Around 6 am my phone rang and I noticed that it was Timothy Niligrini. He said there had been some fighting on Friday and Saturday over a land dispute near Mulpido and Bungbali. This was our destination for today’s trip. The fighting was so strong there were several deaths. Police and Military were brought in to calm the area. Church members from both congregations though we should not try to come not knowing what might happen. Timothy and I decided to visit the congregation at Jagrido instead.
The village of Jagrido is approximately 8 miles from Kulkpeni so instead of Timothy coming to our house we went out to Kulkpeni to pick him up. When we arrived we noticed that we were going to have some small visitors traveling with us; Timothy’s two oldest children Isaac and Abigail. There was another little boy who also came along as Isaac’s sidekick. Jagrido is where Timothy’s father and mother lives so why wouldn’t a grandchild like to go say hello to their grandparents and see their cousins. I know our grandchildren would.
The subject of my lesson today was about the Hadean world and soothsayers & witches. As Americans you might ask why in the world would you talk about such different topics? Well, here in the north the two go hand in hand. The belief that a witch can go into the Astral (spirit) world and eat the person is widely believed. This is how they explain why people die because a witch has already killed the person in the spirit world. The soothsayer comes in to the picture when the families of a deceased person want to know who killed their family member. It can be a matter of life or death for those accused by the soothsayer.
On our way out of the village Timothy took his children to greet his mother and father. We went along to say “Hi” also. From there we went to the chief’s house and greeted him. Kandie was able to get the chief to tell her a story before we left. It tickled the man to tell the story.
On our way back to Kulkpeni we decided to stop and see Emmanuel the evangelist. This is the brother that is having difficulty with his memory. By the time we left his house most of the church members were standing around us to shake our hand and say hello. I made sure to send some kola with Brother Samuel who is a church leader in the village to give to their chief. It wasn’t long before we were back at Kulkpeni and then on to the house.
We spent most of the afternoon working on reports trying to get everything done before we leave next week for home.
Hope you have a good day and may God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
