Another Youthful Catholic Christian

20 June 2011

Opiyo Samuel, at the age of 17, was baptized yesterday, receiving the additional name “Joseph.” Because of his persistence in wanting to be baptized, Father Tony Wach, SJ, finally made the arrangements for classes. (Tony is sort of the founder and administrator of Ocer Campion Secondary School.) There were five students for first Baptism and 1 for conditional Baptism. All the newly baptized and two others also received Eucharist for the first time. Samuel had asked me to be his sponsor, and I agreed provided he had another sponsor who would remain here in Uganda. His agriculture instructor stepped in. The other students were all a part of the liturgy, so the music was full of energy.

Samuel was my brightest star among the St. Joseph Primary School pupils I taught two years ago, and earned a promised sponsorship for secondary school from the Sisters of St. Joseph. (Because of the generosity of our donors, three others are also attending Ocer). Samuel was featured in an earlier blog. Despite the many hardships he has already faced, he has much hope to become a priest. He is also interested in becoming an accountant and musician. (He already composes songs that a small group of the boys perform.)

My three boys at Ocer (all are Catholic now) are interested in musical careers so I told them about the young Jesuit Scholastics who formed a group called “The St. Louis Jesuits,” and produced much music for worship (Scriptural) still in use today. Their challenge will be to maintain good values in their music, regardless of type of music! Jimmy also wants a career as an accountant (like Samuel), while Emmanuel is interested in journalism. I’ll be searching the internet for some information on accountants, journalists, and musicians to provide them with a much broader concept of what is available in those fields. Lillian, my only girl, wants to be a religious, but seemed surprised that I wanted her to think about what she wants to do as yet. I pointed out that the three of us who are here in Gulu are all religious, but do different works…. This seemed to come as news to her! Their world is so very small.
Photo: (from left to right) Emmanuel, Samuel, and Jimmy. Lillian not pictured.

Please hold all of our young people in your prayer. Even with a good education, job opportunities are very few and many of our youth just give up or try to move out of the country. We need hope to remain in Uganda!