| Rooted in God’s Call: Fr. Paul Uwemedimo Vocation Story |
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| Written by Joy Sosoban |
| Tuesday, 01 December 2009 00:00 |
 “I almost left the Church,” Fr. Paul disclosed while waiting for things to settle down at a Gawad Kalinga (GK) site turnover so he could start Mass.Turning Points Born a Catholic of a Nigerian father and an English mother, Fr. Paul Uwemedimo (pronounced with silent “u”) evacuated with his mother to England in 1967 when he was two years old because of Nigeria’s civil war. They went back to Nigeria in 1970 when life there had calmed down. Fr. Paul’s father was the country’s attorney general while his mother ran a school. In 1975, he went back to England to stay in a boarding school. At this time, though he considered his faith not totally irrelevant, Fr. Paul said, “In my mind and heart, I didn’t know what it meant to be a Roman Catholic.” At 17 years old, he started to search. “There were three major turning points in my life,” he said. The first was when a friend invited him to join Young Person’s Fellowship, a gathering of young Episcopalians. This is when Fr. Paul heard his first explicit invitation to let Jesus enter his life. At one service, the pastor made an altar call, quoting Revelations 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock; if any hear my voice and open the door, I will come into their house and eat with them, and they will eat with me.” “They laid the foundation of my Christian faith,” he said. From them he learned about repentance, Christ’s love for him and that Jesus wants him to follow Him. “I almost left the Church then,” Fr. Paul revealed. He shared that he would go to Mass every morning and nobody would greet him. The rest of the time he would spend with his Episcopalian friends who were very warm and friendly. Until one day, “My mother spoke to the priest,” he recounted. “She said, ‘Fr. Tony, I think you’re going to lose one of your flock.’” The priest heeded her admonition and took Paul under his wings and made a “believer out of me.” More Turning Points  Fr. Paul’s second major turning point was when he attended a “Walking in the Light: Living as a Catholic” seminar, a form of Life in the Spirit Seminar which introduces a person to the charismatic renewal. There he again heard Revelations 3:20. “Same as that?” he thought to himself, surprised to meet the same verse in a Catholic seminar.From the seminar, he gained a conviction that he should remain a Catholic. He also started to have a sense of the priesthood. The third major turning point for Fr. Paul was when he got involved in an ecumenical charismatic community called Antioch, composed of Catholics and other denominations. “It helped me hugely in my Catholic faith,” he said. “I more and more realized how much God loves me and how He was calling me to love others,” Fr. Paul shared. So at 19 years old, Fr. Paul started thinking of the priesthood. “But I said not now. I needed experience in the world and formation in my Christian community,” he added. He did gain experience — by way of falling in love with his best friend. But when he declared himself to her, the girl said she thought he should be a priest. While undergoing this “very difficult time,” Fr. Paul’s mom wisely commented, “Maybe God is speaking to you through this.” So after much searching within, consulting with a priest and undergoing a Vocations Retreat, Fr. Paul finally accepted that God was indeed calling him to be a priest. He entered a seminary in England in 1993. Called to the Poor Even before he entered seminary, Fr. Paul had read the book Companion to the Poor, a story of a Protestant missionary who worked with the poor in Manila. He felt called to do the same. “I don’t know why,” he shared. So in 1995 when the seminarians attended World Youth Day in Manila, instead of going to the beach afterwards, Fr. Paul chose to live with squatters in San Juan for a few days. This was arranged through a letter he wrote to Fr. Herb Schneider before he came to Manila. “This is home. This is where He wants me,” the conviction came to Fr. Paul during his stay here. When he was about to be ordained a deacon, Fr. Paul had a strong sense that he should ask instead for a one-year leave to go back to the Philippines. His rector supported him and so on January 1999, Fr. Paul left England for the Philippines. “The rats, the filthy hygiene, living in one house with so many people — it was difficult. But this is what He wants for me,” Fr. Paul shared of that time. At the end of his stay, Fr. Paul got in touch with Couples for Christ and joined them in a youth camp, which he was used to in England. This time, however, they were ministering to gang members, which Fr. Paul found even better. When he went back to England, sure of his sense of calling to the Philippines but unsure of the next step, he had an opportunity to talk to Fr. Benedict Groeschel who told him, “Fr. Paul, you’ll be crazy to stay with Westminster Diocese. You wouldn’t be serving the poor in the way He is calling you. You will be torn apart.” Providentially for him, after he shared his realizations and his talk with Fr. Groeschel, his rector agreed with him and gave him permission to find another diocese to belong to that can support his sense of mission while still being supported by the Westminster Diocese. The bishop of the Diocese of Uyo in Nigeria, who had always been looking out for Fr. Paul’s progress, readily accepted him to the diocese. On December 18, 2004, Fr. Paul was ordained into the priesthood under the Uyo Diocese. He was also given permission to work as chaplain of the Couples for Christ-Gawad Kalinga. Fr. Paul found his ordination “an emotional experience.” “I’ve never regretted being ordained,” he said. “I’ve had many frustrations and lots of struggles but no regret.” Heart of the Father  While still in England, Fr. Paul had started a foundation called Heart of the Father, which aimed to help children and youth make the church interesting and relevant to their lives. He founded a similar foundation when he came to the Philippines which he called Puso ng Ama, now also working for the poor especially in Payatas. Fr. Paul goes around the country and abroad in his work as chaplain of CFC-GK. When in Manila, he stays in Payatas, preferring to live with the squatters in the area. One day, Fr. Paul hopes that there will be more people to join him in his conviction and be able to found a community to build the Church with the poor. Meanwhile, he continues in his often itinerant lifestyle, rooted in his sense of God’s call. |
| Last Updated on Monday, 07 December 2009 09:16 |