OUR PARISH YOUNG PEOPLE WAKE UP TO THE NEW YEAR

GENERAL YOUTH MEETING HELD IN BINJU-NKAMBE PARISH
FROM 20-21 JANUARY 2007.

The meeting started at 4pm with 80 participants who came from their various missions to the main mission in Binju. They came from Kungi, Bakinchini, Bansobi and Binju. There were no young people from the other mission stations. Kungi and Binju were in large numbers. We had to collect mattresses from the presbytery where they are stored. Thieves would break into the centre to steal if they were left on the beds in the St Martin de Porres Pastoral Centre. They had broken there once and made away with one mattress and sheets!!

At 6pm all participants settled in the dormitories, despite the shortage of mattresses and beds, we still managed to double ourselves on one bed (three people per bed). The bunk beds in the SMPPC were short. Some young people stayed in the rooms of the former convent.

The aim of this meeting was to help the young people of our parish to know themselves well and to become more responsible in future. With explanations form Rev. Fr Robert Tanto and even disclosing to us what other young people around the world are up to and capable of doing, the young people of this Parish realised that they were still like backyard chickens who don’t know that they could fly higher.
When Rev. Fr Robert Tanto further explained and shared his experiences in the youth ministry and how he had formed many young who are now very responsible and well to do, most of the young people felt that they could change the situation of this Parish. They promised to work as one Parish, by knowing the truth and working for it, despite all temptations that may come their way. After these explanations, the young people were grouped in Tens to share their lives and past experiences, which many of them collaborated with their various group leaders and came out with good resolutions that could help build the Parish as one. Such solutions include: Avoiding-Gossips, Laziness, Negative impression about others. At 10pm the young people had supper with food which was prepared by the young people of the host mission (Binju) in their respective homes. Since they did not know the number of young people who were to come for this meeting, what they prepared was not enough to feed the large crowd that came. With the generosity of Rev. Fr. Robert Tanto, he bought more food for the young people, which many of them ate and were satisfied.

At 11pm, all the young people retired to their various dormitories. The next morning which was Sunday 21/01/07, they got up at 5:30am and prepared themselves for mass at 7:00am.During the mass they also participated very actively, and after mass they went back to the Centre for evaluation and drew a calendar of activities for the young people of this Parish for this year.

This meeting ended with a word of prayer by Maurice Afor, blessing of food and participants by Rev. Fr Robert Tanto. After food the participants took photos and departed.

Immaculate Giwa

BINJU-NKMABE VOCATIONS GROUP MEETING

BINJU-NKAMBE PARISH VOCATION GROUP BEGINS NEW YEAR WITH DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED

Last Saturday, 06 January 2007, the Vocations Group of the Parish met. Some 30 young people came together from 4 mission stations of Binju-Nkambe Parish, and two from Nkambe Town Quasi Parish. During the Eucharistic Celebration to begin their meeting, Father Robert Tanto called their attention to the difficulties to be expected in answering one’s call. He warned against dangers to one’s vocation which can come from carelessness and the presumption that one is strong to stand against temptations of all sorts. He told them the story of Father Pavol Kubicar, Parish Priest of Notfels in Voralberg, Western Austria, who had resigned as parish priest because he discovered he was going to be a biological father. He elaborated on the demands of chaste celibacy which candidates for the priesthood and the religious life must consider seriously.
After Holy Mass, the group was taken for discussions by Brother Elijah of the Marist Brothers’ Formation House, Tatum, who had been invited to talk to the group about the Marish Brotherhood. After Brother Elijah’s delivery, the young people had many questions which made the discussion very lively. Questions covered the whole range of vocations, including Christian Marriage and Family Life and the different forms of consecrated life. Brother Elijah gave each of the participants a copy of A Short Life of Marcellin Champagnat, by Noel Dennis.
The discussion session ended at about 1.00 p.m. The young people of Binju had prepared a sumptuous lunch which they shared with the whole group. But before they could sit down to eat, the delegation of Germans who had been present for Makelia’s wedding arrived and shared a little time with them. The young people were glad to see Makelia, now Mrs Bam. They listened to her words of encouragement with keen interest. They took photographs.
The group later met the German visitors at the presbytery and animated the sitting with their songs and dance. Before the adults could arrive to welcome the German visitors, the young people had been keeping visitors well entertained.
The next vocations group meeting was billed for Bakinchini on Saturday 03 February 2007. Interestingly, for the first time, Bakinchini had representatives at this last meeting. They were surprised to be asked to host the next meeting, but left with determination to make good preparations for it.
Robert Tanto.

PARISH FAMILY LUNCH 2007

BINJU-NKAMBE PARISH FAMILY LUNCH 2007-01-08
By Afor Maurice

Binju-Nkambe Parish celebrated their 4th Parish Family Lunch on Epiphany Sunday, 07 January 2007. The celebration began with Holy Mass at 8.00 a.m. with the Parish Priest, Father Robert Tanto as celebrant. Father Remi went to celebrate an earlier Mass in Kungi at 7 a.m. At the Binju Mass there were also a few people from Bakinchini and Akweto.
After the Binju Mass, families went to the former Parish Church which now serves as Parish Hall.

They brought to the Hall the different dishes which they had prepared for the lunch. Some of the men brought palm wine, sha and beer. Present also for the occasion was Miss Christina Peterek from Frankfurt, Germany. She came with the delegation that came out for the wedding of Ephriam and Makelia. She had stayed behind when the other members of the delegation returned to Kumbo last Saturday. We were very happy that she stayed to celebrate this day with us.

We also remembered very specially the people of St Joseph’s Parish, Gerrards Cross, England, and those of St Peter’s Parish Low Fell, England who had been with us at the celebration of the first ever parish lunch on January 4th 2004. We thought about all our partners in Germany and England, and members of our parish who had moved to other parishes in Cameroon. We had received goodwill messages from the families of Mr & Mrs Kwei (Tobin), Mr & Mrs Echu (Bamenda), Mr & Mrs Naseri (Bertoua), and Mr & Mrs Sama (Bamenda). These families had been part of our celebrations in the past and still remembered us in their prayers. We were united with all of them during our celebration. During the Mass Father Tanto had extended to the congregation greetings and special regards from Cecilia, Patricia, Frances Martin, and Mary Hughes, all of Low Fell, England. He had told us that at St Peter’s Church, Low Fell, the congregation would be praying for us and we would be united spiritually with them. Unfortunately a prayer testimony from Low Fell which had been made by those who had visited us from there last April did come in the email that morning. But we had been informed about that and were excited.

In the Hall were about sixty mothers with dishes they had prepared in Binju and Kungi for the occasion. Some people did not bring food or drink, but there was more than enough for the nearly 150 people present for the lunch. Six families introduced their food and how they had worked as a family to have the food ready for us at table. The variety was rich: rice and stew, cabbage and yams, corn foofoo and njamanjama, achu and catanga, plantains and ndole, etc. etc.
Mr Martin Mbunkur, who was MC for the occasion had carried from the farm to the house, the cocoyams which his wife had used to prepare the achu which the parish priest ate with relish. Mr Visha Vitalis chaired the occasion in the absence of the chairman of the Parish Pastoral Council.
After the introduction of the officials for the occasion, the Chairman welcomed all and said though we were far away from our partners in Germany and England, we were very close together. He reminded us that the world was a global village. Father Tanto said that as father of the parish family, he had noticed that our children in the parish were sick. He referred to a news item in the internet in which a 10 year old boy in Houston, USA, had hanged himself and died, imitating the hanging of Saddam Hussein which he saw on television. He concluded that he had tried to caution our parish children about the TV Programmes and the Videos they were watching and some of them had run away from parish programmes. He said at the beginning of this New Year he had prepared a questionnaire to be answered by the youths who still wanted to follow the formation the parish was offering them. He prayed that God would bless all who had sacrificed time and money to make this lunch such a successful come-together.

Makelia and Ephriam wedding 30th dec 2006

Well, we had difficulty pasting the photos to our blog "Since our Parish Day Celebration 2", and so we sent the photos to Juan who has nicely pasted them. The two photos of the Weddings of Makelia and Ephriam, and Livinus and Raphaela have come up here as a new blog. It does not matter, really. This is only a reminder that it was a hectic celebration.




After the festivities, the couples are back to their daily routines. We were blessed in Binju with a visit from four of the delegation from Germany, accompanied by Makelia. Bernard, Regina, Peter and Christina had lunch with us on Saturday 6 January. Christina stayed behind to visit with the people she had met and loved when she worked on the Diocesan Youth Team.
We were very happy to have more time with her and to chat with her about her university studies, her family and all. She is at home in Binju. Our family just gets warmer and warmer.

We are very grateful to Juan for always being there to help us with the tecnicalities when we do not succeed to complete our story with the photos. The photos in this blog show the couples on their wedding day posing first with the concelebrating priests and then with the German delegation.

SINCE OUR PARISH DAY CELEBRATION (2)

Since celebrating Mass 24 years ago for the mainly Presbyterian and traditional religion worshippers of Mbibu in Tabenken, the quarter of my birth, I went back there on 29 November to celebrate Mass at the graves of my grandparents. It was a faith inspiring celebration. I felt very highly honoured by the presence for the Mass of the Choir of Kungi Zone. A delegation of choir members also went from Binju. At the end of Holy Mass, the Quarter head who performs traditional priestly duties for his subjects submitted himself to receive my blessing. I felt very humbled and happy that my people recognise, even if only vaguely the priesthood of Jesus Christ which surpasses all other forms of priesthoods.

Of course, before Christmas the people of Kuta zone deserve a pastoral visit to prepare them for Christmas Celebration. Kuta is the most difficult to reach part of our parish. In the dry season one drives with a Suzuki Jeep as far as Mbande. Do not try to imagine the road. You have to go through the experience to know it. I cannot adequately describe it.
Any way, I got to Ande my first stop on 13 December. The little house we had been using for our Church has been taken back by its owner. Someone offered us an old little hut from which he had just removed a grinding mill to a better building. We set up a makeshift altar in this "new church" and celebrated Mass. Two people received communion at the Mass. No one went to Confession. Our dear Catechist, David has in the meantime taken a second wife! His first and properly married wife deserted him about a year ago. David tried in vain to take back his wife from someone in the same village. Now he thinks it is not possible for him to get rid of his new wife, since she is already pregnant.

I went on from Ande to Mbande where I stayed the night. As there were no people for the Mission Pastoral Council Meeting planned for that evening, I spent the remaining daylight hour searching for a spot where I could make a telephone call. Sure enough, I found one. I was able to find out about my mother who had been taken into hospital at Kumbo for surgery to remove cataract. The following morning I met a little community of some five Christians and some Catechumens and children.
It is at Mbande we tried with the people to build a modest little house for the priests who visit the area. Pat's donation last April was put into aluminium sheets for the house. The back wall of the house collapsed in the rain before we could get the aluminium sheets on the rafters. The people assured me they would build back the collapsed wall before my next pastoral visit. Once we are able to us our "Fathers' House" at Mbande, we can afford to stay there for a week or two and visit the neighbouring villages from Mbande. From there one must trek to the other villages.

This last time, like in my previous visits, it took 2 hours of trekking time to Jevi from Mbande. I spent the night at Jevi in a dilapidated "catechists' House" Father Meulemans built after building the cement block Church dedicated to Lady, Mother of the Church. But I still had only one person for Confession the next morning, and two people for communion.

We did not get crowds at our Christmas Masses as one would have expected. The night Masses are losing popularity because thieves generally break into homes when people leave them to go to night mass.

The year ended with some of our parish participating in the Wedding Mass at Kumbo for Makelia and Ephriam. I wish we had been able to bring the entire parish to witness the wedding. We have not had any Christian Marriage in the parish during the last year. In past years there have been very few marriages, and even those few were mostly by people who come to the parish because of their job and stay for a short time only. The local people just have not yet caught up with Christian Marriage.

Kungi Community are still far from realising their new Church project as our application was turned down in Cologne. We continue to worship in the old Church which is giving way by the day. In spite of the poor state of the Church building, Kungi Church, which is the people, is a truly celebrating Church.

SINCE OUR PARISH DAY CELEBRATION (1)

We have been rather quiet since our Parish Day Celebration. We just got our hands really full. It's time we got someone to keep up the blog. But we still must get someone willing to collect and publish news.

Well, we were all shocked by the death of Mr Wacho Christian Nkoh, Head Teacher of Moh in Nkambe Town quasi Parish. It was a sad ending to our celebration in the diocese of Catholic Education Week from 30th October to 05 November. After the celebration of High Mass at the Nkambe "Grand Stand" to conclude the week, Mr Wacho mounted a taxi motorbike at the very grounds where Mass had ended. The bike had not gone ten metres when an oncoming car knocked it down. Wacho went unconscious and died in Shisong Hospital after a week of hospitalisation. His funeral drew crowds to Catholic School Moh premises where a concelebrated Requiem Mass was presided at by the Schools Manager, Father Christopher Seka. Father Joseph Clifford Ndi, the Catholic Education Secretary expressed condolence to the bereaved family.
On 24 November the Swiss Consul General was treated to a cultural jamboree at Tabenken. The occasion brought together most of the elite of Tabenken village. The Fon of Tabenken, HRH Fon Polycarp Ngwayi Ndiboti decorated many of his industrious sons with traditional titles. The cultural celebration was occasioned by the giving of the "Nformi" title to a young Swiss, René Egloff. René had come to Tabenken some months ago with James Mombeh, an indigene who lives in Bamenda and does professional photography. Renè worked on a research programme to discover the use of photograhs for the people. In the course of his research in Tabenken, René sponsored a minor water project in Tuku Primary School. Tuku primary school now has pipe-borne water. In a village where majority of the people do not have any access to pipeborne water, this was a very important gift to the school and to the village. Mr Egloff will be remembered in the village for a long time!

We celebrated FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING on 26 November. The celebrations at Kungi and Binju ended with Procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets. The procession in Binju last four hours. The people defied the midday sun and the dust. It was a very public expression of their faith. As we passed in front of shops and bars with the Blessed Sacrament, onlookers showed they respected the Catholic Programme even if they did not believe in it. They bowed or genuflected to the Blessed Sacrament.


Robert Tanto