Christmas 2003

Dear Friends and Family,

MERRY
CHRISTMAS!!!

I know, another Christmas letter - and I apologize. But there is news, and not everyone is on E-mail, and sometimes there are things that require print. So this will go out both print and email – and if you get two, so much for my vaunted efficiency.

I will engage in my usual chatty business in a minute but there are a couple of “Announcements” that deserve their own attention.

First - On December 27th, I will be taking my Final Vows in the Society of Jesus. For those of you who have been betting that this is just a passing phase, I really think it’s time to pay off. I have been in the Jesuits for 23 years, an ordained priest for 11 ½ and this is what they call “final incorporation” into the order. It usually happens sooner - but I’ve been busy. It IS appropriate to send presents - cash is preferred - and I’ll talk a little bit more about that at the very end. But there is more.

I came to Nigeria less than six months after I was ordained, and I have been here pretty steadily since. I have been a community Minister, Assistant to the Regional Superior (Socius - longest serving Socius in the history of the Region), the first Director of Development, the first Communications Coordinator, the first Regional Treasurer, and I am working on creating the archives. I have produced a monthly newsletter for over ten years, and have created more things that are now “traditions” than I want to list or you want to read about. I have started a weekly Mass group that runs to 180 people, and have helped prepare over 100 kids for First Communion and another smaller group for confirmations. I have baptized and married and held memorial services and done what I could to listen to and help people in various kinds of pain. I have introduced the Society of Jesus and its works to a wide segment of Nigeria, by preaching and singing and being present in Nigerian activities. I created the Jesuit Alumni/ae of Nigeria (now over 300 members) and the Jesuit Associates program.

I have been a Rotarian - Secretary of the Victoria Island Rotary and Treasurer for the Lagos Rotary. I was Treasurer for the Nigerian Field Society and for Legacy, a conservation and preservation group. I have served on the membership committee of MUSON, the Musical Society of Nigeria, the Archdiocesan Music Commission, and was given a double chieftaincy title. I have emcee’d Small World for four years, a coming-together of 49 different women’s groups for one gala fund-raising evening. I am fairly well-known in this city of over 15 million people.

It has been a busy time. And at some point soon, it will come to an end. As Jesuits we are not supposed to be “attached,” and that goes for places and jobs as well as things. It is time to move on. I think so and my Superiors aren’t arguing. Before the next job, I have asked for a time off, sort of a mini-sabbatical, both to rest and relax, and also, if my next work will be in the U.S. then more time to re-inculturate myself to my home country. I can’t tell you a date, I can’t give you a location or what I will be doing - but my best guess would be it will be July or August, once the financial year has ended and I have closed the books. I am pretty sure I will get some serious vacation time - maybe six months. I might go to Kwajalein for part of that, some serious play and rest time, and then – who knows? There have been minor whispers about Guyana. (Once a missionary?) We’ll see if the job offers flood in. The announcement of my departure has not been made on this side yet, although I have told a couple of people, explaining why I would not accept an office or honor a request to do something. A more official note will probably come after the first of the year.

I will keep people informed - and my current email address (john.sheehan@sjnigeria-ghana.com) will forward mail after I leave for a while, but the AOL address will continue. (I have GOT to do something about those damn pop-up advertisements and the ones that appear as email. I do NOT need anything enlarged, I do NOT have a mortgage and I am NOT interested in subscribing to a webcam that runs 24 hours a day inside the shower room of a sorority. Sigh. There are some things about the US of A that I do NOT miss.)

That’s the big news. I have a new CD coming out in February, and I was hoping to do a couple of more during this year - we’ll have to see how THAT goes. I am going to be very busy preparing to leave - cleaning files and writing handover notes, trying to put on paper so many details and bits that I carry around in my head. It is going to be a very interesting year. Lots of things to throw out.

Not that the past year has been dull. Life in Nigeria is NEVER dull. I got back into singing again - after some time away I did a concert at MUSON as part of their annual festival, and it was (if a do say so myself) a tremendous success. I shared the stage with Maria Asseeva, a WONDERFUL Russian pianist, and we mixed the music - everything from parodies to arias, Scott Joplin to the Tchaikovsky Sonata. I am singing again in January, and now that I know I am leaving, I have two more tentatively penciled in - a $100 a ticket gala at Chevron, and then - how could I resist - Father John’s Farewell Concert. One night only, probably in late May. I want to get it in before the flood of expats leave for the summer. One more shot at fund-raising.

Olusegun Basorun of OgidilandSo that’s the BIG news. It has been a year. The Chieftaincy was great fun and continues to surprise me. I wear my bracelet all the time, and when I was first installed, I was surprised at how many Nigerians recognize this decoration for what it is. Sometimes they will ask me if I am a chief, and they are uniformly impressed when I say yes. Expats may joke about it, but Nigerians take it seriously, and they appreciate that I do too. You know me, I LOVE costumes.

For those of you who contributed in support of my chieftaincy, thank you. The money was to be used to help re-build the primary school in “my” village. I went to visit the village in September and took the first installment. They were delighted - no one has ever brought a gift like that to the village. I was able to talk about the beginning that my friends in the U.S. had provided and recently was given a gift by a group of Spanish ladies of N340,000 (around $2,270). I have an application in with another group - should get slightly more from them - and so even though the prices are rising and inflation continues to be critical, we are building and there is a whole feeling of hope. Several of the Muslim families are now sending their kids to the Catholic primary school - because the word is out, we are getting new buildings and new equipment and I have been talking with some businessmen about setting up a small foundation to help provide better salaries for the teachers. It all started with my friends in the U.S. - so thank you, both for what you have done and what you have inspired others to do.

That’s me. I was helping out at a local bazaar, and there was a caricaturist. No one knew what a caricature WAS, so I had him do one of me just to serve as a sample. Yes, it looks like me, but when I sent it to some friends via email, I noted that he had made me look a little Black. We see things through our own eyes. I have no idea where the shoes came from - I am usually in open sandals with no socks (I only wear socks for airplanes and formal receptions.) I have no shoes like that - although I would probably buy a pair if I came across them!

So there you are. If you are attacked by a sudden desire to send me money, remember you are sending it to the Society of Jesus. You can specify gifts. I would rather like to add a stone to my Paul Harris Fellow pin - that’s a gift of $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation, but you can give part of it and I can add it up. The school in Ogidi, my village, still needs more work - but so does our Jesuit run school here in Idimu. We have a small fund set up, so you can send a gift to the Cusimano Fund to help that school out. Or you can just send it to the Jesuits. Or you can wait and see where I end up - might even be a place that needs your help even more than here. Gifts go to: Fr. Tom Smith, 39 E. 83rd Street, New York, NY 10028, with a note indicating that it is for the work of Fr. John Sheehan, or for Fr. John’s school, or for the Cusimano Fund or the Rotary gift - or nothing.

But gifts are not necessary. It is nice if you say the odd prayer for us and the work we are trying to do. There are just over 100 Jesuits of the Nigeria and Ghana Region, and we - they - will soon become a Province. (Another party I’m going to miss.) Even if you don’t believe, say the prayer anyway. It may do more good than you know.

I certainly pray for you - individually and en masse (“Please God, remember my friends.”) I will keep you posted - but people on E-mail get more mail than those who wait for me to write a letter.

(More on the last page - turn over and keep going)



My contact information remains the same:

Mail - sent from anywhere but inside Nigeria, should be sent to me c/o 39 East 83rd Street, New York, NY 10028. We send a DHL pouch about twice a month.

Phones - unreliable and dicey but occasionally people surprise me.
234 (country) - 01 - Lagos and then
office - 773-3535
Mobile - 775-5630 (I carry it around with me)
Mobile - 0803-322-1943/

Email: john.sheehan@sjnigeria-ghana.com
or
Jredmond13@aol.com
or
Jredmond13@Yahoo.com (I don’t look at that one very often, but it is there)

Have a wonderful and a blessed Christmas and New Year, hug everyone who should be hugged - a highly underrated form of greeting and expressing affection - pray for the poor missionaries (hehe), and who knows, you might be coming face to a fuzzy face sooner than either of us thought. And as I travel around, it is ALWAYS appropriate to ask a priest to dinner, to come and visit, play a round of golf or sail on your boat or use your tickets to the opera or just sit and visit or - whatever. (See? I am already thinking vacation stuff.)

Love and hugs and prayers and stuff like that,

John (the wandering) Sheehan, SJ
Lagos, Nigeria