Father Joeker

By Fr Joseph Panabang SVD

The marriage ceremony was set for 10:00 AM. By 12:30 PM a procession was in sight. ‘Here they are; prepare!’ I alerted the altar boys but the excitement died abruptly when, to our surprise, behind the choir we saw a coffin. It was a group of Methodists on their way to the cemetery to bury one of their members. Sympathy and laughter were quite hard to combine. Finally at 3:30 PM the bride and the groom came. And that was my first and last time to officiate at a wedding ceremony in Asesewa, Ghana. Not until did I know I could be that patient.

Brutus and Castro are our two German Shepherd dogs in Asesewa, though not purebred. One night I heard Brutus barking wildly, kicking its house and feeding trough with such noise that he was obviously misbehaving. The following morning, I asked Georgina, our cook, what had happened last night and giggling she answered, ‘I gave him only a little food’. Then I remembered that the dog food had run out a few days earlier and the next consignment was still to come.

After our Mass in Akumerso-West village in Asesewa Parish, Eastern Ghana, we went to pray for the newly born twins of a couple in the parish. Before praying I asked what their names were and was told, ‘Mary and Abraham’. ‘What a combination’, I kept musing to myself. ‘Why not Mary and Joseph?’

The Honorable Stephen Amanor was elected MP (Member of Parliament) to represent Asesewa District, Eastern Region of Ghana. At the end of a Mass in thanksgiving for his victory he was thanking the people when suddenly the cloth covering the pulpit surprisingly fell down. After his talk, I picked up the royal blue cloth and raising it high in full view of everyone asked, ‘Do you know the reason why this well-pinned cloth suddenly fell down?’ Breaking the deadly silence, I continued, 'It is because if this cloth could speak it would say, “I am not worthy to be in front of a humble man speaking”’. And the Hon. Stephen is known for his humility. Thunderous applause erupted from the congregation.