Kandie, Timothy Niligrini, and I were in the pickup and on the road this morning at 6:30. Our destination was three hours away up north near Chereponi where Nana Bekum, the evangelist, lives and works. This trip usually is a stressor for me because the road to Kablani , the village where we will be meeting six small congregations, is terrible!! Today, I had 7 wooden church benches lashed down in the bed of the truck so I was worried my tie down job might come loose on the bad roads. I was glad my work came through with flying colors when we reached our destination. Several years ago, on our return trip from this gathering, the green pickup’s motor overheated and locked up and we had to wait several hours before we could get someone from Yendi to come help us. On a positive note, a big rain came through the midsection of the area we had to travel through so the heat wasn’t as strong as the past 2 days. We did encounter several large potholes filled with water that could have caused us headaches if we had been driving a van.
Just before we arrived, we were stopped on the road by four church sisters begging a ride to the services. I had already explained to Nana that we wouldn’t be able to take any riders because the truck bed was full of benches. Well, he had told them but these folks find it hard to be told “no” for any reason. We made room for one of the ladies in the cab and the other three had to walk about a mile to the school block where the services were taking place. After unloading the benches, Kandie took Nana with her in the truck to backtrack and pick up the other 3 ladies. We presented each congregation a bag of goodies for the Church work as well as a bench.
It was decided that I should preach my lesson about Dreams & Visions. The evangelist, Nana Bekum, was my interpreter because Timothy doesn’t speak the Chokasi language. After services there was a lively question and answer period dealing with the subject. Also, witches and where the spirits of the dead reside was discussed. Someone said the man that died in the neighboring village this morning, died because a curse had been placed on him. This kind of story permeates the thinking of many of the people in Ghana who have heard the stories day in and day out from childhood. Of course, I quickly reminded the audience the scriptures plainly say the spirit goes back to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
We were presented with a nice meal of native rice topped with tomato, hot pepper, and oil as well as fried chicken backs for lunch. There were 7 ladies that cooked the meal for the people so we gave each woman 5 Cedis as a way of saying thanks. We also gave some money to help with the purchase of the rice that was used.
After eating we drove over to the paramount Chief’s house to say hello and to give him kola. From there we drove back to Nana’s house where the ladies, we had picked up earlier, were waiting for a ride. Nana also presented us with a guinea fowl which we later gifted to Timothy. We did have a little excitement on the way; the guinea fowl somehow was able to sneak past him when he opened up his door and out it ran like the gingerbread man! It took several minutes to catch the fowl with the help of the 4 ladies. Two men riding a motorcycle stopped and helped with the pursuit.
Thankfully, the rest of the return trip went smoothly and we arrived back at the house around 4:30pm.
It is our hope that you had a good Lord’s Day and that everyone reading these Notes are in good health. Thank you for your support! May God bless.
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
& Skeeter
Leave a Reply