By Ivy Chai
KUCHING — A ‘Healing of Families Ministry Encounter’ was held at the Blessed Sacrament Church Hall from 14-18 January 2026. The series of talks was conducted by Fr Yozefu B Ssemakula (Fr Joseph) from Florida, United States.
Facilitated by the Servant Communities Emmaus, participants were people who had previously attended any Healing of Families (HoF) seminar organised by Emmaus. An additional session was conducted on 19 January, exclusively for Emmaus members.
Fr Yozefu last visited Kuching 13 years ago in 2013. Armed with greater knowledge and lots more experience in Healing of Families prayers, his aim was to update participants and facilitators of HoF, how to pray effectively for persistent personal and family issues based on his book, ‘The Healing of Families,’ first published in 2011.
Born in Uganda, Africa, Fr Yozefu entered the seminary at the age of 18. His interest to become a priest started when he was only 10 years old. By age 12, he was convinced he was destined to become a priest. His formation years took him to many countries, mainly Europe.
Fr Yozefu was ordained a priest in 1993 and spent time in Egypt and 10 years in dangerous warzone Sudan, taking charge of 126 churches. This experience taught him to put his full trust in God.
He moved to the United States in 2007 and began his HoF ministry in 2008 after an episode with a parishioner who came for the sacrament of Reconciliation every weekend confessing the same sins. Perplexed by his case, he decided to have a personal encounter with this man and discovered that he had been to confession for 45 years with the same issues.
People praying a lot – but God didn’t heal
Fr Yozefu’s quest to find answers to why God doesn’t heal people who prayed a lot, causing them and himself to blame God, started in his teenage years. Answers eluded him. He thought he would learn something in the seminary, but to no avail. He realised years later that the healing ministry is for lay people and not priests, otherwise they would have trained all priests.
He went to charismatic sessions to look for answers. Being a skeptic of Charismatic Revival groups whom he called ‘charismaniacs’, he found answers to his questions there … God can heal. But if God can heal, why was he not healing those who prayed a lot?
Hence his desire to learn more about the healing ministry. He went to conferences, schools of healing prayers, and discovered and understood that healing prayer is important. Everybody needs this prayer. However, praying and laying on of hands was time consuming and exhausting, so he came up with a healing prayer that did not require touching.
He discovered the importance of praying among family members for healing of the same issues. Prayer gives grace. Prayer strengthens faith. After a successful experiment with the parishioner who confessed every weekend to the same sins, Fr Yozefu began putting together a course. He began teaching his course. The more he taught, the more he discovered the bulk of suffering (90%) comes from the same issues in the family.
He began to expand, improve and perfect the family healing prayer he had experimented with. This has become the Paraliturgy prayer, the Quick One prayer, that he teaches in his Healing of Families book.
Future Plans
Father Yozefu has established healing prayer schools and intends to train additional facilitators for HoF seminars. He has composed more healing prayers of the same type as the family healing prayers … for the Catholic Church and for nations. He now aims to build a healing prayer ministry focused on praying for the land, seeking ways to ask God for mercy regarding bloodshed. This stems from the story of Cain killing Abel.
Participants of the HoF encounter gained invaluable insight into the causes of suffering and how to effectively pray for family healing. Fr Yozefu also outlined the Church’s position and guidelines on healing prayer.
Satan feeds on human pain. God heals. God answers prayers. We look forward to more healing prayers from Fr Yozefu Ssemakula.
