Presentation of Saint Paul Parish Kabechei

Geographically Saint Paul Parish is located in the Rift Valley area in Elgeyo Marakwet county and Keiyo South sub-county. It’s part of the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret. The distance between Eldoret town and Saint Paul Kabechei Parish is 95.5km. Saint Paul was stated by Father Reinhard Bottner a Benedictine priest in 2000 and it became a parish in 2010. The first parish was Fr. Reinhard, the pioneer of the outstation. He was the parish priest until 2018 the year of his death. After his death, the parish was managed by the diocesan priests. Between 2018 to the beginning of 2023, three diocesan priests worked in this Parish. The Divine Word Missionaries took over from the diocesan priests at the request of the bishop of Eldoret. The official handing over was done on 7th February 2023. The first confreres sent to this mission are Fr. Agre Issere Svd and Frt. Georges Katuka, Svd.

Pastoral activities

Saint Paul Parish has in total fourteen outstations including the main station. The outstations are grouped into three zones: zone one comprises Saint Paul Parish Kabechei, Saint Benedict Teber, Saint James Enego, Saint John Setano, and Saint Peter Tugumoi. Zone two includes Saint Francis Kasar, Saint Vicent Kabirokwo, Saint Agnes Koimur, Saint Luke Kaborom Saint Peter Yaw-yaw. And zone three Saint Benedict Kiptengwer, Saint Joseph Kabeen, Saint Abraham Chemoibon, Saint Lawrence Ketigoi. The nearest outstation is at 7km and the longest at 35km from the parish.

Every Sunday there is mass in the main parish at 9am. After mass, we proceed to the outstations. In three months we will be able to cover all the outstations. We extend the pastoral activities to the public schools around the parish and its outstations. The parish has four catholic schools both primary and secondary levels but at the moment only one is active due to the lack of funds and management.  Our missionary activities here are basically primary evangelization, through preaching, visitations of the small Christian communities, and the outstations.

Some challenges

The biggest challenge we are facing here is a poor road network; the roads are rough and with stones and potholes. This makes it difficult to climb and descend the hills.  According to the local community, during rainy seasons, the roads are almost impassible. Because of this and the location of the outstations, we use roughly 400 liters of diesel every month. Another challenge we are facing is water scarcity. The church and the community get water from the rock on the top of the mountain, once there is no rain the spring dries up and affect the whole community. Our Christians find it difficult to be on time for the Eucharistic celebrations on Sundays because the majority live far from the parish. They walk for an hour and thirty minutes before reaching the parish. This makes them come late for pastoral activities. Nevertheless, Saint Paul Kabechei Parishioners and the faithful from the outstations are very welcoming and ready to embrace the Catholic faith.

Saint Agnes outstation

Saint Agnes Koimur is one of the outstations of Saint Paul Kabechei Parish. It’s situated 16km from the main station. The majority of Christians are children, a few youths,s and 5 adults who are the leaders of the outstation.

Every Sunday there is a service presided over by a catechist. They have mass once in three months because there is only a priest and a frater in the main station. Though they are few in number their faith is strong and they are ready to contribute to the development and growth of this outstation.

Saint Joseph Yawyaw school

Saint Joseph Yawyaw school was started by parents around 2000. Some families gave out their land purposefully to educate their children. At the moment, the school has 22 nursery pupils. And there are two teachers (one is being paid by the parents and the other one is paid by the government).

On Sunday the classrooms are used for celebrating Mass. We are planning to buy a piece of land and construct a Church for the outstation.

ST LUKE-KABOROM

St Luke station is located 16 kilometers from the parish at KABOROM town center on the hillside. It was started by Fr Reinhard in 2000 just immediately after the parish according to the faithful there. There are very few people there. The whole compound is about 1.5 acres. Three families gave the land to the church.  Only 70 people participate in the church when there is a celebration such as Easter and Christmas but during normal Sundays, we have 20 to 30 faithful. St Luke has a Church, a water tank, and a house with two rooms and a kitchen. There are also two toilets and one bathroom which is aside from one of the rooms.

St Luke School

There is an iron sheet constructed ECDE center on the same piece of land at St. Luke Kaborom station. Which is operational. It is not clear how the school runs because the government prohibits the use of religious buildings as schools.

According to the faithful, there is a mango tree planted by the Late Rev. Bishop Conerliis Korrir, the late Bishop of the Diocese of Eldoret. The station sits on an elevated hill point where even from far you can spot it easily. The road is very bad accessible.

As Divine Word Missionaries, our mission is to make the Divine Word, Christ, known to the people of Kabechei so that embracing him, will transform their lives.

Fr. Agre Issere (Roger), SVD and Frt. George Katuka, SVD

Sunday readings in brief 4 Lent Year A

1 Samuel 16:1,6-7,10-13; Psalm 22(23); Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41

The Journey of Faith

Dear Friends, today is the fourth Sunday of Lent. We have one more week before the beginning of the holy week. Last Sunday and today we read from the Gospel of John. John has very thrilling episodes about how encountering Jesus transformed the lives of certain people. Last Sunday we read from chapter four about the Samaritan woman who came to believe after a long conversation with Jesus. Today we read from chapter nine about the blind man who came to profess his faith in Jesus after the Jews challenged his healing. This passage exposes the challenges we face on our journey to maturity in the faith. I would like us to compare the journey of the blind man to our own.

The introduction to the passage is about the prevailing traditional belief among the Jewish community that if someone was born blind, it was a direct consequence of the sins of his parents or grandparents. Even today in our various traditions, even baptized people still believe in inherited curses.  Jesus disputes this belief when the disciples ask him whether it is because of the sins of the blind man or his parents that he was blind. He tells them that it was meant to reveal the works of God and Jesus was sent for that purpose. Everything has a purpose for God. What we see as a misfortune may be an opportunity to reveal the power of God.

The healing of the blind man on the Sabbath was a cause of dispute between Jesus and the Jews. Jesus spat on the ground and made a paste that he applied to the blind man’s eyes. No work was permitted on a Sabbath including healing and even cooking. People had to prepare enough food on the previous day in order not to violate the law of the Sabbath.

However, this became known through the narration of the blind man to his neighbors about how he came to see again. Some did not believe he was the same blind man who begged in the streets but he insisted that he was the one. Instead of rejoicing with the man who had come to see for the first time, the wicked neighbors wanted the blood of the man called Jesus who had violated the Sabbath by not only healing but also making a paste that he put on the blind man. Even in our days, people will always find faults in the blessing of their neighbors instead of rejoicing with them. They will even doubt the very identity of a person because they are blinded by envy and jealousy.

The Pharisees interrogated the man to find out what had happened. The blind man repeats what he had told the neighbors “He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see”. Confronted with an undisputable miracle, there arose a dispute among the Pharisees about the legitimacy of Jesus just because he healed on a Sabbath. They turned once more to the blind man who now sees and asked him to give his opinion. The blind man now graduates to the next level and says that the man who made him see again is a prophet. This man had nothing to lose, what matters to him is that now he can see.

When they realized that they could not succeed with the man, they cast doubt on whether he was truly born blind so that they can debunk the whole miracle. So, they called his parents who in their turn exposed the fear instilled in the people about believing in Jesus. In an effort to remain politically right, the parents refused to side with their own son about the identity of the man who healed him. “We know he is our son and we know he was born blind, but do not know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his eyes. He is old enough, let him speak for himself”. What a blunt refusal to witness the truth? How many times are we caught up in such a situation where we refuse to witness the truth in order to save our own skin?

For the third time, the Pharisees try their luck with the man who was healed in order to discredit Jesus’ mission. However, this time they got disappointment in their life. The blind man is no longer willing to continue with a dispute based on the blindness of the truth. He refuses to condemn Jesus as a sinner simply because he healed him on the Sabbath. “I do not know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see.” He even asks them whether they wanted to become disciples of Jesus that he now considers himself to be, “Do you want to become his disciples too?” At this, they started insulting him. This is a reality in our communities. People who have refused to believe in God go on insulting those who do.

The blind man goes on to speak about what he believes to be true, “God does not listen to sinners but to men who are devout and do his will”. He has surely become a true believer and a witness to Jesus. At this, they drove him away. Later he met Jesus to live and seeing him with his now restored eyesight, made a final profession of faith. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Lord, I believe.”

Jesus speaks in front of the Pharisees about his mission to restore sight to the blind and that those who think she may turn blind. This episode exposes a lot about our practice of faith in the midst of an unbelieving world. Sometimes we do things thinking that we see and refuse to be enlightened. We use our own subjective parameters to judge others. I have come to realize that I will always be good and bad at the same time no matter where I will be. It all depends on who is telling me about me. In the first reading, when God sent the Prophet Samuel to anoint a king to replace King Saul who had gone rogue, Samuel looks at the physical appearance of the sons of Jesse but God looks at the heart.

Dear friends, the journey of faith is a journey of brightening our eyesight. The more we mature in faith, the more we will see things clearly. Let us not be blinded by traditions that are based on discrimination against the poor and the powerless. True faith sets us free from all the cultural burdens of popular but discriminatory traditions such as polygamy, child marriage, FGM, and many others. The question we need to ask ourselves today is, Can I truly see things for what they are or do I harbor some kind of blindness caused by my inherited or accumulated biases?

Have a fruitful Lent

Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD

Sunday readings in brief 3 Lent A

Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 94(95); Romans 5:1-2’5-8; John 4:5-42

“Now we know he is the Savior”

Dear friends, today is the third Sunday of Lent. It is the Sunday when the Catechumens will be received in the first of the three stages that will lead to their baptism on the Easter Vigil. Catechumenate is the very last stage in the process where adults are received into faith. First, the candidates express their desire to become Christian and are taken through thorough catechesis that may take even years. When they are deemed ready, the following Lenten season becomes the climax of their process and where they are officially called catechumenates and are prepared for Baptism. The catechumenate period may also last for years.

This is because Christianity is a tradition and a custom that someone who would want to be a true follower of Christ needs to be well-inducted into. Every tradition has its values, do’s and don’ts, taboos, abominations, and most of all the reverence for the supernatural associated with that particular culture. What makes it even more important to follow the due process is that, unlike children adults who want to be Christians have already matured in other traditions and values. They need to abandon the previous ones and embrace Christianity. This is not easy and if this period is rushed, then we will end up with many baptized but few true Christians.

The Gospel passage today presents us with the perfect example of a catechumen’s journey. Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman demonstrates the stages of believing. The Samaritan woman comes to fetch water and meets Jesus’ who is a Jew by the look though she did not know who he was. Jesus asks the woman to give him some water and this leads into a conversation about the differences Jews and Samaritans had since the division of the Kingdom of Israel. The dispute was all about which was the true Holy City of God. For the Samaritans, Samaria was and for the Jews it was Jerusalem. The woman refuses to give Jesus water based on these differences. What differences do I harbor that makes me not associate with someone or some people?

Jesus introduces another level of conversation – a spiritual one – but the woman does not get it immediately. When Jesus tells her that if she knew who he was she would have asked him for the living water, she wonders about how he would get that water without a bucket whereas the well was deep. She even dismisses him, because he made himself seem greater than he made Jacob, who gave them the well did.

Continuing with catechesis to the woman, Jesus goes on to explain what living water was and this draws the attention of the woman. She thinks about getting the living water that would save her the trouble of going back the distance to the well every day. Seeing that the woman did not yet understand, Jesus asks her to go and get her husband so that he could give them both water. This is very important to underline. Here Jesus emphasizes the importance of the conversion, not of an individual but the whole family and community.

The woman is disturbed by this and tells Jesus the truth about her life though only to cut the story short and get the water. “I have no husband,” she said. Here Jesus gets a chance to reveal who he truly was to the woman and tells her about her previous five husbands and the sixth one who was not her real husband. Hearing this the woman believes in Jesus, leaves her bucket there (like the disciples living with their father and nets), hurries back to the village, and gives witness to what she had seen and heard.

The villagers went with her to meet Jesus and pleaded with him to stay for longer. Jesus takes the opportunity to teach them and finally, the whole village concludes that he was truly the messiah. This statement by the village people is the expression of faith that every catechumen must arrive at, at the end of the process, “Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world”.

The stages in this passage are 1) the meeting – of Jesus and the woman. 2) The expression of reality – the wounded relationship between Jews and Samaritans. 3) The catechetical conversation – Jesus’ instructions to the woman. 4) The leap of faith – the woman believes in Jesus. 5) The witness – the woman goes back to the villages and gives witness to the faith she had received and the villagers express their faith after listening to Jesus for two days.

Dear friends, I invite each one of us to reflect upon our journey of faith. Did I pass through the five stages of faith? Was my catechism enough? Did I ever come to a personal conclusion about the things I believe? Did I grow in conviction about my faith? Did I lose faith at some point because there was a stage that I did not understand well? If we can answer all these questions, I will be able to determine my standing about my faith. i can always go back to my catechism and polish the things I did not understand well.

Have a fruitful Lenten season

Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD.