It was a celebration of Christianity and culture yesterday at St Michael Catholic Church, Ozubulu, as a popular native doctor Chief Emeka Okwummuo went for Thanksgiving after getting a miraculous healing from a life threatening ailment.
The native doctor, well known for his herbal prowess suddenly fell sick and became paralyzed. All efforts to ensure his quick recovery proved abortive as things moved from bad to worse for him.
“I was dumped in the hospital with an ambulance helpless and I was actually waiting for my death but my wife and priests kept praying for me.
“It was in the course of the prayers that the Almighty God healed me when all hopes of my recovery were almost gone, my experience made me know and appreciate the supremacy of the Most High God in the affairs of man,” Chief Okwummuo explained.
He said that he was actually in church on Sunday to give testimony of the mighty hands of God upon his life.
In his comments, the Vicar Ozubulu Region of the Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, Very Rev Fr Hygi Aghulor said that the native doctor is a very popular personality in the area and beyond.
Very Rev Fr Aghulor who is also the Parish Priest of St. Michael Catholic Church, Amakwa Ozubulu said that the celebrant got to know early in life that there is deeper life with God than the magic things.
“He refused to consult diviners and never allowed anybody to go on his behalf. He was seriously sick at that point in time but God healed him, he was almost paralyzed, but can now walk and even drive his car.
“Jesus Christ came to identify with hunanbeings, Catholic Church has no culture of her own, the church recognize and identify with the culture of host communities once such cultural practices are not bad and harmful.
“We have been told not to make the church in Africa look like the ones at Europe. The people can actually take good aspect of our cultural practices, a scholar is currently doing a research on bitter leaf which is said to contain a whole lot of healing substances.
“This is the same leaf God has blessed us with in good quantity in Nigeria especially in Igboland.
Very Rev Fr Aghulor uged young men and women who are into occultism to step out and embrace Christianity noting that there is whole lot of difference between the culture of a people and occultism.
The Thanksgiving service featured both Christian and traditional music as well as masquerade display.
