Yiffin Catholic Community in West Africa: A Dream Come True

The Xaverian Missionaries work in Sierra Leone, West Africa since 1950. In our work to create new vistas for Christianity, a new Catholic community has been taking shape in Yiffin, Sierra Leone, in collaboration with the Protestant community,  American MCA Church.
In the 90’s, I was parish priest of Kabala Catholic Church for over 10 years. One of the farthest outstations was Yiffin, a town 54 miles from Kabala, close to the Loma mountain area, in Nieni Chiefdom.
A few years after I left the area, I was pleased to make a visit to the same area around 1996 and again at the beginning of 1998. I met then in Yiffin town, a very welcoming Paramount Chief and the local authorities, and a small but lively Catholic community, led by the late Mr. John Kumala, clerk at the chiefdom administration.
During several meetings with the local people and the authorities, a dream emerged among our small community, that envisaged for the future a Catholic Church building, a RC primary school and possibly, when feasible, a secondary school for the further education of many young boys and girls.
I had met there a Christian community brought up by the American MCA  missionaries, with whom we Catholics were working amicably together and shared initiatives and development activities.
From that time, almost 20 years have gone by and since my recent return to the Kabala Mission, I was eager to visit this community to see the progress and the achievements of the recent years.
When I entered the town, I saw first the Catholic Church building, right in the very middle of the town.  I also admired the primary and the secondary schools – new buildings – and nearby the Mission House, just outside the town in a quiet and spacious location very fit for the purpose.
On Sunday I celebrated the Mass in the Church crowded with people, and many secondary school students, who were celebrating their foundation and thanksgiving day, for their  achievements in recent years.
I felt that my dream of 20 years ago, with the help of God and the hard work of my confreres and many local people, had now become a reality, something that gives hope for further development for the Catholic Community and for the local people in the near future.
When I left the town the next day, in my heart I praised and thanked the Lord for the wonders he has performed, through our collaboration, in an area which is far from the big places of the Sierra Leone geography, but near to the heart of our Lord and of the Catholic community of the Makeni diocese.
The Xaverian Missionaries of Sierra Leone, West Africa