Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: FEEDING THE MARGINALISED

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

FEEDING THE MARGINALISED

We have been privileged to work in the Shekhinah feeding programme over the last few months. The programme prepares and serves meals each day, 365 days each year, to the destitute and street people of Tamale, some of whom suffer from various mental disabilities, as well as to prisoners in the central prison. These people have no other sources of food except for the meals they get from Shekhinah.

Each Friday we join the four regular volunteers and work with them. We have been inspired by the attitude of the workers at the feeding program. They are punctual and hardworking, and have a loving heart for the work. They have motivated us by freely involving us in the work. This has helped us to build a good relationship with them, and so make the ministry a very satisfying experience.

As we all know, each person is a messenger of God. God therefore, invites us to share our lives with others in love. This is what we try to practice in our ministry. As we meet those served by the feeding programme, we come to realize that these people are neglected in the society. It is surprising for many people to see us talking with them when giving them food. The destitute are lonely with few to take an interest in them, so the presence of the Shekhinah volunteers gives them a sense of acceptance in the society. We appreciate the love that God has given to us to be able to share his love with the destitute

We have also come to realize that some of the mentally challenged smoke or abuse other drugs. This left us with a question - why is it so? We have asked the people we work with this question. And it is sad to hear that the number of mentally challenged people on the street increases due to this abuse of drugs. Many of these people are youths. This has helped us to understand how dangerous drugs can be if abused. It is an invitation for us to educate the youths about the side effects of drugs in our schools and other institutions.

In conclusion, our experience at the feeding program has been very helpful to us. It has helped us to see the real life that the poor have each day. We have seen a suffering God. We have seen the presence of God in the people we are working with. We have been reminded to be true disciples of Jesus by loving in deeds and actions.

Elly Sakwa and Lewis Musonda

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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?”