Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: School Holiday Ministry

Thursday, September 24, 2009

School Holiday Ministry

During the last school holidays in April we made an unsuccessful attempt to invite children from the neighborhood to come for classes on Fridays to our community since our teaching ministries had stopped. This time round not willing to give up we made a second attempt.
Nicholas, James and I took the risk again. We went round casting the same nets, this time through the church, hoping for a catch. This time round we got a very encouraging response from both children and their parents. There was a big turn up from the start to the end. About thirty five children turned up.

The five Fridays were spent well with effective learning experiences for both students and ourselves. We taught them Mathematics, Science and English as well as involving them in some interactive activities such as sports, discussions and art work.
Friday, 11th September was a wonderful day. The three of us and the children gathered to appreciate our time together and the efforts that each person had put to make the program successful. We had a small celebration whereby we had aerobics (guided by Ndivo), watched a movie and then shared a light snack together.

We thanked the children for participating whole heartedly and for their good conduct during the program and they too expressed their thanks some with cards and some with words of mouth. We read from their faces a willingness to participate again in the same program if there was to be another opportunity.
We thank them all and the community as well for the support we received during this time.
(Chrispinus)

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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?”