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DIVINE FACE ORGANIZATION
(Concern for the needy)

Newsletter - September 8, 2003

Dear Friend of the Divine Face,
May the God and Father of the poor and the needy be ever glorified by our service of love to them! In their name I greet you with the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The period since my last visit to the U.S. has been one year of events, anxiety, progress, challenges and yet thanksgiving.

THANKSGIVING
I start with thanksgiving because I believe that in all things we should thank God as long as we are alive. First of all, I thank God that as soon as I got home last year, we had in our country the third national Eucharistic Congress. It was my privilege to have been chosen as the chainnan of the committee that organized the celebration in our diocese, and led our diocesan contingent to the national celebration in Ibadan, an ancient city in the western part of Nigeria. As the high point of the celebration, we had the first national Pastoral Congress at which our bishop also had me represent the priests of our diocese. From then on it was one assignment after the other till the end of July '03.

Thanks to God, I arrived here safely in the first hours of Thursday, August 14, just some hours before the blackout! We all still have fresh in our minds events of a general nature that have taken place since last year. Some of them are international, affecting the civil society. Others are national, affecting our various nations. Still others have affected the Church. Yet, some other events have been of a particular nature, affecting our families or individual selves. Of all these, some have been pleasant. For these we give glory to our heavenly Father. Others have not been pleasant or may have even caused us sorrow. I hereby empathize with those who may have had sad events during this time, and pray that the Father of all consolations may bless them through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Comforter of the afflicted.

I am particularly thankful to God for everyone of you good and generous people of God, brothers and sisters of the needy in Nigeria. I thank you for the eloquent testimony you are giving to our Christian faith by embracing as your brothers and sisters people you have never seen, and being so unwavering in your resolve to help.

ANXIETY
This desire to help has almost become synonymous with the United States. Consequently, many sons and daughters of this country are in various nations fighting to help ensure freedom for the oppressed. If any of you have members of your family involved in such operations, you must be anxious about them. I join you in praying for their safety wherever they are.

The political situation in my home country, Nigeria, puts most of the citizens in a condition of people under siege. The saddest thing about it is that we are supposed to have a democratic government which in effect is worse than a dictatorship. I am sure that if you were to look at my former letters you will find that this has constantly been the picture I have painted of the situation of that country. So, one may wonder if I am not a pessimist. It makes me feel ashamed to talk about it.

I don't mean to sound discouraging. I just wish to share with you my anxiety over the plight of a people that seems to be condemned to constant disillusionment. For four years we had a system of government that cared very, very little for the welfare of the citizens. We all hoped and worked hard for a change to come ftom the general elections held in April this year. To our utter and greatest disgust and disappointment, those in power brazenly manipulated the election results in their favor and are back to their game. How disheartening! Since then, things have gotten worse for the common people. Money is very hard to come by. When it is gotten, it has very little value and purchasing power. For example, unemployment is at its peak, with thousands graduating ftom college and other institutions every year. The minimum salary for the employed is the equivalent of about $54.00 (fifty-four dollars) a month. More often than not, this salary is paid two months late. Yet kerosene, which is most commonly used for cooking and for lanterns, in a country that hardly has electricity, costs as much as $6.00 (six dollars) a gallon. Gasoline, when it is available, depending where you are in the country, costs as much, sometimes more. I enclose here some newspaper articles to help give some idea of what the situation is like. This spells nothing other than more hardship and suffering for the very poor people who are our concern in our ministry (yours and mine). Remember, your contribution of even $15.00 or $20.00 a month helps a family of four stay alive with hope.

PROGRESS
Every dark cloud has some silver lining. So it is that in spite of the palpable difficulty of life in the country, and precisely in the midst of biting hardship, God our Father and our Blessed Mother have been with us. With your help we were able to reach out to more people than our regular beneficiaries. Some indigent students were able to get some support to keep them going. Some more families whose financial backbones had cracked have been adopted. The widow's hut I talked about in my last letter has been replaced with a solid house of two rooms for her and her son. Unfortunately, there was some riot in the village where they live. So it was not possible to get a picture of the house before I came out. Also, some significant progress has been made in the school.