February 26th, 2012
First Sunday of Lent
Comboni Missionaries, Nyamlell, Aweil West, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State
South Sudan
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
I am very happy to write you this letter to thank you for your help and generous sharing in this missionary endeavor in the South Sudan.
Last time I wrote you last October I told you of the completion of Saint Dennis Church in Ariath, which is the second permanent Church in the county of Aweil North. That community on its own has found money from somewhere to plaster the inside of the church and paint the walls white and blue and also start a three room Comboni School. The community of Wedwil in Aweil West County put up the walls for their new church with overly large baked mud bricks and they used mud in place of cement, but they did this all on their own.
It was left to me to put up 26 pillars with small bricks and concrete to reinforce the walls and close the windows just enough to let in a light. I had to have made and installed two doors and put on the roof and the church of the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel was opened on the first Saturday of November and the end result is something quite beautiful and very different from the others built on my watch.
Lawrence then moved to build another church dedicated to Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. I have not been to see its progress but I saw a picture that shows the walls and doors are in and the walls are up a little past them. I hope to go to see Udhom and visit all the chapels under that center beginning on the extra day of this leap year until March 7th and will see the progress with my own eyes.
This construction is our biggest and most daunting as Lawrence had to find all the material and get them to the site. This is all done with an embargo by the Sudan to make life for the Southern Sudanese as difficult as possible. Prices have all doubled and difficult to find and things are brought down from Darfur and Kordufan, which are places of war themselves. This project has cleaned me out of money both South Sudan pounds and US dollars, but with what I have in Juba in my Comboni account should be able to keep my head above water and get this church finished. Then Lawrence will go on holiday to his home in Kenya and when he comes back we would like to start a church and some class rooms in Makwei and in Aweil North County.
Our school year ended as planned right before Christmas and the certificates were prepared after Christmas. Certificate Day in Nyamlell was December 28th on the Feast of the Holy Innocents. We started with Mass and 125 baptisms, First Holy Communions and Confirmations and with the 40 which Bishop Deng Majak did on Comboni Day so they were 165 from our school last year in 2011. I give all the credit to God and my five catechist who prepared them so well and even yours truly had a group of the RCIA which I prepared and this was a record number for our school in Nyamlell and even in the parish as a whole.
In Marial Baai with a similar number of pupils and catechists only had 35 who passed and were given Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion on January 12st of this year when they also got their certificates and ended their school year. Makwei, which is a very small Comboni school and with only grass roofs and poles, had only 11 who passed the catechism and prayer examination and received their certificates on that day of December 29th of last year.
One more church school started on its own and we did their certificate in Nyamlell for Saint Dennis School in Ariath and as it just started late in the year they did not teach the catechism and only got their certificates on February 17th, 2012. Let us pray something will continue.
Christmas was very special for our parish in 2011 and for so many people who could have Mass for the Nativity of the Lord. You see we had four priests; three other Padres came to give us a hand. Father Angelo Agany (a diocesan priest), Father John Barth and Father John Tscornia (two American Maryknoll Missionaries) and myself. Father Angelo did Christmas here in Nyamlell and on Dec 26th in Ariath. Father Tom who knows spoken Arabic and worked some years in North Sudan and now works with the Catholic University of Wau went to War Cuei on the 24th and Marial Baai on the 25th and Udhom on the 26th. Father John had his first Christmas in Africa with us as he had worked many years in Cambodia and in his general administration of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in New York and is now training health workers in Wau. Fr. John had Christmas in Majak Baai and baptized more than 50 babies which was a personal record for him and on the 26th he went to Wedwi and celebrated there.
The Sisters had us over for Christmas dinner (Indonesian style) and we sang carols late into the night of the 25th. I am so grateful for their coming and their wonderful service. I have been out every day from December 24th up to now and will conclude the program of visits on March 7th of this year. During this time I will have said Mass in Nyamlell twice, on December 28th and today Feb 26 and all the rest of the days I had Mass out in the chapels and centers where I have done my first visits for this year to the whole of the parish, started even with some five other chapels visited on the 3rd and 4th Sundays of Advent and will end in early March with only pastoral work with sacrament in their plenty and visits to the sick and families. When it is over I shall have to begin again.
Now there is bread and more food in the markets than ever before and this makes feeding so much easier.
On January 6tyh our Indonesian Sisters left Nyamlell, and their community and their congregation ended their presence and commitment to the parish and to the diocese. It will be tough to find replacements and now I have a sad heart and an empty convent. I shall try to find another group of women religious to come and see if they will serve in our growing parish. Two of the sisters went to Mapuordit and another returned to her homeland for good. It will be tough to find replacements and to run the school without them. VERY SAD NEWS!!!
On the first Sunday of Advent back in November we a very interesting and entertaining choir completion. I was here for it.
On January 19th in the late afternoon I went to sleep in Nyamlell and to get on the internet and check things out in the parish center. As I was talking to the catechist and checking on the Baptismal list and registration books, a mad dog came in and bit Samuel(our cook) and Marko (our head catechist). With the help of others (not mine) they were able to kill it but both had to get rabies shots-five at a hundred pounds each and to go to the state capital for each shot and so a lot of money went into that dead dog in shots and bus fares and even the old sisters’ dog got rabies and had to be killed too.
I want to thank you for all your help, spiritual as well as material.
Happy Lent and Easter Season in 2012!
Fr. Michael D. Barton, MCCJ.
In 2011 we had 2264 baptisms, 400 First Communions and 382 Confirmations, and 23 Christian Marriages. We had 499 Masses and 50,000 Holy Communions given out and 1,575 Sacraments of Reconciliation celebrated and 512 Anointing of the Sick.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Sacraments for 2011 -- St. Teresa Parish, Nyamlell
Father Michael D. Barton, MCCJ, reports the sacraments given in Saint Teresa Parish, Nyamlell Aweil, West County, Northern Bahr el Gazhal State, South Sudan:
FROM JANUARY 1ST TO DECEMBER 31ST 2011.
BAPTISMS: 2264.
FIRST COMMUNIONS ONLY: 18 AND 382 MORE WITH CONFIRMATION.
CONFIRMATIONS: 382.
MARRIAGES: 23.
HOLY COMMUNIONS GIVEN: 50,000.
MASSES SAID 499.
SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION: 1575
ANNOINTINGS OF THE SICK: 512.
FROM JANUARY 1ST TO DECEMBER 31ST 2011.
BAPTISMS: 2264.
FIRST COMMUNIONS ONLY: 18 AND 382 MORE WITH CONFIRMATION.
CONFIRMATIONS: 382.
MARRIAGES: 23.
HOLY COMMUNIONS GIVEN: 50,000.
MASSES SAID 499.
SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION: 1575
ANNOINTINGS OF THE SICK: 512.
Friday, November 25, 2011
A busy fall and a bishop's visit to Saint Teresa Parish in South Sudan
Saint Teresa Parish-Nyamlell
Comboni Missionaries-South Sudan
P.O. Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya
Thanksgiving Day, USA
November 24, 2011
Dear Relatives and Friends,
Last Saturday I was out and left the car and walked to the chapel where I was going. I walked in sandals without socks. I found only a few children and celebrated my first Mass of Christ the KING. Why just a few children? Well the town which is nearby had a MARKET DAY which is the most important day of the week. Well, Sunday I had a lot more luck of big congregations and baptisms and even an adult confirmation and his first holy communion.
On Monday I was okay and did all my duties but Tuesday I was in pain and could only walk so slowly that the snails and tortoises were all passing me up. I did all my work and had everyone laughing behind me and asking if I had arthritis, which I don’t, and had more than a full day when I just went into bed after dark. It was a blister that had infected the right foot and made movement so difficult but on Wednesday night it started to bleed and slowing it is becoming just fine.
The OLSH Sisters and the Kenyan teacher extended their two week break to a four week one in leaving in mid August and returned on September 10th. So I had to send several classes home for extra holidays or until September 12th. Yet I had all my classes with class 8. I had all my RCIA work as usual and the weekend trips for pastoral work. And we made a big plan for an Episcopal visit to the parish and I was able to build up some enthusiasm for it. The highlight was to be the blessings of the Saint Dennis Church in Ariath and Comboni Day in Nyamlell. Well, it did not work out as planned.
It was to start on October 7th, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. I received a letter from the bishop that all was going as planned. Then an email on the 5th said the opposite. I called and called and got nowhere at all and so I knew that I had to do it all myself, which is the story of my Comboni missionary life. So in such a bind I closed class 8 for the day and gave the keys to another teacher, said a Mass for the Sisters and went with the head catechist, who is also in class 8, to Udhom to tell them that there was no bishop coming but I would do what I could and had a plan to do confessions and the Rosary and Litany and then Mass with the pictures of the life of Comboni and the anointing of the sick and infant baptism and the catechists would have their meeting and Marko would write everything down and we would send it all to the bishop as soon as possible. We would also break ground for the new church.
They were glad that I had come and accepted my plan and so I was the whole day there and had trouble because I had to do the baptisms during the parish catechist meeting and there are always people making confusion and no catechist to help me in keeping order and my nerves were rattled.
They have to be tested to see if at least one of the parents is a Baptized Catholic and knows the Apostle Creed in whatever language. This takes time when there are sixty babies. Then there was a threat of rain but it all got done. There we want to build another permanent church -- Saint Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Mary will be for both my mother and that wonderful mother Jesus shared with us. Comboni dedicated Sudan to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the 1800’s and this will be the first church dedicated to her in the South Sudan. Dad was such a help to get the church done in Ariath and now we need even more help to do the one in Udhom, which is also right on the railway. It will be tough but let us try with the help of the blessed mother and the other Saints that we knew.
We drove back to Nyamlell and found a wonderful meal prepared by the youth for the bishop but no bishop so I called the Sisters and we ate it all. On Saturday Marko and two Sisters went with me to Wedwil, which is right on the railway too, and we did as we did in Udhom the day before and had no bishop but we did have a marriage and a baptism and confirmation. We also named the new church there as the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel. The people had built the walls and we had only to make pillars and then the roof. More on that later.
There was a youth meeting planned and Marko did it and went back to Nyamlell for the Sunday service. The Sisters and I went to spend the night in Ariath where there was a huge number of people waiting and more came after and we had a vigil and evening prayers and rest with mosquito nets as the mosquitoes were really biting. Many chapels came and I had a plan of work for Sunday and an official opening of that Church on the feast of Dennis himself and I did some testing for confirmation and only one passed. Then lo and behold, the bishop came and brought the altar servers from Nyamlell and Bishop Rudolf Deng Majak had slept and then that morning had driven to Ariath. I never mentioned my plan to him and came with apologies for missing the first two days and he blessed that church and administered one confirmation and had a wonderful Mass and homily and had a meeting with the authorities of the Aweil North County and I did a few baptisms. After the celebration we drove back to Nyamlell. There I had tested 55 children on October 6th evening and 20 passed and were confirmed on Comboni Day with a big solemn Mass outside under the trees with a big crowd. It was huge. After the Mass we had our schools annual celebration of Comboni and in the afternoon we went to see New Life Ministry, which is a Protestant school here for orphans. They received the bishop very well.
Then I took the bishop to some of the NGOs here and had supper with the sisters and pastoral council. On the 16th the bishop went with Marko to Marial Baai with another Comboni day there too and a meeting with the teachers of our Catholic schools in the parish. I heard that it was another huge crowd. Even the bishop told me that massive number of youth was very impressive. I hosted everyone for supper and no one died. He left the next day.
I had such a strong presence of my father in Ariath and I am hoping to have Mother’s help in Udhom. I shall let you know.
November 5th was another day as I went with the Sister to Wedwil to unofficially bless the church in Wedwil and name it and let it be open as a place of worship. We had a small crowd but I had not promoted it at all and the bishop will come again to bless when I get the courage to invite him again. It is named Gabriel for the prayer leader there who did most of the work and community animation to build that church and Raphael for Father Raphael Riel Col who I lived with for four years in Mapuordit, and Michael for my classmate Father Miguel Istuiriz Agudo, who everyone loved. We were ordained together as deacons in Granada, Spain, and he had worked in Sudan and was killed in Spain 20 years before by a hit and run on the anniversary of the day we blessed the Ariath church. May the Archangels help that community and us too.
On the 15th of this a month Laurence moved to Udhom to start that new project and I am trying to finish out this year and then Christmas, etc. I was there and ended the liturgical year and all the committed visits of the chapels for this Mass year. And as you already know when we end something there is nothing left to do but to begin something else. I am thankful for it all and for you and your help in all its forms.
Thankfully in Christ Jesus,
Father Michael Barton, MCCJ
Comboni Missionaries-South Sudan
P.O. Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya
Thanksgiving Day, USA
November 24, 2011
Dear Relatives and Friends,
Last Saturday I was out and left the car and walked to the chapel where I was going. I walked in sandals without socks. I found only a few children and celebrated my first Mass of Christ the KING. Why just a few children? Well the town which is nearby had a MARKET DAY which is the most important day of the week. Well, Sunday I had a lot more luck of big congregations and baptisms and even an adult confirmation and his first holy communion.
On Monday I was okay and did all my duties but Tuesday I was in pain and could only walk so slowly that the snails and tortoises were all passing me up. I did all my work and had everyone laughing behind me and asking if I had arthritis, which I don’t, and had more than a full day when I just went into bed after dark. It was a blister that had infected the right foot and made movement so difficult but on Wednesday night it started to bleed and slowing it is becoming just fine.
The OLSH Sisters and the Kenyan teacher extended their two week break to a four week one in leaving in mid August and returned on September 10th. So I had to send several classes home for extra holidays or until September 12th. Yet I had all my classes with class 8. I had all my RCIA work as usual and the weekend trips for pastoral work. And we made a big plan for an Episcopal visit to the parish and I was able to build up some enthusiasm for it. The highlight was to be the blessings of the Saint Dennis Church in Ariath and Comboni Day in Nyamlell. Well, it did not work out as planned.
It was to start on October 7th, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. I received a letter from the bishop that all was going as planned. Then an email on the 5th said the opposite. I called and called and got nowhere at all and so I knew that I had to do it all myself, which is the story of my Comboni missionary life. So in such a bind I closed class 8 for the day and gave the keys to another teacher, said a Mass for the Sisters and went with the head catechist, who is also in class 8, to Udhom to tell them that there was no bishop coming but I would do what I could and had a plan to do confessions and the Rosary and Litany and then Mass with the pictures of the life of Comboni and the anointing of the sick and infant baptism and the catechists would have their meeting and Marko would write everything down and we would send it all to the bishop as soon as possible. We would also break ground for the new church.
They were glad that I had come and accepted my plan and so I was the whole day there and had trouble because I had to do the baptisms during the parish catechist meeting and there are always people making confusion and no catechist to help me in keeping order and my nerves were rattled.
They have to be tested to see if at least one of the parents is a Baptized Catholic and knows the Apostle Creed in whatever language. This takes time when there are sixty babies. Then there was a threat of rain but it all got done. There we want to build another permanent church -- Saint Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Mary will be for both my mother and that wonderful mother Jesus shared with us. Comboni dedicated Sudan to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the 1800’s and this will be the first church dedicated to her in the South Sudan. Dad was such a help to get the church done in Ariath and now we need even more help to do the one in Udhom, which is also right on the railway. It will be tough but let us try with the help of the blessed mother and the other Saints that we knew.
We drove back to Nyamlell and found a wonderful meal prepared by the youth for the bishop but no bishop so I called the Sisters and we ate it all. On Saturday Marko and two Sisters went with me to Wedwil, which is right on the railway too, and we did as we did in Udhom the day before and had no bishop but we did have a marriage and a baptism and confirmation. We also named the new church there as the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel. The people had built the walls and we had only to make pillars and then the roof. More on that later.
There was a youth meeting planned and Marko did it and went back to Nyamlell for the Sunday service. The Sisters and I went to spend the night in Ariath where there was a huge number of people waiting and more came after and we had a vigil and evening prayers and rest with mosquito nets as the mosquitoes were really biting. Many chapels came and I had a plan of work for Sunday and an official opening of that Church on the feast of Dennis himself and I did some testing for confirmation and only one passed. Then lo and behold, the bishop came and brought the altar servers from Nyamlell and Bishop Rudolf Deng Majak had slept and then that morning had driven to Ariath. I never mentioned my plan to him and came with apologies for missing the first two days and he blessed that church and administered one confirmation and had a wonderful Mass and homily and had a meeting with the authorities of the Aweil North County and I did a few baptisms. After the celebration we drove back to Nyamlell. There I had tested 55 children on October 6th evening and 20 passed and were confirmed on Comboni Day with a big solemn Mass outside under the trees with a big crowd. It was huge. After the Mass we had our schools annual celebration of Comboni and in the afternoon we went to see New Life Ministry, which is a Protestant school here for orphans. They received the bishop very well.
Then I took the bishop to some of the NGOs here and had supper with the sisters and pastoral council. On the 16th the bishop went with Marko to Marial Baai with another Comboni day there too and a meeting with the teachers of our Catholic schools in the parish. I heard that it was another huge crowd. Even the bishop told me that massive number of youth was very impressive. I hosted everyone for supper and no one died. He left the next day.
I had such a strong presence of my father in Ariath and I am hoping to have Mother’s help in Udhom. I shall let you know.
November 5th was another day as I went with the Sister to Wedwil to unofficially bless the church in Wedwil and name it and let it be open as a place of worship. We had a small crowd but I had not promoted it at all and the bishop will come again to bless when I get the courage to invite him again. It is named Gabriel for the prayer leader there who did most of the work and community animation to build that church and Raphael for Father Raphael Riel Col who I lived with for four years in Mapuordit, and Michael for my classmate Father Miguel Istuiriz Agudo, who everyone loved. We were ordained together as deacons in Granada, Spain, and he had worked in Sudan and was killed in Spain 20 years before by a hit and run on the anniversary of the day we blessed the Ariath church. May the Archangels help that community and us too.
On the 15th of this a month Laurence moved to Udhom to start that new project and I am trying to finish out this year and then Christmas, etc. I was there and ended the liturgical year and all the committed visits of the chapels for this Mass year. And as you already know when we end something there is nothing left to do but to begin something else. I am thankful for it all and for you and your help in all its forms.
Thankfully in Christ Jesus,
Father Michael Barton, MCCJ
Monday, September 19, 2011
Bishop of Wau's October visit to St. Teresa Parish
Saint Teresa Parish
Nyamlell, (Aweil West County)
NBG State
Republic of the South Sudan.
September 12, 2011
CONCERNING PASTORAL VISIT OF THE BISHOP OF WAU TO SAINT TERESA PARISH.
Dear Head Catechist,
We shall have our meeting for head catechists and part-time catechists on Friday September 30th, 2011. You must bring a written report on all the Sunday offerings and other important activities of your area. If you don’t bring with you a written report which you can read to all of us at the meeting no payment will be made. Please do this for this and all of our future meetings. Thank you for this and all your chapel and center work. The meeting should start at 3:00 pm.
The other big news which I want to announce is the pastoral visit of the Bishop of Wau to our parish and just some of the activities planned. The Most Reverend Rudolph Deng Majakwill visit:
Udhom Chapel and Center on October 7th, 2011. Cat, Marko Deng Adel will be there to welcome him in my name. Let the head catechist of Udhom be there waiting and not arriving after everyone else as was done last year to the late Bishop Mazzolari. The Mass of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary can begin at around 11:00 am and followed by a meeting of the bishop with all the catechists and prayer leaders so we hear from our main shepherd in our work of the church and we can present the problems that we face both physical and spiritual. This day is for Udhom Center and the day of the catechists and their bishop. Marko will then bring the bishop to sleep in Nyamlell.
Wetwil Chapel and Center will be visited on October 8th which is Saturday. The work of the chapel will be blessed and the sacrament of reconciliation will be available and Mass will follow at around 11:00 am. This day is for the youth. There will be a meeting held between Bishop Rudolph and the youth after Mass. I shall also be present. This is our youth day with the bishop. From Wetwil we shall move to Ariath where we shall spend the night.
The new church of Saint Dennis will be blessed in Saint Rebecca Center in Ariath (ANC) on Sunday October 9th, 2011. He will meet the authorities of Aweil North County after Mass. This is the second permanent Catholic Church in Aweil North, both in our parish. Hopefully there will be some entertainment prepared but for that we depend on those of Ariath. Reconciliation and Baptisms will be available that day too and after this we shall return to spend the night in Nyamlell.
The bishop will celebrate two Comboni Days, one here in Nyamlell on October 10th, 2011, and another the next day in Marial Baai. Here the Mass will be at 10:00 and before it will be the sacrament of reconciliation and during Mass will be baptisms of some infants. The bishop will, of course, preside at the Eucharist on Comboni Day in Nyamlell. As many who can should try to be here for Comboni and Bishop Deng. Entertainment will be in the hands of the pupils and teachers of Comboni Nyamlell- thii. At 4:00 pm we shall have a courtesy visit to New Life Ministry and at 5:00 we shall continue to South Sudan Hotel to visit the authorities of Aweil West County. At 7:00 there will be rosary and benediction in the parish church and afterwards prize giving. The bishop will sleep in Nyamlell.
October 11th, 2011, Marko will accompany the Bishop to Marial Baai by road or if not possible by boat for Mass and entertainment and afterward the bishop will meet with the teachers of the Catholic schools in our parish. This will be the day of teachers to meet their bishop. He will return to Nyamlell to spend his final night and will return to Wau the next day. We put this entire visit in the hands of God and May Saint Daniel Comboni continue to intercede for us and Our Lady is with us all in good times and bad.
Father Michael D. Barton, MCCJ.
Parish Priest.
Nyamlell, (Aweil West County)
NBG State
Republic of the South Sudan.
September 12, 2011
CONCERNING PASTORAL VISIT OF THE BISHOP OF WAU TO SAINT TERESA PARISH.
Dear Head Catechist,
We shall have our meeting for head catechists and part-time catechists on Friday September 30th, 2011. You must bring a written report on all the Sunday offerings and other important activities of your area. If you don’t bring with you a written report which you can read to all of us at the meeting no payment will be made. Please do this for this and all of our future meetings. Thank you for this and all your chapel and center work. The meeting should start at 3:00 pm.
The other big news which I want to announce is the pastoral visit of the Bishop of Wau to our parish and just some of the activities planned. The Most Reverend Rudolph Deng Majakwill visit:
Udhom Chapel and Center on October 7th, 2011. Cat, Marko Deng Adel will be there to welcome him in my name. Let the head catechist of Udhom be there waiting and not arriving after everyone else as was done last year to the late Bishop Mazzolari. The Mass of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary can begin at around 11:00 am and followed by a meeting of the bishop with all the catechists and prayer leaders so we hear from our main shepherd in our work of the church and we can present the problems that we face both physical and spiritual. This day is for Udhom Center and the day of the catechists and their bishop. Marko will then bring the bishop to sleep in Nyamlell.
Wetwil Chapel and Center will be visited on October 8th which is Saturday. The work of the chapel will be blessed and the sacrament of reconciliation will be available and Mass will follow at around 11:00 am. This day is for the youth. There will be a meeting held between Bishop Rudolph and the youth after Mass. I shall also be present. This is our youth day with the bishop. From Wetwil we shall move to Ariath where we shall spend the night.
The new church of Saint Dennis will be blessed in Saint Rebecca Center in Ariath (ANC) on Sunday October 9th, 2011. He will meet the authorities of Aweil North County after Mass. This is the second permanent Catholic Church in Aweil North, both in our parish. Hopefully there will be some entertainment prepared but for that we depend on those of Ariath. Reconciliation and Baptisms will be available that day too and after this we shall return to spend the night in Nyamlell.
The bishop will celebrate two Comboni Days, one here in Nyamlell on October 10th, 2011, and another the next day in Marial Baai. Here the Mass will be at 10:00 and before it will be the sacrament of reconciliation and during Mass will be baptisms of some infants. The bishop will, of course, preside at the Eucharist on Comboni Day in Nyamlell. As many who can should try to be here for Comboni and Bishop Deng. Entertainment will be in the hands of the pupils and teachers of Comboni Nyamlell- thii. At 4:00 pm we shall have a courtesy visit to New Life Ministry and at 5:00 we shall continue to South Sudan Hotel to visit the authorities of Aweil West County. At 7:00 there will be rosary and benediction in the parish church and afterwards prize giving. The bishop will sleep in Nyamlell.
October 11th, 2011, Marko will accompany the Bishop to Marial Baai by road or if not possible by boat for Mass and entertainment and afterward the bishop will meet with the teachers of the Catholic schools in our parish. This will be the day of teachers to meet their bishop. He will return to Nyamlell to spend his final night and will return to Wau the next day. We put this entire visit in the hands of God and May Saint Daniel Comboni continue to intercede for us and Our Lady is with us all in good times and bad.
Father Michael D. Barton, MCCJ.
Parish Priest.
Another busy year for Comboni missionary priest and parish
Saint Teresa Parish
Comboni Missionaries
Nyamlell (Aweil West)
Northern Bahr el Ghazal State
Republic of the South Sudan
September 6, 2011
Comboni Missionaries
P.O. Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya.
Dear Friends, Relatives and benefactors,
I have thought to write you for such a long time and forced myself to sit down and write.
But where do I start? I told you about my dry season activities and the going to Juba for Santo’s ordination as the helper bishop of Juba and then all the pastoral work. It was a lot of travel and sleeping out and preaching and celebrating all the sacraments. I like the contrast of being out of school for three months and being full time into pastoral work for the whole parish and no fear of rain or getting stuck in the mud or a pool. But then when the school year starts it is another contrast to be able to sleep in my own bed for a school week of five days and to have my supper at the dinner table and warm.
From the end of December to the beginning of April I was in Nyamlell only for three Sundays and the rest in the centers and their chapels. This year my goal is to cover the whole parish twice as usual but once in the dry and the second time in the wet season. In the dry season I started just before Christmas and did not finish until March 9th. True, two weeks of those I was away in Juba for that remarkable event of an Episcopal ordination, but the rest was out in the 90 some chapels, and many of those days were in two chapels in one day. I was always tired at night and had some good sleep. Still in the dry season and before the school started I got to three complete centers for a second time.
On March 31 we celebrated a big Mass with all our catechists for the third anniversary of the death of Father Raymond Pox. We prayed and remembered and celebrated him as a priest and as a missionary. That is the day I call "planning day: as I plan the year with the sisters and for three months with the catechists, They come three months thereafter to plan for the next three month period; I schedule all my pastoral visits in those meetings,
On April 1st the school year started. The OLSH Sisters just had returned to South Sudan after being away for almost four months, and generously offered to teach in the school for this school year. So we began.
Pastorally as I would be teaching full time throughout the year I would be out two weekends and the next I would be here in Nyamlell for the parish church and two chapels of returnees who have come back from Northern Sudan and the monthly Eucharist in the hospital. So the other weekends I would be out to visit at least three chapels. In this way I can fulfill my goals of visiting the outstations and caring for the parish center too.
In mid February a faithful friend and builder came from Kenya to help me build another church -- this one named Saint Dennis, a saint who has given his name to many Bartons and even a few Sullivans. This is the third new church in the parish that has been constructed while I have been here and the repair of the parish church all was done by Laurence Makabuya, with me being the yeller and he the worker.
We have built this chapel in Ariath in Aweil North County which is right on the railway and has a rail station. So much has been done but none of it could have been done without you and Laurence. I said the first Mass in it on the late afternoon of the Marian feast of the Assumption and it will be blessed by the bishop of Wau on October 9th, the day of Saint Dennis. It is beautiful in my eyes and heart.
Since we were transferred from the diocese of Rumbek back to the diocese that we really belonged to, which is Wau, we have been in a very unsure place because we need help from the diocese and their permission and support in all that we do. I have heard very little from them. I waited for months to hear from the authorities of the diocese about what to do about the High School as the diocese of Rumbek helped me with two Kenyan teachers in 2010 and in 2009, 2008, and 2007. So now what to do with this silent diocese and our future of the high school?
The sisters have made it abundantly clear that they did not want to be in Nyamlell and so I had to make the very tough decision of closing Sacred Heart High School. We sent some boys to the minor seminary in Mapuordit and the others went to places like Marial Baai, Wau and Aweil, Town, Juba and Uganda. I am convinced that it was a good school but untenable in the present situation. So sorry about that but I did not see any other solutions. Better to make the primary school as good as it can be.
On April 5th after school and the RCIA group that I run, Valentino Achak Deng with some other Sudanese lost boys, now American citizens, came to say hello. Valentino has a very large Senior Secondary School in Marial Baai, his hometown, and I told them that the day was my birthday #63 done and completed. The next day he came back to sing the birthday song and he brought me his book, “What’s the What?”, and other very valuable books. Well, he is an international figure and told me that he had brought George Clooney to visit me and Nyamlell in March but of course I was out doing my priestly duties in the out stations. Can you imagine George in Nyamlell?
Well since then I read an article in TIME and even a picture of George in Marial Baai. So I feel sure that Valentino was telling the truth. Well, another month passed before I got time to read his book and then I enjoyed it so much. It has many insights in the life of the Dinka and the Sudan, and yes, there are even insights into the American way of doing things. It was on the best seller list and translated into other languages and now I can understand why.
Soon after that I got news from out of the blue that the diocese was going to give one Kenyan teacher for the school year of 2011. Why didn’t they tell me before that there was still a chance of them helping us? I was told that in 2010 they would help and that was that, and now we depended completely on Wau. Well, the teacher came and we opened another class one three class ones and one stream of each class after that with an enrollment of 351 here in our Comboni Nyamlell and another 346 in our Marial Baai Comboni and 103 in our Makwei Comboni.
In March the results of the state exam came out and we did not take first place as in the previous two years; the highest we got this year but it was for last year was #9 and #14 out of 2,544 candidates of the primary leaving certificate for Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. First place went to our sister parish, the Comboni School in Gordhim, which is run by the Apostles of Jesus. It was their first time ever and I told some teachers,”Well at least it is still in the family.” I gave it my all but many other teachers did not. We will see what happens this year.
You know that South Sudan has become independent and it was a wonderful and happy July 9th. I said the opening prayer at the ceremony here in Nyamlell. We had prayed for so long for this that on July 8th the schools gathered here and joyfully competed with each other in expressing our joy with a song, marching, poem, dancing and singing the new national anthem ,and finally a football competition. The Sudanese did a great job in spiritual preparation for the referendum and then for independence. For sure that is why is was so peaceful. Yet Khartoum is not happy and has cut off all food stuffs and fuel from coming and everything has doubled and tripled in price. I am just fine but the poor common Joe or rather Deng must really be suffering. Diesel is $4 a liter. Something has to give but no one that I know is sad to see the back of the Arab. Sudan will never be the same. Soda was two Sudanese pounds but is now five yet beer, which never came from the North but from Uganda, is still just six pounds.
In May the Comboni provincial came for a visit. He is brand new. This is my tenth year in Nyamlell and this is only the second time the South Sudan has come for a look. He seems to be a fine young man.
On July 16 as I was preparing to go on safari to say Mass outside, I got a phone call to tell me my friend Bishop Caesar Mazzolari of Rumbek had fallen down dead while he was saying Mass in his cathedral in Rumbek town. He was 74. I knew him since the year that he had been ordained a priest, as his first assignment was to be a spiritual director at Sacred Heart Seminary in Cincinnati. I entered that seminary that very year this month in 1962. He followed me to Sudan and then became provincial and then bishop here but had worked many years in the USA and as he left the States to work in Africa the Cincinnati Catholic paper headlined, “HAIL CAESAR’’. He had been a mentor all these forty nine years. He was at Bishop Santo's ordination and after Santo had publicly called me his father, I told Caesar that if I was his father then Caesar was his grandfather. I knew right away how much Caesar appreciated that remark and he smiled and even laughed. I could never bring myself to call him any of his many titles and when we argued or joked it was always Caesar and Mike.
I had malaria once and the same day got the car terribly stuck in the bush and with help from a lot of people I got better and got out.
You know I am the only priest here and on Sunday I had three Masses and two sets of baptisms; in one 12 babies and in the other 15 babies were sanctified by water and oil and in the third hospital Mass 20 were anointed with the oil of the sick. Well, after the second chapel one man told me, “Hey, you need help!” Boy, do I need help! Yet I do have a lot. Here are some examples, the Eucharistic Ministers were trained in April by others and we may have more Eucharistic centers in all the South Sudan parishes. Then in July another workshop was planned and this for all the song leaders all over the parish. I just got the food and other things needed. And others introduced the new Dinka hymnal for 2011. I went out to chapels. I have a boy of class eight who leads the prayer and he distributes Holy Communion and six other school boys who teach catechism to the lower primary children and I run the RCIA for the more mature. The boy’s name is Marko but his classmates call him BISHOP. I depend on him so much. God has always put such people in my surroundings and I praise him for that. We also completely are dependent on so many prayer leaders and chopel leaders and catechists.
After the Assumption I had Laurence go to Wetwil to put a roof on a church. The Christians there had put up the walls as a self help project and we have the roof to do and will set us back maybe $15,000 but I am so happy the people are doing things on their own a bit anyway. Remember, it is so expensive at the moment. I went to Wau for a workshop for head teachers and to rest too. I saw Bishop Rudolf Deng Majak, who will come in October and will visit five centers here for the Saint Dennis Church blessing in Ariath and Comboni Day here in Nyamlell and then another one in Marial Baai. Plus visits to Udhom and Wetwil.
Well I did not know how to begin and now I don’t know how to end. Yes I do, may Almighty God bless you and protect you from all harm.
Yours in the Heart of Jesus the Lord,
Father Michael D. Barton, MCCJ.
Comboni Missionaries
Nyamlell (Aweil West)
Northern Bahr el Ghazal State
Republic of the South Sudan
September 6, 2011
Comboni Missionaries
P.O. Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya.
Dear Friends, Relatives and benefactors,
I have thought to write you for such a long time and forced myself to sit down and write.
But where do I start? I told you about my dry season activities and the going to Juba for Santo’s ordination as the helper bishop of Juba and then all the pastoral work. It was a lot of travel and sleeping out and preaching and celebrating all the sacraments. I like the contrast of being out of school for three months and being full time into pastoral work for the whole parish and no fear of rain or getting stuck in the mud or a pool. But then when the school year starts it is another contrast to be able to sleep in my own bed for a school week of five days and to have my supper at the dinner table and warm.
From the end of December to the beginning of April I was in Nyamlell only for three Sundays and the rest in the centers and their chapels. This year my goal is to cover the whole parish twice as usual but once in the dry and the second time in the wet season. In the dry season I started just before Christmas and did not finish until March 9th. True, two weeks of those I was away in Juba for that remarkable event of an Episcopal ordination, but the rest was out in the 90 some chapels, and many of those days were in two chapels in one day. I was always tired at night and had some good sleep. Still in the dry season and before the school started I got to three complete centers for a second time.
On March 31 we celebrated a big Mass with all our catechists for the third anniversary of the death of Father Raymond Pox. We prayed and remembered and celebrated him as a priest and as a missionary. That is the day I call "planning day: as I plan the year with the sisters and for three months with the catechists, They come three months thereafter to plan for the next three month period; I schedule all my pastoral visits in those meetings,
On April 1st the school year started. The OLSH Sisters just had returned to South Sudan after being away for almost four months, and generously offered to teach in the school for this school year. So we began.
Pastorally as I would be teaching full time throughout the year I would be out two weekends and the next I would be here in Nyamlell for the parish church and two chapels of returnees who have come back from Northern Sudan and the monthly Eucharist in the hospital. So the other weekends I would be out to visit at least three chapels. In this way I can fulfill my goals of visiting the outstations and caring for the parish center too.
In mid February a faithful friend and builder came from Kenya to help me build another church -- this one named Saint Dennis, a saint who has given his name to many Bartons and even a few Sullivans. This is the third new church in the parish that has been constructed while I have been here and the repair of the parish church all was done by Laurence Makabuya, with me being the yeller and he the worker.
We have built this chapel in Ariath in Aweil North County which is right on the railway and has a rail station. So much has been done but none of it could have been done without you and Laurence. I said the first Mass in it on the late afternoon of the Marian feast of the Assumption and it will be blessed by the bishop of Wau on October 9th, the day of Saint Dennis. It is beautiful in my eyes and heart.
Since we were transferred from the diocese of Rumbek back to the diocese that we really belonged to, which is Wau, we have been in a very unsure place because we need help from the diocese and their permission and support in all that we do. I have heard very little from them. I waited for months to hear from the authorities of the diocese about what to do about the High School as the diocese of Rumbek helped me with two Kenyan teachers in 2010 and in 2009, 2008, and 2007. So now what to do with this silent diocese and our future of the high school?
The sisters have made it abundantly clear that they did not want to be in Nyamlell and so I had to make the very tough decision of closing Sacred Heart High School. We sent some boys to the minor seminary in Mapuordit and the others went to places like Marial Baai, Wau and Aweil, Town, Juba and Uganda. I am convinced that it was a good school but untenable in the present situation. So sorry about that but I did not see any other solutions. Better to make the primary school as good as it can be.
On April 5th after school and the RCIA group that I run, Valentino Achak Deng with some other Sudanese lost boys, now American citizens, came to say hello. Valentino has a very large Senior Secondary School in Marial Baai, his hometown, and I told them that the day was my birthday #63 done and completed. The next day he came back to sing the birthday song and he brought me his book, “What’s the What?”, and other very valuable books. Well, he is an international figure and told me that he had brought George Clooney to visit me and Nyamlell in March but of course I was out doing my priestly duties in the out stations. Can you imagine George in Nyamlell?
Well since then I read an article in TIME and even a picture of George in Marial Baai. So I feel sure that Valentino was telling the truth. Well, another month passed before I got time to read his book and then I enjoyed it so much. It has many insights in the life of the Dinka and the Sudan, and yes, there are even insights into the American way of doing things. It was on the best seller list and translated into other languages and now I can understand why.
Soon after that I got news from out of the blue that the diocese was going to give one Kenyan teacher for the school year of 2011. Why didn’t they tell me before that there was still a chance of them helping us? I was told that in 2010 they would help and that was that, and now we depended completely on Wau. Well, the teacher came and we opened another class one three class ones and one stream of each class after that with an enrollment of 351 here in our Comboni Nyamlell and another 346 in our Marial Baai Comboni and 103 in our Makwei Comboni.
In March the results of the state exam came out and we did not take first place as in the previous two years; the highest we got this year but it was for last year was #9 and #14 out of 2,544 candidates of the primary leaving certificate for Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. First place went to our sister parish, the Comboni School in Gordhim, which is run by the Apostles of Jesus. It was their first time ever and I told some teachers,”Well at least it is still in the family.” I gave it my all but many other teachers did not. We will see what happens this year.
You know that South Sudan has become independent and it was a wonderful and happy July 9th. I said the opening prayer at the ceremony here in Nyamlell. We had prayed for so long for this that on July 8th the schools gathered here and joyfully competed with each other in expressing our joy with a song, marching, poem, dancing and singing the new national anthem ,and finally a football competition. The Sudanese did a great job in spiritual preparation for the referendum and then for independence. For sure that is why is was so peaceful. Yet Khartoum is not happy and has cut off all food stuffs and fuel from coming and everything has doubled and tripled in price. I am just fine but the poor common Joe or rather Deng must really be suffering. Diesel is $4 a liter. Something has to give but no one that I know is sad to see the back of the Arab. Sudan will never be the same. Soda was two Sudanese pounds but is now five yet beer, which never came from the North but from Uganda, is still just six pounds.
In May the Comboni provincial came for a visit. He is brand new. This is my tenth year in Nyamlell and this is only the second time the South Sudan has come for a look. He seems to be a fine young man.
On July 16 as I was preparing to go on safari to say Mass outside, I got a phone call to tell me my friend Bishop Caesar Mazzolari of Rumbek had fallen down dead while he was saying Mass in his cathedral in Rumbek town. He was 74. I knew him since the year that he had been ordained a priest, as his first assignment was to be a spiritual director at Sacred Heart Seminary in Cincinnati. I entered that seminary that very year this month in 1962. He followed me to Sudan and then became provincial and then bishop here but had worked many years in the USA and as he left the States to work in Africa the Cincinnati Catholic paper headlined, “HAIL CAESAR’’. He had been a mentor all these forty nine years. He was at Bishop Santo's ordination and after Santo had publicly called me his father, I told Caesar that if I was his father then Caesar was his grandfather. I knew right away how much Caesar appreciated that remark and he smiled and even laughed. I could never bring myself to call him any of his many titles and when we argued or joked it was always Caesar and Mike.
I had malaria once and the same day got the car terribly stuck in the bush and with help from a lot of people I got better and got out.
You know I am the only priest here and on Sunday I had three Masses and two sets of baptisms; in one 12 babies and in the other 15 babies were sanctified by water and oil and in the third hospital Mass 20 were anointed with the oil of the sick. Well, after the second chapel one man told me, “Hey, you need help!” Boy, do I need help! Yet I do have a lot. Here are some examples, the Eucharistic Ministers were trained in April by others and we may have more Eucharistic centers in all the South Sudan parishes. Then in July another workshop was planned and this for all the song leaders all over the parish. I just got the food and other things needed. And others introduced the new Dinka hymnal for 2011. I went out to chapels. I have a boy of class eight who leads the prayer and he distributes Holy Communion and six other school boys who teach catechism to the lower primary children and I run the RCIA for the more mature. The boy’s name is Marko but his classmates call him BISHOP. I depend on him so much. God has always put such people in my surroundings and I praise him for that. We also completely are dependent on so many prayer leaders and chopel leaders and catechists.
After the Assumption I had Laurence go to Wetwil to put a roof on a church. The Christians there had put up the walls as a self help project and we have the roof to do and will set us back maybe $15,000 but I am so happy the people are doing things on their own a bit anyway. Remember, it is so expensive at the moment. I went to Wau for a workshop for head teachers and to rest too. I saw Bishop Rudolf Deng Majak, who will come in October and will visit five centers here for the Saint Dennis Church blessing in Ariath and Comboni Day here in Nyamlell and then another one in Marial Baai. Plus visits to Udhom and Wetwil.
Well I did not know how to begin and now I don’t know how to end. Yes I do, may Almighty God bless you and protect you from all harm.
Yours in the Heart of Jesus the Lord,
Father Michael D. Barton, MCCJ.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Independence at last!
A note from Father Michael Barton as South Sudan celebrates its independence day:
Today we had an attempt to celebrate the South Sudan's independence on a school level and invited all the five neighboring schools to come and celebrate here by having the class one compete in marching, then the class two's did the same and the class three did the national anthem new to all of us. The class four had a soccer competition
and the six's did a dancing competition, whereas the seven did a poem competition (very poor) and the eights joined in more of the same but in song and there were no fights but lots of joy and expectation about tomorrow.
Michael
Today we had an attempt to celebrate the South Sudan's independence on a school level and invited all the five neighboring schools to come and celebrate here by having the class one compete in marching, then the class two's did the same and the class three did the national anthem new to all of us. The class four had a soccer competition
and the six's did a dancing competition, whereas the seven did a poem competition (very poor) and the eights joined in more of the same but in song and there were no fights but lots of joy and expectation about tomorrow.
Michael
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Happy Easter 2011 from Nyamlell
April 8, 2011
I have returned to Nyamlell to get the school up and going again. I celebrated Mass here only on December 26th and February 13th and last Sunday on April 3rd and all the rest of the time has been out in the chapels and many days it was two chapels in one day. So I have been totally a parish priest and a shepherd during this dry season. LOTS AND LOTS OF SACRAMENTAL WORK. All Good.
I was in Juba for Bishop Santo and then visited many of my old places of evangelization and got back here and did more of the same. I took a bus only once and the seat broke off in front of me as we rode along the rough South Sudan roads.
I ended my pastoral visit on March 30 and on the 31st had a Mass for Father Pax on his grave with all our catechists in attendance.
On April 1st I had registration for the school and we closed Sacred Heart High School for lack of teachers and will keep open Comboni Primary. with the sisters and myself teaching a lot of classes. I got the older pupils to help me keep order and they were great. They got people in lines and read the rules and regulations and make them sign their names and signatures that they would obey. William was really great and telling them to be on time Monday and to bring brooms for cleaning the school compound. BUT once in a while I would hear him say to the really cute girls sign your name and write your telephone number. Only a year of telephone here and already the real reason to have one is well understood.
Happy Easter.
Father Michael Barton
I have returned to Nyamlell to get the school up and going again. I celebrated Mass here only on December 26th and February 13th and last Sunday on April 3rd and all the rest of the time has been out in the chapels and many days it was two chapels in one day. So I have been totally a parish priest and a shepherd during this dry season. LOTS AND LOTS OF SACRAMENTAL WORK. All Good.
I was in Juba for Bishop Santo and then visited many of my old places of evangelization and got back here and did more of the same. I took a bus only once and the seat broke off in front of me as we rode along the rough South Sudan roads.
I ended my pastoral visit on March 30 and on the 31st had a Mass for Father Pax on his grave with all our catechists in attendance.
On April 1st I had registration for the school and we closed Sacred Heart High School for lack of teachers and will keep open Comboni Primary. with the sisters and myself teaching a lot of classes. I got the older pupils to help me keep order and they were great. They got people in lines and read the rules and regulations and make them sign their names and signatures that they would obey. William was really great and telling them to be on time Monday and to bring brooms for cleaning the school compound. BUT once in a while I would hear him say to the really cute girls sign your name and write your telephone number. Only a year of telephone here and already the real reason to have one is well understood.
Happy Easter.
Father Michael Barton
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