HEAL Blog
Welcome! Here we will post news and highlight the faces, needs, and services of HEAL.Blessing Gives Thanks for Your Generosity!
Only a week ago we asked you to help provide funds for foot surgery for a 15-year-old girl named Blessing. Well, your response has been generous. Within a few days, HEAL members donated the $8,000 needed! Now Blessing can look forward toward walking normally after...
Blessing Needs Your Blessing!
Deacon Leo and I arrived at MENPS in Umuagwu to visit the Masters1 and check in on the Messengers of Justice (MOJ). Sr. Ann Okweji MOJ, the school matron, set up a table and chairs in the Compassionate Home courtyard for us to recline after our arrival. In the spirit...
Forming Servant Leaders Begins in the Family!
A BOMCA student named Christopher told me his mother is an American, but she didn’t want to come back to Nigeria with his father. I could hear the sadness in his voice, and I wondered if he shared this hoping I might be able to find his mother since I’m an American...
MOJ Sisters Stand With Umuagwu Children!
In Umuagwu village, the home of MENPS, a recent outbreak of violence has instilled fear in many indigenous families and their children. A new cult comprised of local at risk youths has carried out various nefarious operations, including kidnappings, in Umuagwu. Nick...
Back to School at BOMCA!
I don’t know about you, but I looked forward to every holiday from school in all my years as a student and equally hated going back to school after the holiday ended. My best memory about the first day of school, from grade school to college, is that there was hardly...
Open House Precedes New School Year
At the BOMCA graduation ceremony last July, the program included students creatively showcasing what they had learned to their parents and other stakeholders, like myself, in attendance. A young primary school student named Rosemary stole the show with her “names for...
Masters Perform Unforgettable Drama!
The students of BOMCA (a.k.a. “the Masters”) perform dramas to express the Self-Emptying (Phil 2:6-11) mission of HEAL and the charism and apostolate of the Messengers of Justice Sisters (MOJ’s). I witnessed such a performance at my send off ceremony on July 13, the...
Fr. Augustus Tolton’s Story Told in Africa!
I had the distinct privilege to speak about Fr. Tolton to the secondary school section of BOMCA in July. Special thanks to Bishop Joseph N. Perry, Postulator for the Cause of Augustus Tolton, and Joyce Duriga, editor of Chicago Catholic, for providing me with...
Nick Welcomed to Akpim Village Igbo Style
The Igbo people express hospitality for their visitors through displays of their wonderful culture going back to time immemorial. Enjoy this video of my welcoming reception in Akpim village a few weeks ago. Our mission of forming Servant Leaders, in the spirit of...
MOJ’s and Masters Fending for their Food
In 2017, HEAL’s Coordinator for Widow’s Outreach, named Dorothy, brought Deacon Leo and I to her home village of Ekwe to show us the squalid conditions many of her people were suffering there. We encountered a widow named Ijioma and two of her children, whom I...