St. Richard Church - Bald Knob issued the following announcement on July 12.
Holy Ghost priest celebrating jubilee has lived in eastern Arkansas since 2017
Around 5 years old, James Ibeh would gently rest his hands on anyone to pray for them.
“My favorite verse in the Bible is when Jeremiah said, ‘before I formed your mother's womb, I called you.’ I used that because even as a child, my cousins were calling me ‘Father,’” Father Ibeh said. “... I used to (tell) people, ‘I came to the seminary to get licensed.’”
Father Ibeh, CSSp, associate pastor in five parishes in eastern Arkansas, will celebrate his 25th jubilee Aug. 10. His innate connection to the divine from the start was formed like a diamond, enduring traumas that would leave most feeling hopeless but instead sparked something beautiful for him.
The youngest of eight children growing up in eastern Nigeria, Father Ibeh, 55, grew up being “loved and cherished,” but against the backdrop of turmoil. When he was just 1 year old, the Nigerian civil war erupted in 1967, lasting three years. Memories of running from danger with his parents, camouflaging roofs to avoid air raids and learning not to cry when hiding shaped his devotion to peace.
Original source can be found here.
Source: St. Richard Church - Bald Knob
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