left an indelible mark: the desire to get to know each other in a new way. The variegated and marginalized Muslim community in Zongo met Christians to whom they could entrust their children, the most precious things they have, in an atmosphere of openness and trust.

For those who took part in running the “Zongo Holiday Camp” it was a very formative experience – being in contact with the really poor and getting to know Alima, Alhassan, Silifatu... It was a chance to learn new faces, names, life stories, meet people to love, overcoming the prejudices and barriers built and re-enforced by the different ethnic backgrounds.

The one thing that remains above all else is a new seed of hope in the heart of each one. A successful remedy for any situation where there is conflict, isolation, distance between groups; a cure that starts with seeing the other person as a human being. Don Bosco understood it perfectly: begin with the young.

This is the characteristic feature of the Salesian mission.

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

September: 01/88 03/87 03/89 07/87 08/75 09/88 16/69 21/73 22/90 22/33 25/87 25/78 28/60

1st October

1960 – 2010 Wishing all Nigerians a Blessed Independence day..

Adoma B. Yaw Etie K. Onyeka Seth Amankwaa Cornelius U-Sayee Victor Chambers Theophilus Ehioghilen Paolo Vaschetto Lothar Wagner Sesay Samuel S Albino Sossa Ugwu TobeChukwu Sergej Goman Ivan Stojanovic

October: 01/73 Cornelius Anyanwu 01/30 Henry O'Brien 2/85 Okolo M. Chinedu 08/82 Kenneth NNadi 10/63 Blamoh Harris 22/79 John Val. Mbaegbu 22/85 Moses Ogbada 25/68 Roberto Castiglione 25/22 Roy Fosker 26/86 George Nwankwo 28/86 Abraham Sesay

For your Agenda October 1 50th Anniversary Independence of Nigeria 23-24 Economers’ meeting (Ashaiman, Ghana) 18-23 CIVAM Formation Commission (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) 29-31 Congress on Michael Rua (Rome, Italy) 30-31 Provincial Volunteers’ meeting (Ashaiman, Ghana) November 1 All Saints 3-6 CIVAM plenary meeting (Johannesburg, South Africa) 7-13 Retreat for Provincial Councillors and Rectors with the Rector Major (Johannesburg, South Africa) 14-16 Provincial Council meeting (Johannesburg, South Africa) 21-22 Practical Trainees’ Meeting (Ashaiman, Ghana) 23-29 Annual retreat for Practical Trainees and Others (Nsawam, Ghana) 28 1st Sunday of Advent

Ondo: Sixteen young men have started the programme for pre-novitiate with an opening mass presided by Fr George Crisafulli. In his homily Fr George encouraged them and reminded them of Don Bosco’s words to Don Pestarino: he gave him three criteria of discernment of suitability for a vocation: is the candidate ready to obey; does he take correction without grumbling and does he has a spirit of sacrifice.

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

The Stole and the Apron Bishop Tonino Bello (Translated by Fr Michael Smyth) the sacristy, but to understand clearly that the stole and the apron are like front and back of the same priestly garment. Or even better: they are the length and the breadth of the same robe of service, service of God and neighbour. The stole without the apron is nothing more than liturgical fashion. The apron without the stole does not bear fruits of charity.

Stole and apron: to put the two of them on together may sound disrespectful, almost an act of desecration.

The stole is made for the sacristy, kept neatly with the finely decorated chasubles and all the other sacred linens, amidst the perfume of incense and the mystical language of biblical symbols. There is no newly ordained deacon or priest who has not received a beautiful and precious stole as a gift from a convent of Sisters.

In John’s Gospel there are three verbs, which are essential, simple and yet pregnant in meaning. Together they contain the full weight of the theology of service. These three verbs express the perfect complementarity of apron and stole.

Here they are: “he got up from the table”, “he took off his garment”, and “he put on an apron”.

He got up from the table This means two things. First of all it means that the Eucharist is not about sitting down.

It does not have time for a siesta. It doesn’t allow for indulgence in food. It forces us at a certain point to abandon the table. It prompts action. It urges us to leave the comfort of armchair and sofa and to embrace the dynamism of missionary journeys, driven by the fire burning inside.

The apron belongs to the kitchen among the frying pans, the bags of flour and jars of oil, the vegetables and other ingredients, and the plates to be washed... or in the store with the domestic cleaning materials.

No one would think of giving an apron as a This is the problem: too often our Eucharist gift, for a wedding or a birthday, much less loses energy in mere choreography. We are content to rest in the upper room, with for an ordination. preachers or singers too concerned with And yet the apron is the only liturgical themselves and the impression they make, dress mentioned in the Gospel... yes, the while the congregation are bored and fall Gospel, and the most theological of the four asleep. There is no sense of commitment.

- the holy gospel according to John!

If we don’t get up from the table, the For Christ’s first solemn Mass, the first Eucharist becomes an empty sacrament.

Mass in the history of the universe, The drive to action is so strongly rooted in celebrated the night before he died, there the very nature of the Eucharist, that it is no mention of alb, stole or chasuble, but forces the one who receives it to leave the only of a rough piece of cloth, the apron table -even when it is received by a that Jesus put on, the perfect priestly sacrilegious soul, like Judas who “took the garment. morsel and went out at once. It was dark”.

Maybe it would be good for us to complete But “he got up from the table” has another the equipment of our sacristies by including meaning, which is really important: it an apron among the golden decorated means that the other two verbs “he took chasubles, dalmatics and stoles and the off his garment” and “he put on an apron” finely embroidered albs. bring salvation only if they stem from the An apron tailored from the stole Eucharist. If we have not first been “at table” even the most generous service What matters most, anyway, is not the rendered to our brothers runs the risk of inclusion of the apron in the wardrobe of 11

AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

becoming mere philanthropy which has series of “anti-paschs” which block the flow little or nothing to do with the love of of salvation from Christ’s Pasch.

Christ.

Taking off the garment means becoming a For priests, every social commitment, every “poor clergy”, a clergy of the least, of the fight for justice, every effort on behalf of poor and disinherited, of the suffering, the the poor, every struggle for liberation, illiterate, and of all those who are left every concern for the triumph of truth must behind or trampled upon by others. start from “the table”, from time spent with He put on an apron Christ, from familiarity with him. We must drink his chalice with all its implications of Now we come to what I like to call “the martyrdom. In a word, priestly action must Church of the apron”. Maybe it seems too bold an image, almost provocative. It is a begin with intense prayer. picture of the Church that reveals too Only then will our self-emptying be fruitful much, one of those photographs that we do and our sacrifices be crowned with victory. not display in public for fear people might Only then will the water we pour on our grumble or gossip. We keep it in the family brothers’ feet free them to walk all the way album and show it to a few special people. on the road to freedom.

We smile then at our lack of decorum, as if He took off his garment this were a photo that was taken without our knowing it.

Maybe I am forcing the text but it seems to me that this expression of the Gospel offers The Church of the apron does not gain wide the model of priestly behaviour if it is to be acceptance. In the hit parade, the preferred rooted in the Eucharist. Whoever sits at the image of Church is of a priest in chasuble table of the Eucharist must “take off his with the lectionary in hand. But that other garment”. He must take off the garments image that looks like a domestic servant, of one who counts the cost and calculates with a rag over his arm, a basin in his right his own interests. He must be ready to hand and a jug in the left, seems to reduce share in all his nakedness. He must take the Church to the realm of fantasy. off the garments of wealth and luxury, of We need to rediscover the way of service. waste, of a middle-class lifestyle, and This means bending down and sharing, and become transparent in modesty and getting involved in the lives of the poor. simplicity. He must take off the garments of power, arrogance and control and clothe It is a hard road. There is the temptation to himself instead in a veil of weakness and delegate, to pay others to wash feet whilst poverty, knowing full well that poor is not we avoid the inconvenience of humble so much the opposite of rich but the service. opposite of powerful.

But it is the only road that leads us to the We must abandon the signs of power in source of our kingship. The only way that allows us to regain lost credibility is the order to preserve the power of the signs. way of service.

We cannot afford to fall in love with power.

Nor can we engage in any underhand Only when we have served will we be able dealing that is contrary to justice, even to speak and expect to be believed. Only with the pretext of helping the poor. We then will we be able to wear the precious should be terrified of the danger of garment of our priestly dignity, and nobody manipulating pubic money. We should feel will have anything to say about it. uneasy when we hear people say that a John’s Gospel continues: “When he had recommendation from us carries weight, washed their feet and put on his outer that our word can sway a decision, that our garments again he went back to the table. requests are privileged. The allurement of He said ...”

What did he say? We know money, even when it is for the Church and very well what he said! It was then he not for our own pockets, should never lead spoke that marvellous discourse that marks us into complicity in dishonest dealings. the official passage from the word of the Otherwise we are developing in our lives a servant to servants of the word.

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AFW Newsletter Aug- Sept 2010

Tema New town had its Holiday camp coordinated

by BR Michael Obolo and helped by Michael and Chris together with the volunteers.

The 5 weeks camp came to a close on Thursday 19th August with the children displaying some of the skills they have learn such as introduction to computer, Soap making, cake making, knitting, etc. On Sat 21st Aug, we had the evaluation of the summer camp with the animators at a beach party.

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