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Special Events and Pictures

Building Hope: A Local Church in Nigeria
Courtesy of MISSION Magazine

Ready to work.

That's what Bishop Hyacinth Egbebo says he and others serving in southern Nigeria are ready to do.

"We need to spread out and proclaim the 'Good News' of Jesus to the poor here," he told MISSION. "And we need to get working now!"

Local Sisters and priests make their way to one of Bomadi's parishes for a funeral.

The local church of Bomadi is home to some 2.6 million people — only 24,000 of whom are Catholic. "This is an area of primary evangelization," Bishop Egbebo explains. "So many have yet to 'meet' the Lord — to see Him reflected in the service of priests, for example — and then be welcomed into the Church."

There are 19 parishes already in place in the area — and eight more that need to be created, he says. Some 26 local and missionary priests serve the church here, along with four Religious Sisters.

Bishop Egbebo's plan is to spread his priests out, through those new parishes. And with roads virtually non-existent, and a heavy rainy season, a must-have for those priests: a boat.

Temporary site of Our Lady of Bomadi School, during construction of new school.

Another priority — schools. Construction on a new school in Bomadi has begun, one to replace the makeshift facility that is currently in place. Another school in the area is also needed.

"Young people are coming to me, seeking to be involved in the church, to grow in their faith," he explains. "We need to respond to their hunger for the Lord."

It was just two years ago that this Nigerian priest was ordained a bishop to serve this local church in his homeland. The area is one of dire poverty, complicated by a lack of clean water and the disease that accompanies that reality. "There are great challenges here," he says. "So many needs, and so little funding to help meet them."

"Young people are coming to me, seeking to be involved in the church, to grow in their faith," Bishop Egbebo says. "We need to respond to their hunger for the Lord."

And yet, Bishop Egbebo embraces those challenges. And he draws on his formation at the Missionary Seminary of St. Paul to do so. Established in 1977, that Nigerian seminary ordains priests in service of the Universal Church — a dream of its founder, Cardinal Dominic Ekandem.

"My class — ordained in 1990 — was the largest class ordained from there," the bishop says. "There were 14 of us."

As of today, more than 200 young men have been ordained after studies at that seminary. In the first year after ordination, these new priests serve within their homeland of Nigeria; the next year, they are "sent" on mission — to any of 14 countries, including Nigeria and eight others in Africa, and even the United States.

"We are prepared to go where we are sent, and make Christ known in every way possible," Bishop Egbebo offers.

Virtually non-existent roads and a heavy rainy season make a boat a necessity for priests and Sisters so that they may travel and serve the poor.

The inspiration for his priestly vocation — and for the urgency to "get to work" in Bomadi — is the same, he'll tell you. "It's the missionaries I knew growing up," Bishop Egbebo explains. "Someone who didn't know us came from a distance, to help us, to give us an education, and, most importantly, to offer us the love of the Lord.

"To me, my service, my priesthood remains an expression of gratitude to those missionaries," he says.

And he's ready to work as hard as he can to continue to make the Lord's love known — it's his greatest "thank you" of all.