Miracle Rain Falls in Mbengwi as Women Cry in Church

Miracle Rain Falls in Mbengwi as Women Cry in Church

This year’s edition of the International Women’s Day witnessed a different commemoration approach in Mbengwi, chief town of Momo Division. In the past, activities like speeches, march past, exhibitions and merriment used to take place on the ceremonial grand stand. That was when the going was good. With the current stakes of uncertainty due to the socio-economic and political crisis rocking the two English speaking regions of Cameroon, instead of celebrating, women in Mbengwi this year decided to mourn.

Ecumenical church service at PC Njembeng

Women of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Meta Presbytery have within the past three years been meeting every Friday for fasting and prayers from one congregation to another. Coincidentally, this year’s IWD fell on a Friday. Therefore, working in close collaboration with the administration of the division and sub division, hundreds of women rallied at P.C.C Njembeng Congregation to cry unto the Lord for the restoration of peace in their land and nation. This was in the presence of administrative authorities like the Momo Senior Divisional Officer and his second assistant, the Divisional Officer of Mbengwi, other collaborators and forces of law and order who kept away their guns to join hands with civilians in seeking for peace.

This is not the first time prayers for peace have been organized in Mbengwi. The ecumenical church service involved Catholic women, Apostolic women and other denominations. The streets were empty, shops closed, no circulation because of a ghost town that was enforced on the two regions as a means to counter any celebration activities of the day yet the women braved the odds to be in church. Placed under the theme “Women, Cry for Peace in Our Land”, the officiating minister used the service to recount Biblical stories of how women like Debra, Ruth, Abigail and others cried unto the Lord and he answered their prayers positively.

Deserted ceremonial grandstand

The service also had prayer intercessions for the displaced and refugees, for understanding, for the leaders, for Mbengwi and above all for peace to return to the entire nation. “Whether ‘Amba’ or military, they are our children”, the women said and that only they understand the pains of carrying a child for 9 months, raising up the child with expectations that tomorrow he will serve like her walking stick only for the child to end up in the bushes, take devilish powers and end up being killed and allowed to rot without even being buried or the corpse being dumped at public squares for all to see. 

When the stories and experiences became soul touching, the women couldn’t hold back their tears. The scene became sorrowful as the women cried out their eyes; that they’ve buried their husbands and boys, that their children are now giving birth to children, that there are no more schools as such their children are growing wayward, that in the bible king’s women cried and God answered them but Cameroon’s women in leadership positions haven’t cried for the powers that be to do something to end the war. As tears came down from their cheeks, the skies opened and showers of blessings came washing away their tears, an act interpreted by the S.D.O as a positive response from above that “I have heard your cries”. Immediately the intercessions stopped, the light downpour also subsided.

Ghost town, lifeless Mbon Motor Park

Addressing the hundreds of women at the end of the service, Absalom Monono Woloa, the Senior Divisional Officer of Momo Division appreciated the move taken by the mothers to cry for peace. He disclosed that as government officials, when the 8th of March starts approaching, they too start thinking of what to do but that this year, after consultations with the Divisional Delegation of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, he expressed the wish that women in his division should use their day to seek the face of God rather than staging activities on the grand stand involving few persons. To him, such pretence won’t help. “We can’t be celebrating in crisis”, Monono told the women who responded with a thunderous round of applause.

Absalom Monono Woloa, Momo's S.D.O

Responding to the local press on how he felt seeing women crying, Monono said, “Anybody following up what’s happening in our communities should be weeping. You can’t be in a community where business persons are crying, children not going to school, teenagers getting pregnant, youths getting delinquent and you don’t weep.” “Shading the tears with the women gives us an opportunity to realize that we have to work hard very seriously to restore peace in our land” he added.

In a very symbolic gesture, the women offered peace plants to the administrators whom after appreciating the offer, will later hand them back to the women with firm instructions for them to go offer their children in the bushes who have picked up arms against the state accompanied with a firm call for them to return home and regain normal life. The government has tried and recorded little success in disarming the restoration forces, thus time to try the women for know one knows. After all, they've always gotten a way out to the most precarious situations

Evaluating the success of the event, Madam Doreen Fonjong, Momo’s Divisional Delegate of Women’s Empowerment and the Family said “We can’t be celebrating in Momo Division, we can’t be celebrating in Mbengwi because we aren’t having peace, we can’t celebrate when our children are in the bushes.” Compared to other areas, Mbengwi has been relatively calm and hasn’t witnessed some of the excesses perpetrated by both warring factions elsewhere. But for ghost town days, life goes on normally within Mbengwi town and in the suburbs. To the delegate, this is a clear sign that God, who has the final say in everything, is hearing their cries.