Overview

""Suddenly I was awake. A loud bang...from Mama's room had startled me. I jumped out of bed and raced across, my heart pounding. Mama! Mama! Are you alright? She lay on the floor motionless, She was dead!"" Father's Heart tells the story of Obinna, a fifteen-year-old Nigerian boy who, after a happy childhood, suddenly discovers that Mama is not his Mama at all. Mama, the woman who raised him with great love and affection, and whom he believes is his biological mother, is in fact his grandmother. His world turns upside down when, unexpectedly, Mama dies the following night after revealing this to him. Before she dies, she makes Obinna promise to go to the village of the sacred people to search for his only living relative, Uncle Raffia, and, if found, to stay with him. Obinna has never met Uncle Raffia and knows nothing about him except that he is the only one left in the family after Mama dies. Out of concern for Obinna, Mama had to take a dark family secret to her grave. Obinna, with great determination to keep his promise to his Mama, embarks on a lonely and treacherous journey to the remote and distant land of the sacred people in search of his uncle. The trek takes him through river paths and forests, exposing him to the grave dangers of the wild. The mission turns out to be a dramatic and perilous venture to unravel a dark family secret, which has Obinna and his birth parents at the centre of it. Unknown to Obinna, Uncle Raffia is a wanted man, a high-profile criminal on the run. Living with Uncle Raffia is fraught with danger and hardship. Still, Obinna survives due to his unshakeable faith in God and his affectionate love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he regards as his mother and helper in difficult times. Eventually, Obinna finds out the truth - that Uncle Raffia is a murderer, that he is the one who caused the dark family secret. So now Obinna knows the truth. What should he do? Should he forgive Uncle Raffia or challenge him head-on and seek revenge? The inspiration to write this book came from a strong desire to do something practical to help alleviate the sufferings of the hungry in our community and to offer any associated indulgences to God for the souls in purgatory. According to the diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, Jesus asks us to draw all the indulgences from the treasury of his church and to offer them up on behalf of the souls in purgatory (Diary 1226). Obinna's story reinforces the significance of surrendering oneself to God and remaining steadfast in one's faith in Him, recognising that He alone can transform lives and hearts. It also stresses the importance of praying for the dead. Obinna was sent on a two-fold mission by God, who, having heard the tearful and devout prayers of Adaugo during her painful life in exile, deigned that Raffia would not perish in hell but would be converted. Obinna did not know that he was on a divine mission, that he was an instrument in God's hand. He did not know that everything happening to him was God's plan. God fortified him with all the graces he needed to accomplish the complex tasks he set for him. He sent him a helper in the person of Ama. By Obinna resigning to divine will (unknowingly), God used him to achieve his purpose. Obinna suffered a great deal. His suffering benefited not only Raffia but also the souls of his family members in purgatory. Once the two-fold mission was accomplished, God rewarded Obinna with great favours which would not have happened had he rejected God's call on his life. The Blessed Virgin Mary played a significant part in Obinna's life and mission, as she does in anyone who truly surrenders themselves to God through her. She is our Mother of Perpetual Help. She is always around us and with us if we believe. ""Father's Heart"" is the English translation of Obinna, a popular boys' name among the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.

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