We left the house this morning shortly after 8:00 and got back to Yendi at 2:30. We went to Nyankpala a village that is north east of Yendi about 1.5 hours. We went there for a naming ceremony. It has been years since we have visited this village. We were actually afraid that the church had stopped functioning but we were pleased to find out that they were still meeting. They are small and struggling; their church building fell into disrepair so they knocked it down which was a mistake because the land was given out to someone else and they are in the process of building a family house on the property. That is the problem with not getting land papers on the property. The chief gives out land to be developed and if it is not developed in a certain amount of time or if it falls into disrepair the chief can give it out to someone that wants to develop it. The church is presently meeting in the school house. Several denominations have come to the village and several of the members left the church and joined with them.
The naming ceremony was very nice; Steve got the privilege of naming the baby. The baby already had a Ghanaian name so Steve named him Ezra. We took pictures of the baby and all his family members. After the ceremony we were fed a delicious meal of rice with tomato oil and a couple pieces of dove. We were invited to sit inside one of the men’s partially completed house. Timothy and another brother joined us for lunch; we were also joined by a half grown dog. He was very appreciative of the bones we gave him to eat.
Before we left, the church presented us with a gift of guinea eggs and 10 tubers of yams. Steve was asked to pray for one of the church ladies. She had been house bound for 5 years. When we got to the house we found out that both her legs and hips were paralyzed. She said that she had not fallen or hurt herself but that when the problem started she had lots of tingling in her legs and feet that felt like something biting her. Now can you imagine sitting in a village for 5 years unable to walk and not being taken to see a doctor? Steve told her that he would pray for her but that he would not be able to make her walk. We told her that we would get her a wheel chair so she could be more mobile and get outside. We told her that in a wheel chair she could do some of the small chores around the house and even start cooking again. She was excited about getting a wheel chair. No one seemed to be interested in taking her to the hospital. I guess if they have not made an effort to take her in the past 5 years they won’t take her now.
On the way back to Yendi we stopped in Gnani to talk with a brother from Sakpei. He wanted to let us know that he was performing 2 funerals this year; the funeral of his mother and that of his 8 year old son who died in a drowning accident last year. Steve gave him a small monetary gift to help with both funerals.
Take care and have a great day!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
