CALLED TO BE PEOPLE OF HOPE
Tel: (+237) 679 91 91 37 Phone: (+237) 665 85 61 06 Email: mhmvocationcam@gmail.com Address: Mill Hill House Foncha Street International Website: www.millhillmissionaries.com
Editorial A warm welcome to all our Friends of Mill Hill in Cameroon. As you are already aware, the General Council of the Mill Hill Missionaries appointed Fr Anthony Ndang Ndichia mhm as the Vocations Director, Coordinator of Mission Experience Program (MEP) and Coordinator of Friends of Mill Hill Cameroon. Fr Anthony is from Njinikom, ordained at St Anthony’s Parish Njinikom in 2012. After six years of Mission in South Africa, he has returned to Cameroon to take up this vital task in the Society. Although, I have arrived at a very wrong time in the history of our region, the hope, energy, vision and enthusiasm of the people of God continues to inspire me to feel comfortable at home. In the middle of gun shots, burning of houses, looting, torture, rape and killings, our people have resolved to daily prayer, adoration and hopeful of a speedy solution to the crisis that has fast degenerated into a looming genocide. In a special way, I will like to thank all those who contributed to the early beginnings of Friends of Mill Hill in Cameroon: Fr Bill Tollan mhm, Fr Andrew Mukulu mhm, Fr Nol Verhoeven mhm, Fr Richard Njoroge mhm and Fr Elvis Berka Shudzeka mhm. Over the years, our Friends of Mill Hill have seen significant changes: registration of new members, regular meetings, prayers for missionaries, attendance of Mill Hill ordinations and celebrations, contributions through the red boxes and much more. As we draw closer to the end of the year, the Executive Committee of Friends of Mill Hill together with the Director shall take stock of activities and continue to build, establish and promote Friends of Mill Hill. It is the dream of everyone, to realise that where all our missionaries worked or where our Cameroonian missionaries
Friends of Mill Hill Cameroon Whatsapp P.O. Box 5058 Nkwen - Bamenda Edition No. 1 , December 2018
come from today, have the presence of Friends of Mill Hill in these respective parishes. This will be a true sign of missionary witness which Pope Francis invites us: “Every man and woman is a mission; that is the reason for our life.”
I wish you a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year 2019. Rev Fr. Anthony Ndang Ndichia mhm Coordinator Friends of Mill Hill Cameroon.
Fr Cosmas was born to Charles Omboto and Chrispinah Penina on 19th September 1985 in Gucha, Kisii, Kenya. He had three brothers and four sisters. He was baptised on 21st January 1989 in the parish of Sengera. Upon completing secondary school (2005), he joined the Mill Hill Basic Formation Programme in Luanda (2007). After successful completion of philosophy (2011), and theology (2017), he took the Perpetual Oath in Kisumu, Kenya and was ordained priest last year on the 25th March 2017 by Bishop Joseph Mairura of Kisii diocese. Cosmas did his Missionary Experience
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Programme (MEP) in Fundong parish, Bamenda, Cameroon, where he dedicated his time to visiting the sick, the youth apostolate and leading prayer services. In October 2016, he received an appointment to the diocese of Mamfe which he took up shortly after his ordination. Fr Ondari was brutally and recklessly murdered on the 21st November 2018. Eye witness accounts say that he was killed by government soldiers who were shooting at random from their passing vehicle. We continue to pray for his killers “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” May his soul rest in peace in the eternal embrace of God. We continue to pray for peace in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.
FRIENDS OF MIL HILL CAMEROON: Called to be people of hope
WHO ARE THE FRIENDS OF MILL HILL Cardinal Vaughan founder of Mill Hill depended on lay people to support them in their work of spreading the gospel. “Go therefore and make disciples of all Nations” Matthew 28:19 Friends of Mill Hill are missionaries…. Joining themselves to the mission of Jesus, through their prayers and sacrifices, supporting Cameroonian missionaries. To be a Christian is to be missionary. Friends of Mill Hill appreciate what they learned and benefited from early missionaries: baptism, catholic education, friendship, and missionary spirit. (Friends have been baptised and sent). To be Christians means to be missionaries, to be apostles. It is not enough to discover Christ. You must bring Him to others. Pope Francis Friends of Mill Hill through their prayers and generosity bring the love and compassion of Jesus to the whole world. “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” BY BECOMING A FRIEND OF MILL HILL YOU WILL: Safeguard the future of Mill Hill Missionaries in Cameroon and the whole world Enable our continuous presence in poor Mission areas in Africa and beyond Support our apostolate of primary evangelisation, Justice and peace, development work and interfaith dialogue (Mission promotion). Ensure that our students are equipped with the events and thinking of the local Church and the Worldwide Church Reach out to those who live on the margins of
society, combating poverty, disease and exploitation. Help us support the on-going training and formation of Mill Hill Missionaries BE PART OF THE FRIENDS OF MILL HILL MISSIONARIES IN CAMEROON BY: Praying daily for the missions and the missionaries Offering of Masses. Animating your parish in mission awareness Regular donations Once off donation Bequeathing to Mill Hill Missionaries in your last will and testament FRIENDS OF MILL HILL CAMEROON: SHARE THE GIFT OF FAITH
Take a red box
Become a member
Become a promoter of Friends of Mill Hill in your parish
Friends of Mill Hill in respective areas meet three times a year (April, August and December)
Celebrate Mass for the deceased Mill Hill Missionaries and Friends of Mill Hill
Masses offered for missionaries and Friends of Mill Hill
Be part of the global collections for mission: Holy Childhood and Mission Sunday
PRAY A LITTLE, PAY A LITTLE, SEE WHAT LOVE CAN DO!!!
You want to know more about us? Join us!
Red boxes Red boxes are emptied at each “Friends of Mill Hill meeting. The donations are handed over to the Mill Hill Missionaries in Cameroon. The sight of the red box in your home, challenges you to add something to the missionary proclamation of the gospel. The red box reminds us of our commitment to: 1) Doing Mission, 2) Prayer and 3) Financial support.
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Remembering the Life of Fr James Nielen mhm Father James Nielen was born in the Netherlands on the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas in 1928. After his primary education he went to the Mill Hill junior seminary in 1940 (the year that the Netherlands became part of World War II). He became a perpetual member of the Mill Hill Society in St. Joseph College London on 5th of May 1951 and was ordained as a priest on the 13th of July 1952. He obtained a doctorate in Philosophy in Rome, and taught Philosophy in the Mill Hill college in Roosendaal (the Netherlands) for four years after which he appointed to Cameroon in 1959. He worked in Cameroon till 2003, except for 19621963 when he was teaching philosophy in Gaba Uganda and 1978-1979 in Roosendaal. From 2003 till April 2017 he worked in the 12 Apostles Church in Heemskerk, the Netherlands, after which he went to the Mill Hill retirement home in Oosterbeek were he died on February 23rd, 2018. Outstanding of Father Nielen was his interest in people. Two things Father Nielen tried to do himself and kept teaching others are: “Try to be like Jesus; be kind, gentle, patient, loving and charitable,” and: “Before you say or do things, ask yourself what Jesus would have said or done in that situation.” Often people referred to him as “Father Charity”. Father Nielen opened St. Augustine’s College, Kumbo, in 1964, and was the brain and active engine that in 1980 organised the teaching of religion in the non-Catholic Colleges in Bamenda, and thought there with Sister Bernarde McClean. He started the parish vocation groups and vocation camps in the Anglophone Dioceses, acted as the first Chaplin to the Government General Hospital, the Military Hospital and several private hospitals and clinics in Bamenda and began the Vincent de Paul Society. In 1983 [together with Br. Huub] – he started the Juvenile Reformatory school in the Bamenda Central Prison. When Father Nielen was Parish Priest in Bafmeng he assisted in many ways
the survivors of the Lake Nyos Disaster of August 1986. Those who worked with him, often heard him saying the words of St. Therese: “What you do is not important but the love with which you do it.’ Br Huub Welters mhm
TRIBUTE TO FR PATRICK HARRINGTON MHM Out of the 49 years of Fr. Patrick Harrington’s service as a priest, of which 43 were spent in Cameroon, 9 were spent in All Saints, Mutengene, Buea. Fr. Harrington was the last in a long list of Mill Hill Missionaries, who served in Mutengene, as a technical Centre, outstation, and eventually parish. Fr. Harrington, you were one of the finest pastors we have ever known. You were easily moved to tears both by joy and sorrow. A “Pa” at heart, and a living symbol of the incarnation [Word made flesh], for you were more African than European. Your virtues are difficult to summarize, and in naming them, we are not just eulogizing you, but rather recalling how you challenged us, for you were: duty conscious (even if it meant checking and double-checking the credence table before Mass), faithful, available, kind, friendly, detached, accountable, prayerful, a gentle speaker, father to all and interacting with all Christians in the parish, especially the old and the sick. And who could ever forget your very practical homilies, such as when you used the Gospel that asked disciples to be ready to caution Mutengene Christians to buy umbrellas so as not to miss morning Mass because of unexpected rains! We remember your greetings: “Good man”, “Mutengene pikin no de small”, and you inspired and accompanied many vocations to priesthood and religious life in Mutengene. Someone has said: “Home” is where the heart is. After all your missionary journeys, you found a home in the hearts of the people of Mutengene, and desired to be laid in their midst as you await the final resurrection. That speaks volumes! Thank you very much for this honour! By the priests and religious of All Saints Parish Mutengene, Diocese of Buea
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MILL HILL NEWS UPDATE: 1) Fr John Akain mhm graduated with his PhD in Philosophy at the Pontifical University of St Patrick’s College Maynooth, Ireland. Congratulations to Rev Fr Dr John Akain, mhm. We wish him all the best in his new appointment in Uganda. 2) Our condolences to Fr Cyprian Taah mhm and family for the brutal murder of his father Mr Francis Taah during the month of November 2018 at Fundong. May he rest in peace 3) On 21st November 2018, Rev Fr Cosmas Ondari mhm was brutally killed by the Cameroon gendarmerie in front of the Church, at Kembong, Diocese of Mamfe. We continue to pray for his family and for the repose of his soul. 4) Please kindly contact the Publicity secretary or Minutes secretary for your name and number to be added to the Whatsapp group for the Friends of Mill Hill in Cameroon 5) On 23rd November 2018, the Friends of Mill Hill celebrated Mass for the deceased members and friends of Mill Hill. The Mass was presided over by Fr Anthony Chantry, former Superior of Mill Hill and National Director of Missio. 6) Donations and membership for Friends of Mill Hill: By making r egular commitment to pray for missions and missionaries, you become a member of Friends of Mill Hill. Your financial contribution supports missionary activities of Mill Hill Missionaries.
ed to the Coordinator of Friends of Mill Hill, Foncha Street, Bamenda. 8) We continue to encourage our friends of Mill Hill and the new ones to continue supporting the activities of Mill Hill Missionaries. Pope Francis reminds us that: “Small acts of kindness, not great speeches, show God’s love best.” For further information about joining the St. Joseph’s Missionary Society (Mill Hill Missionaries) write to: The Vocations Director Rev. Fr Anthony Ndang Ndichia mhm Foncha Street P.O Box 5058 Nkwen Bamenda Tel: 679919137, 665856106 Email: mhmvocationcam@gmail.com
India: Perpetual Oath of three students.
Kenya: Perpetual Oath and Diaconate Ordination of Linus Kang and Philip Shube.
7) All animators of Friends of Mill Hill will convene meetings of Friends of Mill Hill in their respective parishes in the month of April 2019. All money collected from the Red boxes together with the form entries shall be forward-
Missions in Uganda: Fr Ignatius Nshing mhm
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