Wa, GHANA 21 November 2015

Dear Provincial Superior, Bro. Seregeous Dery, and my fellow Brothers; - most Rev. Bishops Bemile and Peter Paul, and all honorable protocol observed, and all here presence. As an FIC brother, just like any other FIC Brother, I want to be a brother to all. Allow me therefore to address you “Dear Brothers and Sisters! 

It is an honor and a privilege for me to stand here before you today, on behalf of the FIC General Superior and on my own behalf, to join the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the presence of the FIC Brothers in Ghana. Thank you for your presence. I am filled with joy with deep gratitude. To contribute to the celebration, I have a story to share. 

Yes, there is a story! The story started in 1840, 175 years ago, in Maastricht, The Netherlands. This story does not end in Maastricht but continues, among others here in Ghana. The continuing of the story in Ghana started in 1965, 50 years ago, in Kaleo. From Kaleo the story spread out to Nandom, Tumu, Wa, Accra, Tamale, Damongo, Zebilla, Bole, and … hopefully still goes further in the future.

What is this story about? It is a life-story of God’s Love for children and the young who need loving attention and care, who need education and teaching, so as to grow to become the persons God wants them to become. It is a story of God using Louis Rutten, a young priest in Maastricht, to manifest and make His love tangibly experienced especially by the neglected children and young people in Maastricht. Filled with the Spirit of Jesus, Louis Rutten placed his whole life and all his means to seek those children and young people. He invited and gathered them to learn who God is for them, and to learn to live based on or guided by God’s values, to learn to appropriate virtues and life-skills that will help them to live happily with others → to live with joy, hope, peace, and happiness as God desires them and all of us to. In doing all these, Louis Rutten sought and found help and supports from many others of good will around him ……. 

That was how the story began – THE FIC STORY.

This life-story of God’s Love continues and has been alive in Ghana since 1965. Like using the life of Louis Rutten, (mind, heart, hands and all his means), God also uses the life of the FIC Brothers. God desires to use the FIC Brothers as His instrument to make His Love tangible for the children and the young, especially those who experience less love. Responding to this desire of God, the FIC Brothers dedicate themselves to works of education, teaching and Christian formation. While starting with integrating the St Joseph Brothers into FIC-life, the Brothers have also been involved in quiet a number of schools, agric-projects, co-operatives (PEPSC), credit-unions, actions for street-children, health-care, orthopedic services, etc., in places I mentioned earlier. In doing all these, the FIC Brothers also seek and find help and supports from many others of good will, from within and outside Ghana. You who are here, must be among those who have been helping and supporting the FIC Brothers in various ways and forms. Thank you so much … and we trust and hope that you will never get tired of continuing to support and help the FIC Brothers, especially for the sake of the young entrusted to them. 

At the moment the FIC Brothers in Ghana are 58 in number, 55 Ghanaians and 3 expatriates (Dutch), 1 novice and 3 postulants. Four of the Ghanaian Brothers are doing their mission outside Ghana: (1) in Malawi, (1) in South Sudan, and (2) in Maastricht, The Netherlands. 

As you must have heard and / or known, among the latest developments in the life of the FIC Brothers in Ghana is the establishment of two fully private schools: St. Louis Educational Complex in Wa and Jubilee School in Nandom. With these establishments, I believe and trust that the Brothers have only one intention: to be able to fully and freely use in the most fruitful way all their gifts, talents, time, and resources in the service of educating, teaching, and forming the young entrusted to them … and also with the desire and hope to be more able to extent their services further to more others in need. This is one way of continuing the story of God’s Love started by Louis Rutten and his first Brother, Brother Bernardus Hoecken.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, pondering on the development and where the FIC STORY is now, I praise and thank the Lord for His Love. I praise and thank the Lord for the His gift of faith, obedience and perseverance to all the Brothers; I praise and thank the Lord for the dedicated service of those in leadership from the beginning up to this moment, (Bros. Maarten Bouw, Marcel de Keizer, Albert Ketelaars, Methodius Kuusoru, Nicolas Zumanaa, Augustine Kubdaar, Seregeous Dery … and still others to come) and their assistants. They have been the main characters in the FIC Story in Ghana. Their faithful obedience to God has contributed to the sound development of the STORY. Thank you so much for your dedication and listening disposition to the Brothers and to God. 

Yet, let us remember that we are all human. And human actions have been and will always be inadequate and imperfect. Our limitations and imperfections sometimes, if not often, bring disappointment, challenges and difficulties. There have been occasions, we all know, when we failed to meet the expectations of our own and that of others; and failures can at times frustrate us. Yet let us know and believe that our failures will never frustrate God’s mercy and love. Let us hope that when faced with these unavoidable limitations and imperfections we may find the strength and courage, the patience and perseverance, the wisdom and understanding to overcome them well.

Let us let ourselves be filled with gratitude and joy for the goodness of the Lord manifested in the 50 years presence of the FIC Brothers here in Ghana and in the generous help and supports the Brothers have been receiving from so many people of good will, for the welfare of the Children and the young entrusted to us. May the life-story of God’s Love continue in and through our being and doing good. 

To Brothers Peter Agoboso and Joachim Naah, congratulations and thank you for your 25 years of dedicated and faithful services in the FIC Congregation. Best wishes for you.

God’s abundant blessing is always there for us to receive and to continue growing. Thank you! Amen!

Wa, Ghana, 21 November 2015

Bro. Guido Sukaraman, fic

For the General Coouncil