One of the dreams of Father Paco Andreo, founder of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA), was to create a rosary of missions “from Nariokotome to Alexandria“, which could be centers of life for the surrounding people. In 2010, the new Bishop of the newly created Apostolic Vicariate of Jimma-Bonga, Msgr. Markos Gebremedhin, invited the MCSPA to open a second mission within the territory of his vicariate. Finally, in 2014, two MCSPA priests established themselves in a tented camp in one of the remotest villages of Nyangatom pastoralists. The MCSPA missionaries built up a close relationship with the local population through attending to their different needs, such as water, health for humans and animals, and conflict mediation.
Nyangatom Mission
One of the dreams of Father Paco Andreo, founder of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA), was to create a rosary of missions “from Nariokotome to Alexandria“, which could be centers of life for the surrounding people. In 2010, the new Bishop of the newly created Apostolic Vicariate of Jimma-Bonga, Msgr. Markos Gebremedhin, invited the MCSPA to open a second mission within the territory of his vicariate. Finally, in 2014, two MCSPA priests established themselves in a tented camp in one of the remotest villages of Nyangatom pastoralists. The MCSPA missionaries built up a close relationship with the local population through attending to their different needs, such as water, health for humans and animals, and conflict mediation.
Present Situation: In May 2018, the missionaries moved eleven kilometres west of Kakuta to a hill called Naturomoe, establishing there what was to be the permanent and definitive basis of the Prince of Peace catholic mission. The mission is in a strategic place and is gradually becoming a point of reference for care and reconciliation for the population of the area. It is located at the confluence of the borders of three conflicting countries: Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Kenya. A region populated by different indigenous ethnic groups, trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, marginalization, and violence, confronted with each other by competitiveness over the scarce resources that exist. In a way you could say that the mission is located at the centre of the conflict, and at the same time far away, being a very remote place, surrounded by savannah and scrub forest. The first phase of buildings, access road, water supply, fencing and auxiliary buildings, workshops, staff houses, warehouses and multifunctional shade were completed in November 2019. By October 2021, we have managed to open the first nursery school for small children in Kakuta, which is serving 50 kids. We have also inaugurated the first provisional shade where we are teaching literacy to 70 kids, aged 5 to 15, laying the foundations of the future mission school in Naturomoe. Finally, by December 2023 finalized the building of the Assembly Hall in Naturomoe hill, and the dedication of the Mission to the Prince of Peace and Our Lady of the Embrace. In 2024 we will continue with the building of the Peace Training and Retreat Centre and the MCSPA community house. A good way to summarize the role that the members of the MCSPA are playing in Nyangatom would be by quoting Isaiah (Is 40:3) when he says that “A voice cries: in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
