Fr. Wopoule (WO-poo-lay) in 1998 came from Cameroon in Africa as a seminarian to study for the priesthood in Detroit. Now, as he studies in a Detroit university to become a counselor, he holds two families dear – one is the community of St. Regis Parish, where he's a priest in residence; the other in is his small home village of Kan, Cameroon, where he will return next year.

"It's kind of tough," Fr. Wopoule says, "because some of the time I feel I'm being split between two worlds."

Through his vocation, the 37-year-old priest says he has realized why he's in Detroit – to help St. Regis parishioners realize the need of their brothers and sisters in a deeply impoverished parish in Cameroon, Our Lady of the Assumption.

St. Regis parishioners are helping Fr. Wopoule raise enough money to fix his damaged church back home, where thousands of villagers worship.

Sitting in a parish office at St. Regis, Fr. Wopoule holds out a photograph of a dilapidated hut. Its walls have gaping holes.

This is a school in Kan.

"It's made of clay," Fr. Wopoule says. "The roof is aluminum. After five or seven years, the school building will begin crumbling."

It's the kind of school Fr. Wopoule attended as a youth.

"There are many kids in that village who can't even afford going to this type of school," he says.

In American currency, tuition is $20 to $25 per year.

But, despite the crumbling school, the church is the top priority, Fr. Wopoule says.

Our Lady of the Assumption, the village's only Catholic church, which 3,000 villagers rely on, is a mere 20 years old. But the roof was ripped off by a windstorm last summer.

Fr. Wopoule remembers when the villagers built the church. The village's children picked coconuts to raise $1 – "a lot of money" – for the building project.

"So that is very emotional when we see the church crumbling down," he says.

Last summer, Fr. Wopoule returned to the village for the first time since 1998. His parents are dead, but his family – four siblings and dozens of cousins, nieces and nephews – came to greet him.

The homecoming, his first as a priest, was the talk of the village.

"It defied the raining season," Fr. Wopoule says, "Everybody came. I was delighted to go there, so they could see me – because you could see hope in their eyes…Nobody could believe that one of them could go far, and be successful."

He saw something else, too.

Need.

"They said, 'Janvier, there is only one thing we can ask you. We know you are not rich. But, one day, if you have the means to help us, please help us.'"

In Kan, family is foremost. Members of extended family are close.

So Fr. Wopoule, who has lived at St. Regis since he was a seminarian, was happy when St. Regis Parish members accepted him as a member of their own family – and accepted Our Lady of Assumption as their extended family.

"(Fr. Wopoule) has established a great relationship with our community," Fr. Norman Nawrocki, pastor of St. Regis Parish, said. "His parish is our family…as family, we pitch in and help them."

Parishioners are helping in various ways to raise money for Our Lady of the Assumption.

Fr. Wopoule says the church will cost $20,000 to rebuild. If God wills it, he says, he also would like to help put more children in schools, establish an orphanage and build a health clinic in the village. The nearest hospital is 100 miles away.

Parishioners already have donated some of the money to fix the church. Some also are organizing a fundraising dinner for late February.

Others are even promoting Fr. Wopoule's appeal through local media.

They care about him and are inspired by him, says Kelly Luttinen, a parishioner who has sent press releases to spread Fr. Wopoule's appeal.

"He brings a family perspective," says Luttinen. "He comes from a different country where I don't think the focus is so much on money."

"He comes to dinner at our home once in a while. And a lot of other parishioners have found just how warm and kind he is."

And Fr. Wopuole is encouraged by the warmth that he has received.

"Now, more and more, I see why I came to this country," he says. "To make a connection between my parish and this parish. Not only between two parishes, but between two groups of people, who believe in God and feel like brothers and sisters and who are dedicated to improving the lives of people all over the world.

"And I think doing something like this is giving people the opportunity to hear the call of God, and to give the help to anyone who is in need."