Nyamlell: Father Michael Barton's Sudan mission: July 2018

Sunday, July 8, 2018

From Nyamlell to Mogok

Father Michael D. Barton
Comboni Missionary
Mogok
Jonglei State
South Sudan

I left Nyamlell after eleven years and a bit more of wonderful work among the Dinka Malual and went home to the USA. The day I left Nyamlell was the day that Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would resign the papacy (February 2013) and I only heard about it when I reached Wau.

When I returned to the South Sudan in December 2013, the civil war had just broken out and I was looking at the only region of the South Sudan that I had not experienced — the Upper Nile Region, which was the area most affected by the civil war between the SPLA and SPLA-IO. Father Antonio Labracca was living in Ayod as a hermit and was open to my coming with him as one who would do missionary ministry in the area of the Nuer Gawar and Nuer Lou.

So, I was sent to Leer in Unity State to study the Nuer Language with a group of other Comboni Missionaries. We had one day of class. Then the civil war reached Leer and the looting soon began. The other missionaries fled the town too and I refused to join them so I saw the looting of the Catholic Mission of Leer. Two officials of an oil company working in that state helped me to find a boat on the White Nile to take me to Old Fangak, where the Combonis run another mission among the Nuer. I was welcomed by that community and stayed two months to study. For holy week 2014, I make the jump to my new assignment in Ayod and was there on Palm Sunday where they used a donkey in the procession and to welcome me into their community.

I was sent to Mogok to celebrate the rest of the Holy Week, where I saw a school building and a small Catholic community. On Easter Monday I went back to Ayod and as we got nearer I felt blisters on my feet after nine hours of walking. I also heard heavy gun fire coming from Ayod. I found Antonio well and we stayed in Ayod until Easter Friday when we were told to flee and that we did. One night it was deep in the bush and the next day it was even deeper and there we stayed for a month and a half with the hope that the government would leave Ayod and we could go back. That has yet to happen and we are in 2018.

That place was called Jony and we drank and washed in the same water all very brown and very much a village rural setting. No blackboard or books or even chalk. The catechists and youth had gone back to the town and brought out most of the clothes I had left there. I asked Antonio to allow me back to Mogok and I would start a school there and do pastoral work from there. So, I did.

With permission of the authorities of the place we started with a few textbooks and no chalk or food for me. Within two months Father Antonio had joined me, continuing his ministry as a prayerful hermit now both of us in Mogok. We had received chalk and food and the Mogok Christians built us two huts, a bigger one for Antonio and a smaller one for me — all for a new rain jacket.

I started the school with class 1 to class 5. No fees and not much interest from the local population and terrible absenteeism. To begin is tough. I found a few other teachers but to align them to my way of doing things was also difficult. Every year since has been easier and the pupils and parents have taken the school more seriously and the teacher more and more on board with what I want. At the end of 2017 we had the full primary school. The class eight has 5 candidates for the leaver certificate and they took the first three positions. The first position was one of our girls and second was one of our boys and third place was a tie between two boys and another girl all from our school. After starting from nothing in 2014, by 2018 we had something of value. Those two girls I sent to a senior secondary school in Rumbek run by the Irish Loreto Sisters. I have had good experiences with other girls in the past. Girls are terribly oppressed in Nuerland as in many other places and so I feel called to help them and let the boys figure other solutions with their families.

It was a real challenge to start and get going the catechumenate, and after four years it really is working only in Mogok but nowhere else in the parish. The vision I have is to create one parish with all the Nuer that I work with so we would be independent from Old Fangak. But so far it is only my vision and that of some of the West side of the parish and nobody else. Yet it continues in my head. I would like to see some permanent churches built and lots of instructions given and on-going growth going non-stop. We are just at the beginning and the Presbyterians are much more established.

The West part of the parish is part of the Sudd, a very large water containment, and are the Gawar, whereas the East is wet in the Wet Season (summer) and very dry in the dry (winter).

I move only on foot and have no car, or even bike or motorbike. I would be able to use a car if and when we go back to Ayod. Not now as it would be taken either by the government troops or the rebels among who we live. In the future . . .

In March 2017 many towns and villages were disrupted by government troops and looted by everyone. I had guns put to my head and Mogok was captured for just a few hours, but all my things were looted and carried off and up to June 2018, I had only one pair of long pants and three shirts. Now after a month home in Indianapolis I have more clothes than I had before the looting and I have bought nothing.

F

Photos from Mogok, South Sudan

These are photos taken of the Mogok Christians and Comboni Missionaries Father Michael Barton and Father Antonio Labracca.

Message from Father Michael Barton

Saint Teresa Parish

Comboni School

Nyamlell (Aweil West)

Northern Bahr el Ghazal State

South Sudan

The permanent school and the Activity Center that serves as the Saint Joseph Church, as well as a block of four classrooms in the Comboni School in Marial Baai in Aweil West in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, were completed and the Church is used for two classes of Comboni School there. Until further plans or possibilities present themselves, the Marial Baai Community will have to maintain two locally built classrooms. However, in 2009, six classrooms were built – two of them in the first permanent Church built in the entire state since the 1950s.

The Science Laboratory and two more classrooms were roofed and completed in Nyamlell, also in 2009

We celebrated the 75 years of foundation and of existence of the Catholic Church in Nyamlell, which is the second mission built by the Comboni Missionaries among the Dinka. It began in 1934 for the first evangelization of the Dinka Malual so there have been 75 years of the gospel and the sacraments in our state. It was a very big celebration and many thousands of people came and so much preparation went into it.

There was a drive to get donations from the local Christians especially by the youth, and to my amazement the youth and the elders responded marvelously and most of the costs was covered by the Catholics of the parish; the OLSH sisters helped so much in organizing so many details. It was a Christ-centered celebration of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus and a strengthening of the Church for continued preaching of the gospel in this parish, state and country of the South Sudan.

Our school did very well and got first place in the whole state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal in the state-run class eight leavers certificate examination in 2009. Our best was first in the state and our worst was 99^th out of 1,568 class eight leavers. The best went on to high school and the worst became a policeman. The class eight in 2010 should be sitting soon for theirs and we shall see how they will do.

A non-governmental organization (NGO) in Juba had promised $50,000 when the Activity Center was being built in Marial Baai, but when finished they said that it looked like a church to them and in the end did not give a red cent or piaster of any kind. So all this was done by money that had been donated by people like you.

There are NGOs who have built classrooms but they will only do it for the South Sudan Government and not for the Church even though our results are far superior than those of the government. All these took great effort.

In 2009 the Christmas collection all over the parish in all its centers and chapels was dedicated to building of the first permanent Church in the entire County of Aweil North. This building will be for two purposes. It will serve as a Church and as an Activity Center. It will be called Saint William Church and Saint Julia Activity Center and is being built in Gok Macar, the county seat of Aweil North.

We started the construction as of December 2009 and it is much too early to say when we shall finish but it will be done some time in 2010. I am thinking that U.S. $80,000 will be the cost and one thousand will come from the local community in the form of Sudanese pounds of items.

Next we would like to build a smaller chapel in Ariath, another important center in Aweil North with a good population and many Catholics in both Gok Macar and Ariath.

We have another Comboni school in Makuei, also in Aweil North, which is up to class five. Not far is a large church that has only local grass structures. I would like to build a block of four classrooms that will cost close to U.S. $100,000, which will only be started when we have the money. So I am looking for that too. I hope to get something from some organization. Much cheaper will the repair and finishing of our last classrooms if we can by 2012. I shall move one step at a time.

In 2010 there will be two schools that are up to class eight. They are Nyamlell and Marial Baai, both in Aweil West. As I have said Makuei is our smallest school and has class five this year.

Sacred Heart High School had a great year and in 2010 we shall have Form One and Form Two and growing but also struggling as students coming from other schools like the government ones are very difficult to find as to fit the poorly taught and the well taught who have the basics in place.

We all need help, so that something can get done and that what is up and running stays that way.

Sincerely yours in the Lord of all,
Father Michael Barton, MCCJ.
Comboni Missionaries-Nyamlell,South Sudan.
Post Office Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya 00505.