Reflection on my Birthday; Thanking God for Everything, Hoping in God for Everything

It is more than a year now since I fell sick last year in early February; around this time in March last year, I was actually recovering after being discharged from Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi where I was admitted for close to two weeks. Around this time last year, I was still rather weak as I was still on some medication. What I suffered from was not a simple sickness and in the words of the doctors who treated me, had I stayed longer in that situation in South Sudan, probably I would have died. But God made it possible through my staff and the priests who ensured that I was quickly flown to Nairobi where I got the full treatment and then had an opportunity to recover. So I thank in a special way God for saving my life and giving me one more chance to serve him.

I also want to thank all the people who supported me when I was sick and recuperating in Nairobi, the care and support I received from you all aided my recovery. Even though I may not remember each one of you in person, I can categorize you into groups: my priests, my staff members, the Christian community of my diocese, and friends I met in Nairobi in Kenya; the doctors and the medical personnel who took care of me both while I was hospitalized and also at home where I was recuperating; the Archdiocese of Nairobi, His Eminence John Cardinal Njue and Bishop David Kamau; I am immensely grateful to you all.

I am grateful in a special way for the life God has given me and I have a strong feeling that He intends something special and He wants me to be alive to carry out the work He has planned for me to do. I am grateful to my family, my deceased parents, and my dad who loved me so much and did extraordinary things for me in those days when things were not easy in our country Sudan.

As I celebrate my birthday today, I remember with fondness that from a very young age when I was in primary school, my father bought me a bicycle to help me commute to school because he knew I loved education; he encouraged me to work hard and focus on building my future. I remember he also bought me a watch to ensure that I was punctual in everything I did. These items I can call them prestigious in those days because very few people could afford them, yet because of his love for me, my father made the sacrifice and I would forever be grateful to him. Also my parish priest Rev. Fr. David Sahatini who picked me from among my peers and treated me in a special way; his kindness towards me influenced my choice to become a priest because I wanted to be just like him.

As a Bishop I am grateful to my priests, they have given me tremendous support and despite my shortcomings in whatever expectations they had when I became a Bishop, they have kept close to me, encouraging me, and showing me support. I don't want to mention any of them by name but all I can say is that I enjoy their company and collaborations. They are a wonderful team despite any challenges we are going through together. We are determined to reform our church and transform our activities into good within our own diocese. For me I am grateful that I have been able to conduct the first-ever diocesan synod in my diocese and now we have a document that we can proudly call our law; the law that governs the local church in the Catholic Diocese f Tombura-Yambio.

I am grateful to all the people who continue to support me, the lay faith, the clergy, the religious men and women, government officials, and all our collaborators and partners. I have enjoys the support of other religious leaders in Western Equatoria and I thank God for their good collaboration.

To my friends and donors who have given me tremendous financial support, your acts of charity and kindness have enabled us to achieve more in our diocese and I am thankful to all of you. Because of your support, we have managed to realize major projects in my diocese and I pray that God bless you abundantly.

As I move forward, I ask God to help me to remain humble and to be really a servant Bishop, that I would not shy away from getting my hands dirty in order to touch the lives of my people. I still want to lead my people to God, my Christian Community to go to heaven; this is my plan, my objective, my prayer. Through all the different activities I do to touch the lives of my people pastorally and socially, my real major work which if I had all the power to accomplish is to have all my people go to heaven.

I expect that my Christian Communities, my brother priests, and religious men and women in the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio will continue supporting me; let us work together and let use our energy to build our diocese, let us be courageous and do this together. All my Christian Communities let us put Jesus at the center of everything we do to aspire for holiness of life, for justice, for peace for harmony, for unity in our diocese and in our country as a whole.

I expect that in this year which we have dedicated as the year of work in our diocese, we may be able to achieve much more. I have not been able to build a Cathedral but in my mind, my thinking is to build a Cathedral which is the people; surely the material Cathedral is still necessary but at the moment I am busy building the human Cathedral who are my faithful. But I still pray and hope that God will also help us to overcome poverty by doing jobs and activities locally that can help us to build our church.

I want to raise more priests, more vocations, men, and women to go to the service of God, to build His kingdom here on earth. I would like everybody here to be evangelized; my prayer and my hope are that in this area we may be able to turn poverty into something of the past; we may be able to pay attention to the weak in our societies: the women, elderly and children as well as physically challenged persons. My hope too is that we may be able to give our youth a purpose so that they may realize their potentials and offer their contribution towards building our diocese and our country.

I am grateful for this birthday, it is a unique one for me and I hope I will be able to maximize the opportunity to do more, this year being the year of work in our diocese. Thank you all who have wished me well and who have prayed for me; may God return to you all that you have given me and may we continue working together for the greater good of God's people.