Well, it turned out to be one of those days! I had the green pickup already loaded and ready to go for our trip to Bakjon this morning; in about 5 minutes before Timothy was to be here, I decided to check the spare tire. It didn’t feel like a tire. It felt like a marshmallow. I quickly came into the house and told Kandie we would have to take the red pickup instead because of the spare tire problem. I didn’t have enough time to go to the vulcanizer to see if the spare could be fixed. I worked really fast and unloaded the green truck and put our belongings in the red truck. The red pickup needed diesel so as soon as Timothy arrived, we headed for Yendi to get Timothy’s breakfast and diesel for the truck. Before we got out of the lane Kandie asked me if I had checked the spare on the red truck. I had not! I got out and checked it and it was up. Off we went.
The village of Bakjon is located as far south of Yendi as we go. Three fourths of the road is good but when we turn right at the village of Makayili the road is pretty pitiful. When we arrived at the school block where the church meets, I noticed the brake lights were on. I felt of the lenses and they had been on for a long time due to the heat they were putting off. I couldn’t get them to go off so after preaching I started the truck up again to make sure the battery didn’t run down.
On the way back to Yendi, I noticed the engine was slow to respond when I applied the gas pedal. I didn’t say anything to Kandie about this new problem until I got on the main road to Yendi to see how the truck responded. I thought maybe it was the brakes grabbing since the brake tail lights didn’t turn off. It was slow-go all the way to Yendi. I don’t like to have Gomda, our mechanic in Yendi, work on the two newer vehicles; I have Japan Motors in Tamale do that but I was afraid not to have him look at it. He will check the rear brakes tomorrow and get back with me.
Now let’s discuss what happened at Bakjon. The church is very small and meets out under a tree. There were 37 people present with the majority being children around the age of 9-12 years. Timothy helped me as I taught a lesson from Mark chapter 4. This is Mark’s account of the Parable of the Sower. These folks are well aware about hand sowing their fields so the lesson kept the attention of the younger kids as well as the adults. After we answered a few questions after services closed, we were provided with a nice lunch of native rice with some tomato sauce/oil as a topping. There were also some chicken wings. Then on top of that we were presented with 10-12 yam tubers and a chicken. The church leader’s wife presented Kandie with a bowl of groundnuts also. When we got back to the compound, we divvy up the yams and gave Timothy the chicken. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention when we dropped off the pickup at Gomda’s place, the three of us crammed into the back seat of a Yellow-Yellow with the yams, chicken, and our blue storage tub to go to the compound.
Around 5pm I went out and removed the deflated spare tire from the bottom of the green pickup. After checking it out I opted to take it to the local vulcanizer and have the tire reseated on the rim. I will have to watch the tire pressure to make sure it doesn’t have a leak.
After class tonight at Kulkpeni another younger man who is also named Timothy requested some financial help for his family. His father got a snake bite on Friday and they had to purchase 2 vials of ASV (Anti-Snake Venom). The vials are now costing 500 GH Cedis (equivalent to $50USD). We provided money to pay for 1 of the vials. We are happy to have money that people give us for just such an occasion. Timothy was also very grateful for the help.
Hat rounds out the day so I will close. Have a good week and may God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
With Skeeter
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