Our first visitor was Anthony, one of the men that completed the preacher training school in Tamale. There has been a push from the churches in the southern part of Ghana to register all the churches under an umbrella with a central governing body. Most of the churches that we work with have registered individually so they are autonomous. Anthony wanted to let us know that a meeting was held by the men wanting to register the churches in this area. Those that attended the meeting were promised cement block church buildings. Satan is alive and well.
Today was the first day of the second Damba celebration. I think we finally have figured out what this celebration is all about. The Muslim people in this area celebrate Damba as the birthday of Mohammed the first week and the seven days later they celebrate the naming of Mohammed. This appears to be one of those pagan festivals that the people were allowed to keep when the Islamic religion was brought to this area. We asked if they celebrated the Damba in Saudi Arabia or any other part of the world and the answer was no. I said all that to say Nazo and Mr. Iddrisu were at the palace picking the stones out of the rice again today and tomorrow they will be drumming, dancing and feasting. The drummers will drum out the names of the people that visit the palace. Ghana used to be called “The Land of the Talking Drum”. They say the drummers can send message with the drums.
Mr. Oldman got the bicycle tires that we needed. While we were at his house we saw his youngest daughter. She is about 2 years old. One of their neighbors had a little girl about the same age. Mr. Oldman tried to get his little girl to say hello to us but she was too scared. We came back to the mission house and got two baby dolls and took them to the little girls; they thought the babies were fine. Maybe next time they see us they won’t be so scared.
The “metal bender” stopped by to say Hi and check on the garage to see how the pillars were drying and to advise us to keep pouring water on them. They call him a “metal bender” because he is the guy that makes the rebar forms to put inside the pillars and headers for the doors and windows in the cement block building.
This afternoon we found out that Divine was in town so we chased him down. We needed to talk to him; we were happy when we found out that he was in town delivering a load of firewood to one of the ladies near the mission house. It saved us a trip out to his house.
Supper is ready so I will close for now.
Take care,
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
