We have been home 25 minutes! The current time is 8:45pm. We left this morning at 7am for the village of Sako in the Chereponi District. Why are we so late! Let me tell you. Of all the situations we have encountered while living in Ghana this evening’s was the worst. On our way back from visiting some churches in the Chereponi District we were about 1.5 hours away from the mission home were all of a sudden the pickup started to lose power and 100 yards down the road I pull it over to the side and the engine died. The time was 3:30pm. It took a while to get in touch with someone to come to our rescue. Finally I was able to reach Red, our part-time driver and he said he would come to our aid. We found a shade tree to set under while we waited for Red to arrive. During the 1.5 hour wait Kandie was able to get some of the village people to tell her the stories that had been told to them down through the years. Red arrived a little after 5pm with a towing bar. I was glad I had enough rope with us for Red to lash the tow bar to the old van and the pickup. Red drove the van with Timothy Niligrini accompanying him and Kandie rode with me in the pick up while I steered. It is very disconcerting to be 3-4 feet away from the back of the van driving in the dark with emergency flashers on and not knowing if we might break loose from the van. I wander if that is how NASCAR Drivers feel when they draft each other; if so that is a feeling I can go the rest of my life without. Around 7pm we started going up a hill that was built for two lanes but due to erosion there was only one narrow lane in the middle. A big cargo truck had lost control this morning and had jackknifed into the ravine on the left-hand side of the road. The van wasn’t able to make the grade (pardon the pun on words) pulling the van so we were stalled on the hill. We immediately got out and used stones to chock the wheels of both vehicles. Our vehicles were blocking the entire road. Motorcycles were the only vehicles that could pass by on the right hand side. Several vehicles backed up behind us and a cargo truck was ahead of us. Eleven men from these backed up vehicles that came to our aid. Red disconnected the tow bar from the truck and drove the van up the hill. The men physically pushed the truck using a chock to keep the truck from rolling backwards when they got tired of pushing. After they successfully crested the hill Kandie gave everyone a 5 GH Cedi note for their hard work. The best $12.50 USD we have ever spent! Everyone was happy! By the time we got to the mission house both of us were worn to a frizzle- frazzle. We just thank God we were able to get back safely doing all of this in the dark!
Our visit to Sako went very well. This area is where Nana Bekum, one of the evangelists, works with his home congregation and five other small congregations. Since the Churches are 3 hours away we usually only get to visit them two times in the year. Today’s worship at Sako was a joint service with all six congregations represented. We took each congregation a church bench, N.T. in their language, communion juice, cups, bread, pad & pen, bicycle tire and tubes. They were very happy to receive the gifts. I was asked to speak on the biblical roles of the men and women in the Church. Nana interpreted for me instead of Timothy since Timothy is not as proficient in their Anufo language.
After services we were treated to a meal of rice with oil and some fried goat meat for lunch. The rice was very nice. We also contributed some money to three congregations to purchase cement, window frames and doors for their church buildings.
Before leaving for Yendi we took eleven women with us in the back of the pickup to the village of Wencheki for their Market day.
We would like to extend our appreciation to all the mother’s reading this email today and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.
I will close for now. My bed is calling me. May God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
