Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Farewell John Foday Bainda

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Farewell John Foday Bainda

For the first time I’ve never trusted my ears when I heard from Br. Vivek that John Bainda will be travelling back to Sierra Leone on Easter Monday. It was a shock to me! I’ve enjoyed precious time with John and liked his skill of playing the wooden instrument. I wish John all the best in his endeavors. God bless you, John. (Otieno)

It’s hard to loose a friend that you have been used to for a long time. Indeed no person can replace the real you unless you be there yourself. I miss you John and have to appreciate your generosity and understanding, not forgetting your drumming. I miss you John and you will always be in my heart. What you have to know is that you are the key to your life and there is no one like you. All the best John in searching for peace of heart. Have courage and trust. (Sunday)

For the two months I’ve been with John in the community.

I enjoyed his presence. One thing that I found to be unique with John is his relationship with people. He rarely called a person by his name. He referred to everyone as “my brother”. His gift of playing his special instrument that he brought along with him from Sierra Leone called ‘kele’ was admirable. It is surely painful that he is departing at the time I had started feeling his goodness in the community. I pray for blessings upon him. (Chrispinus)

John came to me on the 6th of April, 2009 and said “I’m going back to Sierra Leone ‘my Brother’, I trust you and that’s why I tell you and you are the first person I’m sharing this with”. I was shocked………I was confused and I didn’t know what to say. I was just sitting there and staring at him because I could tell from his looks and his voice that he was serious. I miss his gentle presence in the community. He would never raise his voice to anybody and would by all means avoid arguments. Thanks be to God for knowing a person like John. Let’s keep him in our prayers. (Jordaan)

It is difficult to enter in someone’s life likewise, coming out. Bidding farewell to John on Easter day, breed feelings of uneasiness, ‘my brother’ as he always addressed me shade tears. Worse more on Friday, April 17, 2009 when I went to the ministry site where we accompanied each other in the quest for “Gods will for Africa”, the above feeling sprang again as every staff member asked about my brother John. In my cheerlessness I wish him well in his future endeavors. (Sydney)

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What do we want this novitiate to be?

There is a saying that goes something like this: “If we don’t do what we believe in, then we’ll end up believing in what we do”. Without a vision that is authentic and alive to guide our actions, then we can settle for rationalizing the status quo or what is convenient and comfortable.
One of the first things the new team in Tamale did was to spend time beginning to articulate its vision of a novitiate beyond the basics laid down in our Constitutions. Here are some elements of what we came up with:
Novitiate is a journey, a process that involves KNOWING, EXPERIENCING and CHOOSING.
It is an INITIATION into Christian Brother religious life, so a “rite of passage” into a new identity, a time of learning and testing.
Novitiate confronts the novices with the Brother’s vocation as a call to brotherly solidarity and community, not to privilege, status and security.
It involves exploration of the basic values of faith and vocation, and the challenge to embrace these out of personal conviction and free choice.
Novitiate means understanding that a religious vocation makes a claim on the whole of the person and his life, including his inner life, his relationships and his professional activity (ministry). Furthermore, it challenges the novice to see the dynamic inter-relationship of these areas and to learn what their integration means.
Novitiate is a time of DISCERNMENT. The novice learns more deeply who he is, and what this Christian Brother life is. There is a constant back-and-forth movement between these two poles as an answer is sought to the question, “Is this where I am meant to be? Is this the life that will enable me to find my true self in God?”