Comboni Lay Missionaries

Missionary experience at St. Paul Catholic Church of Akonoma, Cape Coast (Republic of Ghana) from 21st December 2020 to 4th January, 2021.

LMC Ghana
LMC Ghana

Our chaplain, Rev. Fr. Leopold Adanle, in his zeal to further our formation, suggested to our group to do some days experience in Manigri, Benin. Later on, after the Provincial Council, it was agreed to go for the experience in Cape Coast, Ghana.

We had to leave our families to celebrate Christmas festivities far from our residences. Early the 21st December, 2020, Frank Amenyo and Justin Nougnui started the journey from their various areas to meet Christian Wotormenyo at Accra. From Accra, the three of us took a car for Cape Coast. Cape Coast is about 300 km from our towns. The Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Bonaventure Gnaha came to pick us from the lorry station to our station, St. Paul Catholic Church of Akonoma. The experience was in two aspects, with the Church Community and our CLM Community.

1. Experience with the Church Community

Our service was to revive the Church of Akonoma. We moved from house to house at the quest of the church members who have stopped coming to church. None of the three of us knew Fante, the local language of the area. Two of us could say very few words in Fante. We moved with an interpreter. We had the grace to visit some aged and sick members of the church and also from Akonoma’s community. After the house visitation, we planned meetings with the various societies of the church to form and consolidate them. We enjoyed the festivities of Christmas. On the 24th, 25th, 27th, 31st December, 1st January and 3rd January which were the Christmas vigil, The Christmas day, the feast of the Holy Family, the New year vigil, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the population at church was encouraging. The Rev. Fathers, Bonaventure, Joseph and Anthony came one after the other for the various celebrations. The 31st night, new year vigil, School of Jesus, a society of children exhibited a night performance.

2. CLM community

Monthly, we had a meeting. But for this experience, the three of us had the time to live together.

a. Prayer life

We had our daily schedule. We prayed the Laudes in the morning, read the daily Gospel with a commentary, a Life History of St. Daniel Comboni written by Bernard Ward. After the breakfast, we had our indoor or outdoor activities. At 12:30, we had lunch followed by siesta. In the afternoon we had activities, at 6:30 we prayed the Vespers, ate. Every day before the Night Prayer we reflected upon the day activities and planned for the following day.

b. Division of labour

We cooked ourselves, served the meals and washed the bowls. We fetched water ourselves sometimes, other times, the youth helped us. Each one has a responsibility, Mr. Wotormenyo the team leader, Mr. Amenyo the bursar and Mr. Nougnui the secretary.

c. Vocation promotion

We spoke about the Comboni Family in general when we met some active members of Akonoma. We laid emphasis on CLM, who they are, the requirements to be CLM, the activities of CLM. We did the same thing when we attended the parish Liturgical Committee meeting. We also took the opportunity to visit a group of Friends of Comboni at St. Paul Catholic Church of Nkanfoa. As it is now in our province, being a member of the group of Friends of Comboni is one of the requirements to aspire to CLM. We chatted with the members and encouraged them to move further to CLM. We promised to be in touch with them for the way forward.

d. The neglected

The visit from house to house showed us the reality of the neglected and the abandoned. Some aged and sick persons were a little bit forgotten. In order to continue the Caritative aspect of the Church, we created from the Church Committee the Welfare Committee. Its role is essentially to look for the sick, to find “the lost sheep” and also to assist members who are bereaved.

We are so grateful for the opportunity given to us. We thanked the Provincial Council, our Chaplain, the parish priest of St. Paul Catholic Church of Nkanfoa, the church community of Akonoma for helping us respond to our vocation. This missionary experience strengthened our faith and motivated us to continue our journey on the footsteps of St. Daniel Comboni.

Justin Nougnui, CLM coordinator.

Research Report: Carajás Dossier, Corruption and carelessness (2)

Piquiá

The research report team shows in the report how the passing of the trains compromises the communities living on their margins and how the iron dust from the steel mills infiltrates the houses and threatens the health of an entire village.

Piquiá

In it we can see the village of Piquiá de Baixo (from minute 35) where our Comboni family closely accompanies this reality and the struggle for a resettlement in the neighborhood of Piquiá de la Conquista.

We leave this second video (in Portuguese) from the Justice of the Roads channel of JnT*

* Justiça nos Trilhos works to strengthen communities in the Carajás Corridor in North Eastern Amazonian Brazil and denounce violations of human and environmental rights, holding the state and corporations accountable and preventing new human rights violations.

Research Report: Carajás Dossier, Corruption and carelessness

tren

Divided into four chapters, the first episode shows some of the impacts that one of the largest freight trains in the world leaves in the 28 cities and more than 100 towns it passes through. The large research report reveals how the wealth of mining contrasts with the misery and suffering of the residents of the Carajás railroad, how the lack of pedestrian bridges exposes residents to routine accidents at crossings, and how corruption scandals drain the public coffers of municipalities cut off by the CFE.

train

In this report we can see the reality of the communities affected by the problems of mining in the northeast of Brazil where the Comboni Family accompanies the communities. Our CLM community has been present for more than 25 years.

We leave this video (in Portuguese) from the Justice of the Roads channel of JnT*

* Justiça nos Trilhos works to strengthen communities in the Carajás Corridor in North Eastern Amazonian Brazil and denounce violations of human and environmental rights, holding the state and corporations accountable and preventing new human rights violations.