It was a dismal morning. I thought the sky was going to open up with rain at any time while I was loading a church bench in the bed of the green pickup. Yesterday, I told Timothy that we would come to his house to pick him up. Our destination for today was Timothy’s home village of Jegrido. We have to pass Timothy’s house to get to the village. We were 15 minutes earlier than we would normally be because one piece of scaffolding the mason was using yesterday had to be returned so we didn’t have to pay another day’s rent.
There wasn’t a soul around the church building when we arrived at 9:30. We were not surprised because most people in the village use the sun to tell them the time of day. The sun was nowhere to be found this morning. Timothy’s brother Daniel’s house is adjacent to the church building. When Daniel saw us arrive, he came out of his compound to greet us. Timothy, Kandie, and I decided to use our extra time before services to go visit the chief. The Jegrido chief is considered a paramount chief amongst the Konkomba Tribe so we try to always stop and greet him. Due to his chieftaincy position, tradition also demands that he receives more kola(monetary gift). His linguist also receives kola unlike most of the other chiefs and linguists we visit. The Chief is always happy to see us. He told us that we should build a clinic in his village so his people didn’t have to go to Yendi. We explained that we only deal with the babies. That didn’t stop him from asking us to find a sponsor for a clinic.
One of the men from the congregation led the bible class session. I have to say that for the first time in the 24+ years we have been working over here a lesson about parenting was taught. Earlier this year this same man and his wife came to the Child Centre with their little girl, who has Down’s Syndrome. At the time the toddler was having loud breathing sounds. We gave them some money so they could take the child to Tamale to be assessed by a doctor. Today her breathing was better. It sounds like the doctor gave some medicine and told the parent if it wasn’t better in two years they might do surgery. Anyway, the toddler looked fine and was just eating up her mother with her eyes! These special children love their parents. when seeing these special kids on occasions I have thought about the atmosphere in heaven being just like these kid’s love and devotion towards their parents. The difference will be; we will all be special and showing our devotion to God, our Father!
When it was time for us to leave Timothy asked if we would carry a bag of groundnuts (peanuts) back with us to Kulkpeni otherwise his other options are to pay a motorking to haul the bag home or drive his motorcycle back out to the village to collect it. Of course, I said Yes!
Late this afternoon, Red came by to collect the money for the load of gravel we needed out at Kulkpeni. Other than that, it has been quiet around here. We had a good bible study tonight at Kulkpeni. Brother Robert, one of the young men, taught a lesson from the beatitudes.
Have a good day. May God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
Skeeter
