Foreward by Father Humphrey Tatah Mbuy (Bamenda Archdiocese)
Christian literature is not common; this is even less so when the author is a lay member of Christ’s faithful. A few years ago, Martin Jumbam’s spiritual experiences made a remarkable impact on the readers of Cameroon Panorama, an indication that the days are far gone when anything Christian was only seen and heard from the perspective of the clergy. Now collectively entitled A Light Suddenly Shone on Me, Martin’s two essays – “I Marched with Christian Cardinal Tumi” and A Week with the Cistercian Monks” – are an encouraging sign that the Church is basically the “Community of Christ’s Faithful”, each with the right and obligation to evangelise.
Written in a refreshingly simple, almost journalistic style, these essays reveal how ordinary events could be the source of a transforming experience. Our God is ordinary in His mysteriousness and mysterious in His ordinariness. He is as familiar as He is distant. Indeed, He is a God of surprises; more present in the ordinary that in the mysterious. His foolishness is wiser than our wisdom; His weakness stronger than human strength (1 Cor. 1:25).
Wittingly or not, Martin has confirmed the tested spirituality of St Thérèse of Lisieux, namely, that we become holy not by doing extraordinary things, but by doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way. He was certainly not alone with Cardinal Tumi along the streets of Douala. There was a mammoth crowd with him. Nor was he the first person to visit the monks in Mbengwi. Many were there before him and many more have been there after him, some even staying much longer than he did. But experiences differ from person to person. One person’s experience could make what would otherwise be banal gain new impetus. That is how growth and development come about. From one who is not particularly sanctimonious to be suspect, these essays are spiritually nourishing.
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