Expdonaloaded breaking news: Death in church

It was a day of emotions and tears as members of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Amagu Odume, in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State, buried five altar servants, who were victims when a portion of the church collapsed on April 11, 2015, the day of the governorship election.

Aged between 16 and 19, they had gone to the church to get it ready for the weekly Sunday Mass. Counting of votes was reportedly going on in a nearby primary school located inside the compound of the church when the incident occurred.
The wall separating the sanctuary and the sacristy was said to have came down on the teenagers following a light rain and thunder.
An eyewitness, Rose Akpa, an altar girl, who was at the other end of the church unaffected by the collapse, recalled how the sky went dark as the rain continued to threaten. Then suddenly, she said, the rain and thunder took over.
Akpa who fought back tears as she narrated her experience said that there was this thunder with deafening sound that shook everywhere, adding, “that was when the wall came down on my sisters and the others.”
Another eyewitness: “After casting my vote I stayed back to hear the results. The loud thunder and noise from the collapsing wall came together. We all rushed to the scene but the site was shocking. We were not sure there were people trapped in the rubble and we were also expecting some of those still hanging blocks to fall and so did not act until blood started soaking to the surface. We rushed and with bare hands cleared the debris and brought out five corpses. The sixth person was still alive and had to be rushed to Jideoffor, a private hospital.”post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
Very Rev. (Dr) John Okoye, the Catholic Bishop of Awgu Diocese, who was represented by the Vicar General, Very Rev (Dr), Cyprian Orji, officiated at the burial servive assisted by over 40 other priests. Orji prayed God to shower His mercy on the dead and ensure that the young souls of Miss Agwu Peace, Chinenye Akpa, Ochor Ruth, Masters Chichebem Akachukwu and Theophilus Chukwu, His faithful servants, whom it had pleased Him to remove from this world, are received in His paradise.
He also prayed that since they believed in Him during their short lives on earth, He should rescue them from the enemy, Satan, and send His angels to lead them to Him. He enjoined the weeping faithful to wipe their tears and pour out prayers to help the children on their journey to an eternal life with God.
In an emotion-laden homily, the first priest from the town, Rev Fr Jude Njoku, said the sad news came to him on the very night of the incident through a weeping phone caller whose voice was drowned by other moaning and wailing voices at the background.
He said it took several attempts before the sad message was finally put through and he too lost his own composure in the ensuing sadness.
“But nobody has the right or is in a position to query God for explanations. When I recovered from the shock, I laid hands on the Bible and my mind went to the Book of Romans, Chapter 11 verse 34 where it asks: ‘Is there any being who can discern what is on God’s mind?’ A similar question was also repeated in 1 Corinthians, 2:16: ‘Is there any who can advise God?’
“Since then I have been pondering some questions put up by concerned and perplexed persons: Why did God allow such a disaster to happen in His own house? Why didn’t He step in to prevent it? If the wall must fall, why didn’t He stop it or let it happen when no one was around? Why did it happen and He allowed it to affect children working for Him?
“But, I asked myself: Can anyone advise God? Why did it have to be these children? If not the children what if it were people driven by need for shelter who happened to be there at the time?”
Father Njoku disclosed that the mystery was that the five were the stars among the altar boys and girls of St Anthony’s parish: “Finally, the only question that still nags us is why these ones? Why were they around when it happened? What were they doing in the church when the end came?
“They were there in God’s service. They died while rehearsing their acts of service to their maker right in God’s vineyard. One of them was preparing a lesson for the coming church service when the wall fell and the Bible was knocked against her chest. What does this mean to us? A person who dies clutching a Bible to her chest where is he going to end?
“None of us knows when or how his own end will come. We must pray and ask that when the time comes, it should be while we are doing service to God.
“In all generations to come the memories of these brothers and sisters will live on because they were called while on active service to God. Nobody will forget them,” the reverend said.
Father Njoku exhorted all to do like biblical Job who in the face of extreme suffering continued praising God: “He never asked God why? He only said; ‘naked come I into the world, naked must I leave it.’”
To immortalize the departed teenagers, the parish buried them beside the unfinished church in a set of five freshly dug graves. Father Leander Eze, the priest in charge of St Anthony’s, seemed not to have overcome the trauma of the multiple deaths.
Although he was robed for the church service, he did not utter a word throughout the service.When approached for comment, he begged to be left alone. Throughout the lengthy ceremony, he remained in gloom.