The year is fast coming to an end and just last week I was trying to count the number of workshops we delivered and mentored in the sharing education and learning for life SELL programme and saw that I was losing count each time I tried. When I came to the office I got the actual figure from Jonathan and Moses for the actual number, they said it was 41 workshops in all one will be tempted to say it’s enough for the year but when I checked our programme brochure I found out that we still have 4workshops before the year ends. I want to congratulate members of the SELL Team which I belong to and the trainees of the SELL programme who have made this a reality and success. Though we had the challenges we encountered such as bad roads, language barriers among others but we still took the bull by the horn and made sure we did what we were supposed to do. If you have been with us on this blog you will agree with me that the programme has impacted on both the trainees and participants positively.

Last week, I informed you that we had 2 workshops to deliver. Though 1 was mentoring at Abuja, Leo and Fr. Tommy Hayden spent the weekend with the Abuja SELL Team, Lucy and JohnMaria.  Leo and Tommy mentored them on the Leadership Unit of the SELL programme the participants at the Abuja parish were 26. Johnmaria will write a vivid report about the workshop; this report will be posted to you when it comes.

The second workshop was at Inkil community a suburb of Bauchi state in Nigeria. Communication between us at the centre and the host of the programme was a challenge they did not get the actual time as communicated that was why we had 9 participants. The small number not withstanding, the participants enjoyed every bit of the workshop. They commended the SELL programme for organising such an outstanding sexuality piece. They said Sexuality is a very vital component of human beings and yet people don’t know much about it. For example how to care for the body, or trying to be in the right relationship most especially with the opposite partner. We hope that the controversy we had about time will not repeat itself. The time was spelt out to them that it is actually 4 – 6pm on Fridays and 8am – 4pm on Saturdays.

Fr. Tommy Hayden an SPMS priest came all the way from Lagos to guide our SELL Resource Team Building. During the Team Building we had the opportunity to go through our time line. This involves looking at the past achievements and challenges, the present situation we are in now and what aspirations we have for the future. We thank Tommy so much for all the time he had and has being having with us.

As I highlighted to you in the first paragraph that we have four workshops before the year ends, the workshop for this weekend  26th -28th November 2010 is at Gamber a small community in Bauchi state Nigeria. We hope the workshop will be a success.

You will get the report in our next bulletin of this blog.

Maria 

For the SELL Team.  

Our last edition ended on a promising note that Maria, the Team member responsible for communication shall be getting married on the last Saturday of October. Today we are glad to bring you the update, because the wedding did not just take place as expected but it was done in a grand style.

As early as 7:00am ie. 6:00 GMT, the Team left the centre at Bauchi to Jos, North Central Nigeria for the wedding ceremony. We made sure we were at the venue before everyone else and positioned ourselves where we could catch a glimpse at every bit of the activity at the occasion. 

At exactly 11am, Maria arrived and the whole church was astounded by her Immaculate looks as she was gorgeously dressed in white gown and holding a beautiful flower. People were fascinated by her dancing step to the front of the Altar where Owen (her Man) was seated, patiently waiting for her arrival. Hitherto her arrival, while the music was on, Owen looked a bit anxious, as he repeatedly looked at his wrist watch. Perhaps he was afraid his would be wife may have changed her mind. So when she came, he joined the congregation in singing and rejoicing.

 The mass was graced by Six Priests with Leo Traynor from the SELL Team as a co-celebrant. At exactly 11:45am, Owen and Maria exchanged their marital vows to one another promising “to Love and to hold, for better for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do them part.” This was done before Leo, who representing the church in his usual humorous style joined the two into one body as husband and wife. The venue,  St. Mary’s Hwolshe in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, was filled to the brim with loved ones, friends and well wishers of the bride and groom. Colleagues and many facilitators in training from Jos, Bauchi, Abuja and Kabba were also in attendance. 

At 2:00pm, it was time to wine and dine at the reception ground. It was a very lovely place adorned with green colours and trees, signifying the communion with nature. Maria and Owen cut the Beautiful cake and danced themselves to Tango to the admiration of all present. The clownish Master of ceremony, MC also added colour to the occasion and made the whole day the fun of a life time. We at the SELL team wish Maria and Owen the best of marital life. You will recall that on 5th June 2010, Moses, the SELL team member responsible for Finance and Administration married Ann. That means the year, despite all odds, is a blessed one for the SELL team. 

Back to the office, this week Wednesday, the Bauchi Diocesan chaplains and youth stakeholders gathered for the end of year evaluation. At the meeting, the year was reviewed to be a mixture of sorrows and joy for the SELL team and programme. It was sorrowful because of the death of many friends of the programme, like late Bishop John Moore. But on the contrary it was a huge blessing because the Team was able to reach 992 people with the programme during the year under review. This is by no means a small achievement considering the fact that the Team is still going to reach some more people before the year runs out. Beside, the dream to make the programme more ecumenical and inclusive yielded some positive results during the year gone by. The chaplains applauded the Team for the journey so far and gave their advice on how to make it even better next year and beyond. 

Today, am alone in the office, because as I write this update, Jonathan and Leo are on the way travelling to little Gombi, in Yola, North East, Nigeria for mentoring of the four trainees from that axis on Leadership. It is a journey of over 800 km. We pray journey mercy and success for them.

Next week, the chaplains from the six dioceses of Jos, Shendam, Yola, Jalingo, Maiduguri and Bauchi are expected in the office for the end of year gathering and planning for 2011. Thereafter, Leo shall be travelling to Abuja for the St. Patricks West Africa regional renewal. Still next week, I shall be attending the third phase of the Alternative to violence facilitators training in Jos, while Jonathan and Maria shall be mentoring trainees at Dass in Bauchi. We hope to report on all this in our subsequent editions. Please permit me to pause here and attend to other office activities. Ciao.

Moses : For the SELL Team

When I walked into the office compound last Tuesday the 9th of November 2010, I said to myself two weeks ago you left this office a single and now you are back married. I was praying in my mind for grace to do my work well now that status has changed and more responsibility is involved. That same day the Provincial Youth Chaplains of the Jos Ecclesiastical Province converge at the Youth Formation Centre in Bauchi for a meeting which took place the following day, Wednesday 10th November 2010. 0f the 6 dioceses of the province, each has a chaplain and 5 chaplains were able to come for the meeting, the one who was absent couldn’t make it to come due to reasons beyond his control. The meeting which started around 9:30am ended around 11:30am. Some of the issues discussed at the meeting were on the reality of delivering the SELL workshop at the various dioceses for the provincial facilitators in - training and the support the local team got from their dioceses among other issues. The chaplains said it was a little easy for the local team of facilitators because of the presence of the resource team who were there to mentor them in the workshops. Generally the meeting was a success and the chaplains Went back to their dioceses with more task of supporting the facilitators as they deliver the SELL programme.

After the meeting some of the chaplains took off to Uyo Akwaibom state, south south region, Nigeria for the National Youth Retreat.

Leo left for Abuja on the 10th November shortly after the meeting with the provincial chaplains for a St. Patricks Renewal Programme which will last up to the end of this week.

On Thursday the 11th of November 2010, Moses went to Jos for a workshop. It was organised by the Damietta Peace Initiative Project.

On the 13th November 2010, Jonathan and I took off to Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi state, Nigeria for a sell workshop. We were supposed to mentor the facilitators in training of that axis but we ended up giving the workshop partly ourselves and mentored only one of the two facilitators in training who is Matthew Solomon. He did his best by taking some of the sessions. The workshop was a bit tiring because we planned to deliver the workshop in English but ended up giving it in Hausa because not all the participants could understand English as they would to Hausa. So we had to give some part of the workshop in English and translated in Hausa language which is the main lingua franca in Dass. The total number at the workshop was 25. 

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES.

This weekend, Moses and I with Mary James one of the first set of trained facilitators in Bauchi diocese who is also doing her 3months industrial attachment with us at the Youth Formation Centre Bauchi, will be going to Inkil community, a suburb of Bauchi town to give a personal growth workshop. I will bring the update of this workshop to you in our next edition of this blog.

Also Leo will be mentoring Lucy Gbendeh and John Maria Baba the Abuja SELL team on a leadership workshop with the youths of new Lugbe district in Abuja. The entire SELL team wish the duo success as they give the workshop.

I am so pleased to announce to you that two facilitators of the SELL programme will be saying ‘I do’ soon. The first who is Ikennechukwu one of the Portharcourt team will be tying the knot to his heartthrob in Portharcourt on the 4th December 2010 and  Jacob Paulus a Bauchi team member will be cleaving to Miss Laitu on the 30th December 2010 in Boi community of Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi state. We wish the two couples a happy wedlock.  

Still to come is team building for the SELL Resource team. Our guide for the team building is Fr. Tommy Hayden sps. We look forward to having the team building done. It is aimed at making our team more efficient and to map out plans that will help us in doing our work.

Thanks for staying with us on the blog hope to bring to you more updates in our next edition.

Maria 

For the SELL team