ST. MICHAEL’S PARISH AND ITS OUTSTATIONS
St. Michael’s parish at Kpassa (pronounced as “paassa”) is in the diocese of Jasikan in Oti Region of Ghana. This parish has been entrusted to the Care of the Franciscan Capuchin Friars in the year 2008. But Kpassa was raised to the Status of a Parish in 2010. Here our friars are directly involved in the evangelization works of the parish and its Outstations.
(a) Number of Outstations:
When it was entrusted to us there were only nine (9) Outstations. But as of today there are 19 Outstations within this parish. The Outstations are located at different directions of the parish. The nearest Outstation is five kilometers away from our house at Kpassa. And the furthest one is at a distance of 45 kilometers. There are four more village communities, waiting to be inaugurated as Outstations of St. Michael’s Parish.
(b) Our ministry in the Outstations:
We are three Friars living in the Capuchin house at Kpassa. All of us are directly involved in the Pastoral care of the Parish and the Outstations. We have an old pick up and motorbike for our means of transportation. We visit only five Outstations on Sundays to celebrate Holy Mass with them. But week days also we visit another three Outstations too. Thus we make sure that at least within a month or two we visit all the Outstations. On special occasions of the Feast of that Church and other instances, we arrange one Friar to be with them.
(c) Situations in the Outstations:
Almost in all the Outstations the people are subsistent farmers and farming depends on the rain pattern. Their villages do not have electricity or access to proper drinking water. In some Outstations we have provided potable water by drilling boreholes. But still there are some more Outstations that need boreholes. The people are so much happy when they see a priest visiting their community. The do not provide us any financial support, but always they do give us some yams or maize, which they are cultivating, as their token of appreciation. Some Outstations can be reached with the motorbike, but to visit the majority of the Outstations a Pickup is need as there are no proper roads.
(d) Role of the catechist in the Outstations:
All the Outstations have one or two Catechist from that community. They support the community spiritually during the absence of the priest. These Catechists are trained by the Parish and they are also given update seminars and classes on regular basis. All the Catechists are Voluntary ones. They are only appreciated with a token of food stuff during Christmas Season. We have one paid catechists. He is living at Kpassa. He also moves around on regular basis, visiting the outstations and preparing children and adults for Baptism. We remember with gratitude that CAN had provided a motorbike to him some Nine years ago. We too are striving to reach to our outstations but the lack of transportation is a hazard to our travel. We pray genuinely so that some generous hands will intervene and provide us with these means.
(e). Challenges:
We have a lot of challenges to run the parish as well as the community at large. Some of them are the following.
- Inability to meet all financial commitments to the Diocese and our contractors for the buildings.
- Though we have built a few churches for the outstations and still need more to build for Jesus and our people.
- Each outstation should have a school but we have them only in two outstations.
- People have to travel far and wide for water and grinding their food items. We did to some of the outstations a few boreholes and corn mills but still need more.
- The people are infants in terms of faith so need to teach them well. We are ready to spend our time but the language is a main hindrance for the same.
- Our population is mostly floating so we can’t find them regularly.
- Lack of cooperation of the youth and some of the members of the Church.
ST. PIO SCHOOL BITABA:
Kpassa District is divided into different Assembly zones and there more than ten villages within an Assembly zone. Bitaba is within the Kpassa East Assembly Zone. The people of Bitaba are all farmers. And all the households are from one tribe called Konkombas. There are almost two hundred families living in this area. We could identify more than 300 children aged between 3 and 10 who are not going to school in this village.
THE EDUCATIONAL SITUATION IN BITABA:
Bitaba is just five kilometers away from Kpassa. But as there are no buses plying in this road, parents do not care to send their children to school. It is only a few children who are grown to the age of ten or eleven that they start walking to Kpassa to attend school. But at this age they would not able to cope up with other children of their age in terms of reading and writing. And normally many drop out of the school. The parents then ask them to go to farm with them.
THE CULURAL IMPACT OF THE PLACE:
Most of the parents in Bitaba have not gone to School and hence they do not see the importance of education in their lives or in the lives of their children. They prefer to send the children to farm works to school. A man may have two or three wives and will have many children and he would not also able to bear the burden of sending them to school. But he would like to send the children to farm work, because the children can be “productive” in going to farm than going to school.
WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR BITABA:
Seeing the situation in Bitaba, we tried to meet the chief of the Bitaba and with his help met the parents several times and as a consequence they have promised to send their children to school. We erected initially an open shed to start giving education to children. The chief and the people of this place are so happy about the ‘open shed’. Gradually we built a few class rooms but still we need to build a few more class rooms and other facilities for the smooth running of the school. Now there are 385 children in this school. Your supports are always welcome and much appreciated. Kindly spread the news around as part of your mission work.