As we were going out to Kulkpeni this evening I asked Kandie how she liked spending our 40thwedding anniversary in West Africa today. She said that it didn’t feel any different than all the others that we have spent over here in Yendi. It is like the old saying “Time flies when you’re having fun”.
Yesterday afternoon I loaded the white board in the pickup. Timothy Niligrini arrived on time and we were on our way to Nakpa to worship this morning at 7:30. Three church brothers were waiting on us at the Duuni junction to pick up the white board and take it to their village. They thanked us for hauling the white board and we in turn sent greetings back with them to the Church.
Our mission today was a little different than usual. We were asked to come to Nakpa for a marriage ceremony. Upon arrival the men asked Timothy to teach the bible class and I was to preach on the subject of marriage. During this time allotted to me I discussed the responsibilities the man and woman have to each other. I drove the biblical principle of “Leave and Cleave” home to the audience. The reason being men are notorious for siding with their mothers when disagreements come into the marriage. My mother used to tell us kids “There’s not enough room in one house for two families!” That is difficult for most people living here when there may be 4-5 families living in the same family house.
After worship service was finished we had a ceremony that would be very foreign to most of us living in the States. The young man named Job and young woman named Grace were given two chairs to sit in that faced the audience. They had already fulfilled all the traditional requirements for marriage by both families and they wanted to have a ceremony to let everyone know they were now husband and wife. I briefly discussed a passage of scriptures from Mark 10:7-9 about God joining the two together. We were also to give a bit of advice to the couple so my advice was for Job to tell Grace that her soup was better than his mother’s or there would be problems in the house. Of course, everyone thought that was funny but as we were laughing I knew it was true! Other men from the congregation and family members from both sides came up to give some advice. We were happy to help with the ceremony because we wanted it be made public that this couple is now husband and wife.
Afterwards we were treated to a meal of rice with oil and some small pieces of meat. We were also given a rooster as a gift. I didn’t mention going to the chief’s house because the chief wasn’t around so we left of kola with one of the men from the congregation to be given to him. All in all we had a good day. We arrived back at the compound around 3pm.
We hope you are having a great Lord’s Day. May God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
Email taylorsinghana@gmail.com
Website www.ghanamissionfund.org
