News from Father Michael Barton

SS-Mogok

P.O. Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya. 00505
February 26th,2020

Dear Friends,

This year the school did very well and particularly the class eight leavers. They sat for it in another place outside of Mogok in the last week of November 2019 and the results have just come out. The highest got 392 marks out of 500 and the lowest got 380/500 in five subjects and so once again it is clear that hard work pays off. Pastoral work has been less successful. As it seems only in Mogok are things moving in the right direction because I am here and keep pushing but in the other chapels things are stagnant and it is very hard to get any response at all. I keep the school going along with fine teachers of both the morning and evening school and catechism is being taught only in the center and nowhere else. When I go out I sometimes think that a neutron bomb might be needed to get something running.
I give you an example, on January 7th 2020 I went with two catechists and three young men to go from Mojok to Paguil where I had never been before. That day we walked the entire day near the Jongalei Canal and when it grew dark we stopped and lay down in the open field. I had forgotten to bring my mosquito net and so my head got gnawed on by the pesky insects all night long. The other sleepers had even less covering and so were completely unprotected. On the 8th we rose with the sun and walked till we got to a village at half past six in the evening and there we met the old catechist of Paguil one, who after I begged him lent me a net to sleep under and inside a hut. We prayed the rosary but only us knew the prayers which is always a bad sign. We were up early and I insisted that we say Mass before a third day of walking. Then as we drew near to Paguil some of our school boys from there met us and told me three things. 1] There is bread hot and fresh and I WAS so happy. 2] There is the internet and so in an NGO there I could load and download messages and likewise this make me so happy. 3] We had to go to not Paguil but Paguil one which is another half day walk. We arrived to find the flour was finished and the internet was down. Yet Friday morning I got on AOL and got messages and news and in the afternoon walked in the hot sun we walked to Paguil one with Peter, the old catechist beating the drum as we walked and driving me crazy.
Now it was Saturday and they tell me the chapel was brand new and was just a couple of hours away just ahead. So on Sunday we got there and had confessions and Mass and blessed and named the chapel [Saint Joseph] and baptized ONE girl. They fed us and we rested and started the first eight hours of walking back. All for one girl to be baptized and the same story walking back but when we got back in Mogok late Tuesday evening a woman had killed a goat and made us tea and was so kind to have us return. Yes, I was a bit put off with such a effort and such little result but the kind MARTHA make it seem worthwhile.
I stayed in Mogok till Saturday as a man asked me to have a funeral Mass on Friday for his sister. It turned out she was a young mother of three small children and with a very elderly husband. She and her three children were just baptized on Christmas day 2018 while I was recovering in the USA from surgery. That Saturday we started south for Wai and walked the entire day and a good part of the evening till as we neared the place, very near our goal but I quit and decided to stay in the forest rather than walk another step. This forced the catechists to stay with me there and some people brought them food from the village. I had slept poorly and so early on Sunday morning “as the women were going to the tomb” I entered Wai , our destination. They led me to a very dirty compound but prepared a hut and a mattress on the ground and asleep I went.
In the evening as we were going to celebrate Mass when I was told the hosts were left behind in Mogok. So we read the readings and prayed and the young teacher walked all the way back to get them so we could have Mass on Monday. Now in Wai there were no baptisms as the woman who did want her children christened did not know even the Our Father. So we were there but not much happened but we went on to Gorwai and were met with a lot of people and I spent one day blessing homes with the Legion of Mary and every day with Mass one day for reconciliation and another for the anointing of the sick and another with the youth and still there is no catechist there either and so on Sunday there was only two baptisms but those mothers knew something.
From there I took a young girl and a young teacher to enroll in a senior secondary school in Rumbek. I had two girls before Sarah there but this was my first young man and he had helped me by finishing class 8 and spending two more years teaching in Mogok.
Now I am in Nairobi and had a week stay in the Nairobi Hospital and another week at Muangaza Jesuit Retreat Centre for Spirituality. Now I have someone making bricks and preparing to build a chapel in Mogok and I found today a Ruanda carver in Nairobi, who sold me two crucifixes one small for the altar and a big one for the back wall of the new chapel and I ordered two statues one of the Holy Family which is almost done and another of Saint Bishop Daniel Comboni which needs to be started. Soon I shall return to Juba and then to Mogok.
Good Lent to one and all and many thanks for your prayers, cards and donations.
We have been given a new bishop in Malakal and he has brought two young priests to the Lou area of the Nuer where I used to serve and was the most hopeful part of the parish and now just the deadest part remains. Let’s bring some life to it.

In the Lord’s Sacred Heart,
Michael D. Barton, MCCJ