This morning Timothy, Kandie, and I traveled east of Yendi on the Gnani Road to visit the congregation at Bitamando in the village of Tamanbiya. The last six to seven miles of the drive is mud road which really slowed us down. What should have taken 6-7 minutes took us 15-20 due to the pot holes in the road.
Some of the men were waiting on us when we arrived so they were quick to help us unload the items we had brought for a gift to the Church; bench, bible, cups, pad and pen, bread, and juice. Another custom we seldom mention they also do as a courtesy for us is to carry anything we have in our arms like bibles, Kandie’s purse, etc into the church building. They do have a hard time getting Kandie to turn loose of the video camera and case since it is usually smaller children carrying these items and cameras don’t like to be dropped.
We tried to visit the chief but he was eating. We did give him the kola via Brother Joshua, one of the church leaders which made him very happy! He’s an old man and can’t hear it thunder but he still deserves respect.
The lesson I taught and Timothy Niligrini interpreted for me came from Matthew 7:15-27. This included a discourse by Christ concerning wolves in sheep clothing, inspecting someone’s fruit to know if is good or bad, and the analogy of the wise man and foolish man and where they built their house. Both men and women understood the points I used coming from an agricultural background. Brother Joshua stood up at the close of the service to thank us for bringing this lesson to them. He also wanted to introduce the new members to us that have been added since our last visit: most were older women. There were more than 10 that had been baptized; several were widows. He said the church had decided to go house to house visiting the people and praying for them. A simple strategy that worked very well for the Lord.
After services all the women who were new members went outside where we took their group photo. We will bring them a copy the next time we come back to Ghana. I also noticed the table that is used for the Lord’s Supper was broken so one of the brothers loaded it in the back of the pickup. I promised to fit it for them and give it a nice paint job.
Before we left I noticed Kandie and Timothy following a woman walking back farther into the village. I followed them to see where they were going. Kandie was on the move! She had asked if anyone had an old wooden mortar & pestle they would sell. This old woman said she had one. When the old woman’s neighbors found out Kandie was buying old stuff they came out of the woodwork.
Today was Yendi’s Market Day so Brother Jonah rode back to Yendi with us and we dropped him off at the market. Later this afternoon Kandie and I went to the market so she could get some more photos. We hadn’t planned on buying much but that didn’t last long after we walked into the market. We bought three baskets to use in the Child Center. We also bought waist beads, onions, tomatoes, coconut ball candy, cabbage, and some snail shells.
On the way back to the house I stopped at an electrical shop that usually isn’t open on Sunday and bought the supplies needed to electrify the three rooms were had built at Kulkpeni earlier this year. By the time we made it back to the house we had fifteen minutes before we had to leave for evening bible study.
Hope you are having a good Lord’s Day. We did! May God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
Email: taylorsinghana@gmail.com
Website: www.ghanamissionfund.org
