UPDATE: Urgent Prayer Request from Fr. Joe Idomele

Dear Prayer Warriors,

We have received more details about the circumstances of the Fr. Joseph Idomele prayer request we sent out. Thank you all for your emails and concern about Fr. Joe and the possibility of this being a Nigerian hacker scam. We are very much aware of the internet scammers as we too receive those kinds of email scams from Nigeria all the time. We contacted Ethel Guntharp who sees Fr. Joe every morning at Mass and have verified through her that the kidnapping actually happened and of course Fr. Joe is extremely upset and said he hasn't been able to sleep at all. One of the details of the first prayer request was exaggerated, and that was the amount of money wanted by the kidnappers. It is not $10 million but $100,000—which is still an outrageous amount of money to come up with. His wife has gotten $10,000 together and was contacted today by the kidnappers but they refused it and threatened that "she must care only about money and not about family and if they didn't come up with the $100,000 that they would find him murdered in the trunk of a car." Fr. Joe's family is being protected by the company that his brother works for but there is nothing they can do to help free his brother. They won't give in to the demands of the kidnappers as they feel this will only perpetuate these kinds of crimes.This kind of terrible thing seems to be happening more and more in Nigeria and in other parts of the world. 

Thank you, Marcus, for your initial email to be sent to the Prayer Warriors alerting us to this situation which enabled us to get the word out. For those of you who don't know Fr. Joe Idomele, he is a very special priest from Nigeria who presides and ministers the Mass at our parish once a month to a "packed house." He is loved by so many and they come from far and wide to hear him preach on the second Sundays of the month when he is at St. Agatha. We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

We must pray for strength and guidance for this whole family and the safe release of Fr. Joe's brother, for we know that all things are possible with God! We are asking Our Lord for a true miracle here! We praise You, we bless You, we adore You, Alleluia! 

Alleluia! Alleluia!

We will keep you updated with any information as it is relayed to us. 

God Bless You and your families,

In Christ, Teri & Michael

Holy Michael, the Archangel, Defend Us in Battle
Holy Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do you, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.